"What do I learn about student learning when I use a joint process of assessment which utilizes different tools?"

This was the question Nicole Graves posed to both students and teachers at her community-based, nonprofit agency providing English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), computer, and other classes to a rural section of western Massachusetts. In order to answer the question, Graves created a unique approach to assess-ment that collectively utilized more traditional tools, such as teacher-driven observation checklists and progress reports, as well as innovative tools, such as learners' logs and learner self-evaluations. By incorporating student feedback and writings into the assessment process, Graves obtained more accurate and satisfying results.

The initiative for this experiment came from a number of avenues. Already in place was a teacher-driven project to improve upon existing curriculum, and assessment was seen as part of this process. Funders for Graves' agency had also made some changes in their requirements, and these changes were connected to the state ESOL Curriculum Framework. Thus Graves had an impetus to both en-hance her agency's curriculum, as well as to meet the new require-ments that the state and her funders were putting into place. Her first action was to turn this project into her practitioner research for the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL), and the groundwork she laid out included re-examining old progress reports, and then re-arranging these reports to match the state ESOL Framework. She also cross-referenced the reports with Mainstream English Language Training (MELTS) levels, Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) assessment instru-ments, The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) 2000 reference levels, and Equipped for the Future. The end result of this groundwork gave Graves a clearer picture of some common themes to all of them, which she could then apply to her own program. And the first step in this application process was creating the above question.

Although beginning learners were not able to evaluate their writing logs or probe deeply into assessing their own learning process, they were nonetheless able to evaluate their class on a weekly basis, and their teacher at the end of the session. Intermediate learners, however, had an oppor-tunity to delve into their own writing and examine how their learning had progressed over the length of the class. Graves then took the students' progress reports and the class, teacher, and self-evaluations and recorded her findings, along with the responses to a survey she had given out during the final week of class. The culmination of these assessment tools pointed toward the learners' own sense of personal and social improvement. For example, many of the students reported being able to engage in activities they had not been able to do before taking classes and doing personal assess-ment, such as going to the bank by themselves, going to the doctor's alone, shopping by themselves, answering the telephone, and expressing themselves in general. Such increased independence likewise brought about feelings of heightened confidence and self-worth, and this, in turn, increased the learners' sense of connection with the American culture at large. For instance, one student wrote that she could now "hear American voices."

Such responses, of course, are positive on many levels. For one thing, these findings correlate with the standards of progress found in the Curriculum Frameworks and the Department of Education (DOE) strands. Furthermore, there is agreement between these progress reports and the Tennessee Longitudinal Study and the NCSALL study, which tested for improve-ments in socio-economic well-being (jobs, income, survival), social well-being (family and community), personal well-being, and physical well-being. Likewise, the broad categories of the ESOL Curriculum Framework in Massachusetts appear to correlate with the findings of the reports inasmuch as what the students are looking for in a program, the ESOL Framework provides. For example, one of the Framework's categories is "Navigating Systems," which Graves believes is of paramount importance to learners, who want to be able to communicate orally.

Only time will tell if more student-centered assessment is going to find a place within the boundaries of traditional standard-ized assessment. It should be noted that some of the teachers who parti-cipated in Graves' assessment experiment found her results to be "practical but not always effective at measuring students' progress." Others, however, felt there was no way teachers could know what exactly learners could do outside of the classroom unless they (the learners) reported it themselves. Thus, one of the conclusions that could be drawn is that it would do well to continue documenting learners' various modes of learning, and how they themselves view their own learning. Understanding the need for such continued research, Graves' agency recently applied for a DOE grant that would allow them to pursue this research, using the groundwork already done as a stepping stone to ultimately refine the progress reports. Such participatory approaches to assessment just might, in the final analysis, prove to be an essential element in the learning process.

Justine Sadoff is a former Project Coordinator for Central SABES at World Education. Nicole Graves is an ESOL Program Coordinator at the Center for New Americans in Amherst. Nicole can be reached by e-mail at CNAAMH@rcn.com