Return-Path: <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id iAO1NIQ13343; Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:23:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:23:18 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <038401c4d1c4$0ffde830$6501a8c0@PattiAALRC> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Patti White" <prwhite@MadisonCounty.NET> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:762] Fw: LD Assessment X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 6981 Lines: 147 (I sent this earlier and just now realized I responded to Katrina only, instead of the whole listserv. My apologies.) Katrina, I think the message I posted a few minutes ago addresses your question about how to deal with diagnosis when you don't have money, but let me know if I need to add anything to that. Regarding your other question about TABE validity with continued re-testing, I don't think the validity of the test comes into question so much as the reliability. Reliability refers to the results obtained; not the instrument itself. I know that states have requirements about which form of the TABE you can use to report student progress, and that sort of hampers a teacher's ability sometimes to give a "valid" report. (Probably doesn't hurt in terms of showing student gains, though....) You can always try giving them a 9 or 10, not that you could report those scores, but it might help you as a teacher to better assess the student's progress. I really think the crux of your question lies in the observation that there are some students who have been coming to class for years, but have made little progress. I don't know what your program does for screening for LD, but I think I would want to do a few things to kick that off for those students to see if we can't change that lack of progress. In my last posting, I wrote about administering the TABE with and without accommodations just to see if the accommodations make a huge difference in scores or not. You might try talking with the students to see what they think would help, then give it a shot. I would also take a hard look at how I'm presenting information to those students, and consider finding a different way of presenting it. About 80% of adults with learning disabilities are primarily tactile-kinesthetic learners, but we don't always provide those kinds of teaching opportunities. If they've been stuck trying to learn the same stuff the same way for a long time, you might try changing the teaching method. I would also want the students to complete a learning styles inventory to get some idea of how they prefer to process information, and of course, to help them start thinking about how they learn best. You can search for "learning styles inventories" on Google or something and there's a lot of them online--free and interactive, too. So yes, I agree that some of the students' scores are probably not a really good reflection of their progress due to this constant re-testing we do in adult ed., but that doesn't concern me as much as the fact that these persistent students keep giving it their best shot with little progress. And one last thought....when I was teaching GED classes, my students were in factories, and they only came on Tuesdays and Thursdays or Mondays and Wednesdays. That Thursday-Tuesday or Wednesday-Monday stretch was way too long for some of my students to go without at least reviewing what we had been working on. Homework can be a good thing. Most of my students did better with the "Weight Watcher's" approach--a little bit frequently as opposed to a lot all at once. Can you help them pick out 2-4 specific skills they're working on that they could record either on a tape recorder or on Rolodex cards? Something that they can just pull out and listen to or read over several times a day. If they use the Rolodex cards, it helps sometimes if the student can somehow illustrate the card with a picture....it helps them store the information visually. Color-coding may also help, so you might use markers to make a line across the card at the top....green for math, blue for writing, red for reading....whatever....they should probably choose the color system. So apparently my response to "what do you do?" is focused more on what I would do as their teacher more than what I would do about the problem of turning in scores that I felt incorrectly reflected my students' skills. That's probably because I've always been a teacher, not an administrator. The administrative response is that we should look at state systems changes that would allow teachers to assess students using more than one specific instrument....I mean, we know that a test can only be a test, but an assessment can be many things, and a comprehensive assessment process is always the best way to really see what a student knows and can do. That, however, is not our standard operating procedure in most state adult ed. systems. Let me know if you've got more questions, or if my answers were too confusing.... Patti White Disabilities Project Manager Arkansas Adult Learning Resource Center prwhite@madisoncounty.net ----- Original Message ----- From: Katrina Hinson To: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov ; prwhite@MadisonCounty.NET ; nifl-assessment@nifl.gov Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 1:24 PM Subject: Re: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:756] LD Assessment I have a question regarding Assessment that's not directly related to LD...but I think is a good question none the less. The school I work at, uses TABE as it's intake assessment and they are to be post tested every 6 months and no earlier than every 50 hours of instruction. What happens when you have students that are enrolled in a program for several years and actually memorize the different forms of the test? Most commonly, our students are tested on 7D and 8D on a rotating basis, so by the time someone has been there for 2.5 years they've seen the same assessment test more than once. It seems to me it becomes less valid the more they see it - especially when their TABE level increases yet their ability in the classroom setting definitively contradicts what the TABE says they should be able to do. What do you do? <Anyone?> We also have students that we know have LD but no documentation and little to no funding to get them tested. What then? Katrina Hinson >>> prwhite@MadisonCounty.NET 11/23/04 1:27:50 PM >>> The Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) initiated a series of meetings over a year ago to encourage state adult education systems to address policies regarding service provision for adult students with learning disabilities. I'm wondering if any states have questions regarding assessment issues....intake (TABE?), screening for LD, instructional and testing accommodations, referring for diagnosis, etc.....that could be addressed via this discussion group. I have been involved with the development of policies regarding LD and adult education in Arkansas for ten years and can address some of the questions. Other states (Ohio leaps to mind) have also developed state policies in this area. Our policy manual is online at http://aalrc.org/resources/ld/policyManual/index.aspx, although it is in the process of a few minor changes that should be online soon. Any questions or comments? Patti White Disabilities Project Manager Arkansas Adult Learning Resource Center prwhite@madisoncounty.net
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