Hi everyone,
 
There are clearly a series of questions here that we need to address.
Some of them Julie and ETS folks can respond to; others are probably for
us to pursue discussing and need the attention of policy-makers (local
and otherwise).  
 
Julie - I wonder if you might respond to these questions posed by David
Rosen:
 
What would be the cost:

>. For teachers' time to learn how to conduct the assessments? . For the

assessment instruments?
 
Also, the description of a state's involvement includes attending
development meetings and piloting all the tests - how much time is
involved in completing these tasks?
 
I'm unsure who might respond to this series of David's questions -
anyone?:
 

>And what might this be in terms of additional cost-per-student?  In

>other words, if a State Director of Adult Education were asked by a  

>legislator how much it would cost to fully implement EFF assessments,  

>what would be the answer? What would the additional cost per student  

>be, recognizing that that would vary for states with larger or fewer  

>numbers of students?

 
As for value added and present costs - Howard you asked some questions
related to how this might be better than what we have now.  I think
these are questions for Julie, ETS folks, and Jim Austin and other pilot
participants to respond to, if they can:
 
Howard Dooley wrote:
And my question about the costs is, what is the value added?  What will 
learners and instructors receive that will inform future learning, that 
other assessments don't already provide?  What will program managers 
receive that will inform program design and funding allocations, beyond 
what current assessments and evaluations already provide?  What will 
legislators and other funders learn that will benefit future funding, 
that they are not already learning from adult education advocates?  And,
what will be reportable to the NRS that is not already reported?
 
But Howard, I will respond back to you on these couple of questions from
my personal point of view:
 
Howard wrote:
Aren't other assessments already aligned with EFF enough to 
provide the information each stakeholder needs to make their decisions?

 
Marie:  I would say no, there aren't.  I also question "aligned enough"
- isn't that exactly what we want to get away from?  This Discussion
List had quite a conversation on standards a couple of weeks ago, and
that discussion clearly expressed people's frustrations with the lack of
national standards and aligned curriculum and assessment.
 
Howard:  Isn't the current mix of formal and informal, standardized and
local, performance and objective assessments essentially doing the
necessary tasks (leaving room for continuous improvements, of course)?
 
Marie:  Yes, I would say that it is - but at what *cost*?  The intense
juggling that programs and states must tackle in order to meet all the
demands they face is taxing to put it mildly.  Wouldn't it be better if
we had a system in which the pieces fit together so seamlessly that
there wouldn't be any juggling to do?
 
I invite everyone to join this discussion further.  Let us know your
thoughts, the answers to any of the above questions, or ask us your own
question.
 
Thanks,
 
marie cora
Assessment Discussion List Moderator
 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/assessment/attachments/20060330/f596b1ab/attachment.html