This message is cross posted from the Assessment Discussion List.
Aaron


>Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 06:01:59 -0500

>From: Marie Cora <marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com>

>Subject: [Assessment] Seeking evidence on CBE or EFF

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>The following post is from Tom Sticht.

>

>

>

>January 12, 2006

>

>Competency- or Standards-Based Education for Adult Literacy Education:

>Faith-Based or Evidence-Based?

>

>Tom Sticht

>International Consultant in Adult Education

>

>In the K-12 system standards-based education has been around now for the

>last decade, and has been reinforced by President Bush's No Child Left

>Behind program. Unfortunately, data from the National Center for

>Education

>Statistics released this year indicate that from 1971 up to 2004, a

>graph

>of average scores on the NAEP for 9, 13, or 17 year olds for the thirty

>year period from 1971 to 2004, on a scale ranging from 200 to around 320

>scale scores, shows that 9 year olds increased from 208 in 1971 to 215

>in

>1980, then fell to 209 in 1990 and then rose again to 219 in 2004. This

>is

>only 4 scale score points higher than in 1980.  This is evidence of ups

>and

>downs over a thirty year period but no real improvement. There is a more

>pronounced lack of evidence of any average improvement in reading for 13

>and 17 year olds over this period.

>

>The lack of evidence for gains by 9 year olds is made even more

>apparent,

>and disappointing,  when the data for 9 year olds at differing

>percentiles

>of achievement are examined. In 1971 students at the 90th percentile

>scored

>260, then rose gradually to 266 in 1990 and then fell to 264 in 2004.

>Nine

>year olds at the 50th percentile scored as indicated above. Really

>poorly

>reading students, those at the 10th percentile scored 152 in 1971, then

>rose to 165 in 1980 and then rose again to 169 in 2004, though the

>latter

>was not statistically greater than 25 years ago in 1980.

>

>Thirteen year olds  at the 10th percentile scored 208 in 1971, rose to

>213

>in 1988, and then fell to 210 in 2004. The least able 17 year old

>readers,

>those at the 10th percentile, scored 225 in 1971, rose to 241 in 1988,

>and

>then fell to 227 in 2004.

>

>Though there were some improvements in the scores for 9 year old

>African-Americans and Hispanics from 1988, scores for 13 year olds were

>flat and they actually dropped for 17 year olds. Hence there is little

>evidence for the practical impact of standards-based education on the

>reading skills of various ethnic groups in over the last decade and a

>half.

>

>The data for the three decades from 1971 to 2004 do not show substantial

>increases in reading achievement for 9, 13, or 17 year olds at various

>percentile ranks, even for the decade after the start of standards-based

>education. The NCES data do show that as children go up through primary,

>elementary, and secondary school, they do get better at reading across

>the

>percentile spectrum. But in 2004 the bottom ten percent of 17 year olds

>scored below the median for 13 year olds, and were just 6 scale score

>points above the median for 9 year olds. These poorly scoring students

>will

>no doubt be those who will later discover the real life importance of

>literacy and will enter into adult basic education to try to gain skills

>needed to support themselves and their families.

>

>Mathematics

>Regarding mathematics, there were gains for 9 and 13 year olds across

>the 30

>year period starting in 1971, but no evidence that the implementation of

>standards-based education in the decade of the 1990s up to the present

>made

>any acceleration in the rate of improvement which started before the

>standards-based education movement. And for 17 year old

>African-Americans

>there were declines in mathematics from 1990 to 2004 and declines for

>Hispanics from 1992 to 2004.

>

>Overall, the NCES long term trend data for reading and mathematics do

>not

>support the claim that standards-based education over the last decade

>has

>had a positive effect on student achievement in these curricula areas.

>

>Efforts to implement either competency-based or standards-based

>education

>in adult literacy education over the last quarter system have also

>produced

>no evidence to support these reforms. There has been no evaluation of

>the

>Equipped for the Future (EFF) effort and the Comprehensive Adult Student

>Assessment System (CASAS) with its competency-based education (CBE)

>approach has produced no evidence that programs implementing CBE are

>more

>effective than programs that do not implement CBE.

>

>At the present time, then, the movement to implement either CBE or EFF

>content standards education in adult literacy education is progressing

>as a

>faith-based rather than an evidence-based movement.

>

>Thomas G. Sticht

>International Consultant in Adult Education

>2062 Valley View Blvd.

>El Cajon, CA 92019-2059

>Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133

>Email: tsticht at aznet.net

>

>

>

>

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Aaron Kohring
Coordinator, LINCS Literacy & Learning Disabilities Special Collection 
(http://ldlink.coe.utk.edu/)
Moderator, National Institute for Literacy's Content Standards Discussion 
List (http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Contentstandards)
Coordinator, Equipped for the Future Websites (http://eff.cls.utk.edu/)

Center for Literacy Studies, University of Tennessee
EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance
Phone:(865) 974-4109 main
           (865) 974-4258 direct
Fax:   (865) 974-3857
e-mail: akohring at utk.edu