Greetings all,

This message from David Rosen is cross-posted from the Assessment 
Discussion List.  Please note the questions below posed by Marie Cora and 
David's proposal for a National System of Adult Education and Literacy in 
which Standards, Curricula, and Assessments are all aligned.

What do you all think about this proposal?  Does it make sense to have a 
set of National Standards?  How might such a National System impact what we do?

Aaron



>Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:05:24 -0500

>From: David Rosen <djrosen at comcast.net>

>Subject: [Assessment 236] Re: : A National System of Adult Education and

>         Literacy

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>Assessment Colleagues,

>

>Marie wrote:

> > What do we need?  National standards?  Is that the most important

> > thing that will help combat these issues?

> >

> > A different way to capture learning?  What would that look like?

> > Remember that the needs of the funder and public are quite

> > different than the needs of the teacher and student ­ and both are

> > legitimate needs.

> >

> > What are your thoughts on these issues?

>

>Ignore for the moment the current political political realities, and

>consider just the merits and faults, not the practicalities, of what

>I propose, a national System of Adult Education and Literacy which

>has three aligned components: National Curriculum Standards, (Free)

>National Curricula, and Standardized Assessments.  Such a system

>could have other components, but for now, I suggest we look at these

>three.

>

>1. Sets of national curriculum standards for: a) adult ESL/ESOL/ELL,

>b) ABE (including adult basic education) c) ASE (adult secondary

>education/GED/EDP/ADP) and d) Transition to College programs ,

>developed through a process which is widely respected by the field.

>(Some would argue that we already have that in Equipped for the Future.)

>

>2. National curricula developed based on those standards and

>available for states to adopt (or adapt) as they choose.  The

>curricula need to be comprehensive, modularized, available in generic

>as well as work-contextualized units, in English but also bilingual

>in Spanish and possibly other languages.  It needs to be available

>free online in units that teachers could download and use in their

>classrooms, that tutors could use with their one-one-one or small

>group instruction, and in self-instructional formats that adult

>learners could use directly online.  (Yes I know how big a task all

>this is.)

>

>3. Standardized assessments developed against the national curriculum

>standards (tests, but also performance-based, direct assessments)

>which have a high degree of validity for measuring the national

>standards.

>

>Some might think that what I propose is too top-down.  I would argue

>that it could be very bottom-up if the field -- and adult learner

>leaders -- are/have been/will be well-represented in setting the

>standards, and if the modules can be be selected to meet specific

>learner goals and contexts as well as to the standards.  A national

>curriculum could be made up of a database of thousands of units of

>instruction (modules, learning objects) which could be very easily

>found and in minutes organized/reorganized to fit learners' goals and

>contexts.  An adult learner or a group who need to improve their

>reading skills and who are interested in the context of parenting

>could easily access standards-based modules on parenting issues with

>reading materials at the right level(s).  A teacher whose students

>worked in health care and who needed to improve their math skills

>could quickly find and download materials/lessons for using numeracy

>in health care settings. A student who wanted to learn online and who

>wanted a job in environmental cleanup work could access standards-

>based basic skills/occupational education lessons in this area,

>accompanied by an online career coach and and online tutor.  These

>examples just hint at the complexity and sophistication of what I

>propose, and will have some shaking their heads at the cost.  But,

>consider that if this is a national curriculum, the costs of

>developing such modules have the benefits of scale, that those

>curricula could be widely used -- and freely available.  (Sorry

>publishers, this could eat into your profits.)

>

>There is more, but I'll stop with this.

>

>Okay, let the questions and brickbats fly.

>

>David J. Rosen

>djrosen at comcast.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