Good morning everyone.

 

I think we all can appreciate the work Stacey's program did to switch to
a managed enrollment system. It sounds as if they are off to a great
start. Thanks Stacey, for your response.

 

 

I know some of you work in a lab situation where each student receives
individual instruction so a new student is not a problem, but I was
wondering what others of you do when new students join your class? Do
you repeat instruction to catch a new student up slowing the progress of
the class? Do you continue with the class instruction you have set,
allowing some time for students to work individually and at that time,
take a new student or several new students and spend some time catching
them up? Or do you spend some time with small group instruction,
grouping students who need certain skills together? What have you found
to be an effective way to "manage" open enrollment so that it has the
most impact on student outcomes? 

 

 

Gail J. Price

Multimedia Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

gprice at famlit.org

502 584-1133, ext. 112

 

________________________________

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of WEAVER, Stacey
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 4:25 PM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 812] Re: Managed Enrollment

 

Hi Donna, You have asked some questions that could fill a book!  Here is
my best shot at a short and clear explanation.

 

Our program is responsible for service in seven counties in south Texas,
so what I'm about to explain applies only to the main Adult Education
Center in Victoria and I'm talking mostly about intermediate and
advanced ABE students.  We also offer ESL classes and will be adjusting
our model for that part of our program as we get the ABE portion squared
away and running smoother.

 

We have a basic "Fundamentals" class for people functioning grade levels
0-5th grade (approximately).  This is a basic, traditional 3-hour class.
The day class meets three mornings a week (9 hours a week) and the night
class meets two evenings a week (6 hours week).

 

The intermediate and advanced classes have been re-designed from the
traditional 3 hour time block / one teacher teaches all to resemble a
college-like schedule.

Therefore, we have an Intermediate 1 and Advanced 1 Reading,
Intermediate 1 and Advanced 1 Writing, and Intermediate 1 and Advanced 1
Math that meet for about an hour either three days a week (M,W,F) or two
days a week (T, Th).  We have the same classes that meet in the
evenings, but only two nights each.  These classes ran for 7 weeks.  In
fact, this first group finished this week.  In addition to all I'm about
to explain, having classes that match the local college's schedule
allows me to use empty classrooms on campus (which helps with our desire
to transition students to college).  I cannot get space on campus to
host a 3-hour class.

 

After a week off, those that passed (more information to follow) may
advance to Intermediate 2 and/or Advanced 2 for whatever content area
they just completed.

 

Since we moved to a "content mastery" model, the students have daily
homework for each class, the opportunitie to visit the college tutoring
center where I staffed qualifed instructors for certain periods of time.
They may also use college tutors (students) if they want to go there
when an Adult Ed Instructor is not on duty.  The students take a
mid-term exam and a final exam.  With a "Class Grade" of 80 or better,
they advanced to the next level of classes.  We decided homework average
would equal 50% of the course grade, the mid-term 25%, and the final
exam 25% of the class grade.  They each get a class syllabus the first
day and know what to expect as far as content and homework.

 

Depending on students' schedules and responsibilities, they may enroll
in Reading, Writing, and Math or just one or two classes.

Just after mid-term exams, I scheduled those same classes to "restart"
so that students who were failing at mid-term could "restart" if they
didn't think they could pull it together by the end of the semester
segment.  We are calling the first 7 weeks "semester segment A" with a
week off for students followed by "semester segment C."  Semester
Segment B starts midway after A, and finishes midway through C.  Also,
new applicants may enter into this Semester Segment B as space allows.

 

How did we decide this?  We looked at the college's 16 week semester
time period and cut it in half and decided to give ourselves a week
between semester segments to help figure out who was going to do what.
That is how we came up with seven week classes.  We have already
discovered, that in the spring we should allow two weeks between
semester segments because the advisors need to "process" class grades,
the need for progress assessment, the availability of space to promote a
student or devleop a distance learning plan, not to mention meet
individually with the students they are assigned to advise.

 

What happens if a student doesn't pass one or more of the classes?  In
an ideal world with enough funding, they would retake the class they did
not pass again two weeks later.  Because we do not have the funding to
do this, the students have the choice of continuing with the class or
classes they passed, and restarting what they did not pass the next
semester (in this case, Spring 2008).  We have also begun implementing a
distance learning / direct instruction hybrid model so that a person who
does not pass can work through the same material at their own pace, but
more or less on a schedule.  The distance learning part of our program
is just beginning and is worth a whole other listserv discussion.

 

As far as the managed curriculum - my very incredible administrative
team (more information below) got together this summer and reviewed the
content levels of the assessment we use (TABE), the GED practice tests,
the Texas Standardized Curriculum, and college entry level test (THEA)
and even our college's Development Education material.  We figured cut
off levels for beginning, intermediate, and advanced.  We cut
intermediate and advanced into levels 1 and 2 and then divided that
material by the 7 weeks we determined we wanted the classes to be.  We
have just completed our FIRST semester segment and have discovered a few
glitches with the curriculum.  For example, Math Advanced 1 seems to be
too much too fast.  The question is, were students placed into that
class appropriately or should we have 3 levels of advanced math?  We'll
be collecting data and analyzing it to determine what needs to be
improved.

 

My staff is in very short supply this year (again, due to funding).  I
have an administrative staff of five full time employees: The director
(me), an Instructional Coordinator (who is teaching one of the semester
segment classes), Two instructors, and an administrative assistant.
Here at the Adult Education Center, invovled in the model I have just
described, are six more part-time instructors.

 

Regarding Orientation - we used to have large group orientations, but in
looking at what we wanted to accomplish we decided this was not the most
effective way of handling program participants.  So, this year we
implemented "Individual Advising."  Students submit an application,
reserve a seat for assessment, and then make an appointment to review
the program services, the results of the assessment, answer questions
about their personal situations (work, children, transportation, etc.).
An individual education plan is developed and they recieve a class
schedule.   If students are struggling at mid-term, they are called in
for advising.  If student attendance starts to be very sporadic, they
are called in for advising.  Students are advised at the end of the
semester segment to determine and discuss the need for them to advance
or repeat or enroll in distance learning.

 

I am in the process of looking at class evaluations.  Most students
really love having homework and enjoy the fast pace.  Not all students
were successfull; quite a few students either never showed up the first
class day or disappeared soon after starting.  The difference with this
model and they way that we operated in the past is that with so few
resources (money, time, staff) I would much rather people drop out early
so we can concentrate on people who are committed and making an effort,
instead of people drifting in and out of class while dealing with all
kinds of personal issues. 

 

I don't mean to imply that people with issues don't derserve our
services, but like I said in my first post ....we want to push people
forward and not keep dragging them back.  People that disappear and
reappear every six months do have the opportunity to re-enroll and
re-attempt to participate in the program.  They just will not be allowed
to go back into a class after missing two to three weeks of instruction
and expect everyone to back up and wait for them to catch up.  And that,
to me, is the essence of managed enrollment.

 

sw

 

Stacey L. Weaver, Director

Victoria College Adult Education

802 E. Crestwood

Victoria, TX 77901

phone:  361-573-7323

fax: 361-582-4348

 

 

________________________________

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Donna Elder
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 1:25 PM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 811] Re: Managed Enrollment

Thanks, Stacey, for your response to the questions about managed
enrollment.  

 

I would like to know more about how your "managed" curriculum is
structured and whether or not you have separate classes for reading,
math, and writing.    

 

 How did you determine how much you could cover in an 8-week period?
How often do your classes meet?  

 

What are your plans for a math class, for instance?  If a low level
group meets to work on basic skills (adding, subtracting, multiplying,
dividing) then what happens at the end of the 8 weeks?  If someone still
needs more work in division, for example, then what happens?  How does
he get more practice with that skill?  He doesn't need more adding and
subtracting.  Is he re-enrolled in that course or moved ahead with the
group and given special attention "on the side?" 

 

How large is your staff?  Do you have an orientation?  

 

Others of you who are working with managed enrollment, could you share
your insights and experiences in these situations, too?

 

Thanks.  I look forward to hearing more about this topic.

 

Donna Elder

Reading Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

delder at famlit.org

________________________________

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