I would have to say that I completely agree with Betsy Rubin's comments
regarding adult student reading progress.  My experiences with ABE
learners and understanding of the results reported are the same.  So,
don't be embarrassed, Betsy, I thought the same thing!  Clarification is
definitely needed.

 

Sandy Jensen, Waterloo, Iowa

 

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Betsy Rubin -
Literacy Works
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 4:56 PM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1123] Re: Family literacy
findingsreleasedtodayshowone grade level gain for every 10-13 hoursof
instruction

 

Hello,

 

I have to say that I am flabbergasted at these results and wonder if I
am completely misunderstanding them!  

 

I have taught ABE and worked with many ABE programs and - with very rare
individual exceptions - I have never seen such rapid gains among adult
literacy learners.

 

Let's take an ABE program that offers 2-hour class sessions 5 days a
week--in other words, a program in which a student can attend 10 hours
per week of reading instruction. In such a program, I can't imagine an
adult who "TABES" at, say, 3.0 rising to a 4.0 after a single week of
class!  Or... to extend it... rising to a 12.0 reading level after just
a couple of months in the program.  It just doesn't happen.

 

Perhaps I am embarrassing myself by misunderstanding what you are
reporting.  However, I am sure that I represent other confused persons!


 

Can you clarify further?

 

Thanks much!

 

Betsy Rubin

Chicago IL

 

 

	----- Original Message ----- 

	From: Gail Price <mailto:gprice at famlit.org>  

	To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
<mailto:familyliteracy at nifl.gov>  

	Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:59 PM

	Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1122] Re: Family literacy
findingsreleasedtodayshow one grade level gain for every 10-13 hoursof
instruction

	 

	The following message is  posted on behalf of Laura Westberg
	
	 
	
	Dr. Sticht:
	
	I am happy to clarify our findings in regard to the questions
you have raised. 
	
	The mean grade equivalent reported in the table is the
calculation of change in TABE score from pretest to post test.  We
determined a reasonable benchmark for post testing on the TABE and asked
teachers to test students after approximately 20 hours of reading
instruction. However, in reality, this is not what always occurred.  In
fact, reading instructional hours for adult students ranged from 1 to 74
hours as reported by the teachers and 49% of the students had less than
20 hours of reading instruction. 
	
	Therefore, to better understand the types of gains that students
were making in relation to the amount of reading instruction they
received, we calculated a gain per instructional hour based on the total
reading instructional hours reported by the teachers for the students.
Year 1 students had an average gain per instructional hour of .10 and
Year 2 students had an average gain of .08.  Thus, in year 1 for every
one hour of reading instruction, they gained an average of .10 grade
levels and in year 2 for every one hour of reading instruction they
gained an average of .08 grade levels.  This translates into an average
of 10-12.5 hours of reading instruction to raise a student's score on
the TABE by one grade level. 
	
	Please let me know if any further clarification would be
helpful.
	
	 
	
	Laura Westberg
	
	Director, Research/Special Projects
	
	National Center for Family Literacy
	
	325 West Main Street, Suite 300
	
	Louisville, KY 40202-4237
	
	Phone: 502-584-1133 x172
	
	Fax: 502-584-0172
	
	Email: lwestberg at famlit.org
	
	Web: http://www.famlit.org
	
	 
	
	________________________________
	
	From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of
tsticht at znet.com
	Sent: Sun 6/15/2008 10:53 AM
	To: familyliteracy at nifl.gov
	Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1120] Re: Family literacy findings
releasedtodayshow one grade level gain for every 10-13 hours of
instruction
	
	
	
	combined, for the 82 students the pre-test score was 4.96 and
the post-test
	score was 5.89 for a gain of 1.03 years.
	
	Where I get puzzled is when the report states, Quote:" For adult
learners in
	Year 1 these results translate to an average of one grade-level
gain for
	every 10 hours of reading instruction. For Year 2 students it is
an average
	of one grade-level gain for every 12.5 hours of reading
instruction." End
	Quote  If, as stated in the report,   pre-and post-tests were
separated by
	20 hours of reading instruction how was gain in 10 hours or 12.5
hours of
	instruction determined?  And how does the phrase "for every"
enter in if
	only one set of pre- and post-test scores were obtained for each
student,
	presumably after 20 hours of reading instruction?
	
	Help please!!
	Tom Sticht
	
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