But can't those standards and benchmarks be tied to what you want to teach?
It's nice that you know what needs to be taught for the GED, but how about
other teachers?  Or a brand new teacher? Must we all reinvent the wheel and
figure out what needs to be done?

I think it depends on how you use the standards.  There doesn't have to be
extra paperwork.

Nancy Markus
Ohio Literacy Resource Center




On 6/18/08, Rinderknecht, Gail A. <garinderknecht at dmacc.edu> wrote:

>

> HURRAY!

>

> Thank you, Mr. Mecham!.  You said it all.  For the past three years, I have

> worked in two prisons in Iowa, and getting the men to read at a level of

> speed and comprehension in order to pass the GED test, is my first

> concern.  I have many high school "graduates" in my literacy classes.  In

> Iowa, all inmates must be in literacy classes if they cannot demonstrate the

> ability to read and comprehend at a 6th grade level.  This is the main

> "standard and benchmark" that I have to work with.  A man must be able to

> pass the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) with a 6.0, or he is in

> literacy class.  A man without a high school diploma or GED must attend GED

> classes although they can "age out" with staff consent.

>

> I taught special education in the public schools for 16 years and have seen

> the rise and use of standards and benchmarks.  Although these are wonderful

> guidelines for schools to help their teachers cover appropriate subject

> matter at different ages to ensure a well-rounded education for all

> students, I believe that at the adult level, teachers need to test, assess

> and determine needs and deficits for individuals and proceed from

> there.  Each of my students is an individual.  Each class is full of

> individuals working on appropriate assignments for him.  Very rarely do I

> have a "class" where more than one man is working on the same thing.  I

> treat my classroom as an old-fashioned resource room where each person is

> receiving instruction and practice on the skill that he needs to achieve his

> GED or increase his literacy.

>

> By advocating standards and benchmarks for adult learners, I believe that

> we will just be adding to the burden of paperwork to "prove" that we are

> teaching.  Looking at the results of the teaching method is a far better way

> to examine teaching success and learning.  My students, in the first five

> months of this year, passed their GED tests with a 96% success rate.  My

> little "resource" room seems to work fine without standards and benchmarks

> other than those needed to pass the GED.

>

> Gail A. Rinderknecht

> Newton Correctional Facility

> GED instructor/Des Moines Area Community College

> Box 218

> Newton, IA

>

> ________________________________

>

> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Mechem, Thompson

> Sent: Wed 6/18/2008 8:19 AM

> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov

> Subject: [SpecialTopics 999] Re: Content Standards: More questions,more

> answers, more discussion-TM

>

>

>

> I suppose in the abstract I have no objection to the Standards and

> Benchmarks described in the various posts this week, but who are they for?

> Certainly not the teachers. To take an example from my area of alleged

> expertise, if students are studying to pass the GED test, then it is the

> specific skill sets needed to pass the test that must drive the curriculum

> and the teaching. There's a lot of math you can teach, but what math will

> actually carry our students towards passing the GED tests? You can't figure

> that out from any Standards document or Curriculum Frameworks or whatever;

> you can know that only by learning better what literacy skills and knowledge

> resonate on the tests (the GED Testing Service helps us with that), and then

> developing the teaching techniques to bring the students to that level. Our

> state GED Office and our Professional development unit do a lot of work with

> Massachusetts GED teachers in this regard. The same principle applies if you

> are helping Transitions students do better on the AccuPlacer test or

> preparing immigrants to pass the citizenship test (nice going, Big Papi!) or

> raising a grandmother's literacy level so she can read the Bible.

>

> Now, it probably takes a higher literacy level to pass the GED tests than

> it does to graduate from high school, so a successful GED class is certainly

> going to adhere to any legitimate set of Standards and Benchmarks that a

> state could come up with. I guess what I am asking of all the faceless

> bureaucrats (of which I am now one myself, I admit) is to be able to see

> that for themselves instead of making teachers and program directors jump

> through hoops with all kind of trumped-up documentary "proof" that they are

> using the Standards. Just as you can see a gorgeous-looking Lesson Plan

> without having any idea in the world whether any learning is actually taking

> place in that class, so the kind of thing often required for Standards-Based

> documentation, "I have such-and-such Learning Objectives, which correspond

> to Benchmark 3.1.5 blah blah blah..." doesn't tell you anything about what's

> really happening in the classroom. I would like the monitors and evaluators

> to be able to observe a classroom and know for themselves that high

> standards are being adhered to so that the teachers and program directors

> can focus on the learning needs of the students with no wasted motion.

>

> Tom Mechem

> GED State Chief Examiner

> Department of Elementary & Secondary Education

> Commonwealth of Massachusetts

> 781-338-6621

> "GED to Ph.D."

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov

> [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David J. Rosen

> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 9:50 PM

> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov

> Subject: [SpecialTopics 996] Content Standards: More questions, more

> answers,more discussion

>

>

> Colleagues,

>

> Our Content Standards discussion continues through Friday.  I have

> some more questions (see below) for guests and subscribers. I wonder

> if there are some people with questions that they feel are "too

> basic" such as "How do I find out what my state's Content Standards

> are, or if my state even has them?"  No question about content

> standards is too basic. This is the place to ask it.

>

> I want to hear from teachers and administrators who are (or are not)

> implementing content standards. Jon Engel (Thank you, Jon) spoke for

> teachers who might be skeptical. Perhaps there are some teachers who

> are skeptical that would be willing to speak for themselves now that

> Jon has broached this.

>

> Here are three more questions that were sent to me, for our guests

> and others :

>

> "Part-time teachers and planning time:  Teachers tell us that

> developing lesson plans from standards takes more time because they

> have to spend time learning the standards, aligning their activities

> to those standards, and filling out more paper work to demonstrate

> compliance.  What are states implementing standards doing to

> alleviate the pressure on already burdened adult education teachers

> (low wages, low job security, part-time, no benefits, little or no

> prep time, etc.)?"

>

> "National standards: As a standards writer, I was struck by the wide

> diversity of approaches to adult education content standards across

> states (ranging from the very prescriptive and specific to the very

> broad and general).  While I understand we live in a federal system

> in which states can do whatever they deem best for their students,

> isn't there a value in having a broader national discussion about

> what our adult students should be able to know and do in order to be

> successful members of society or, at a very minimum, shouldn't we

> have a common understanding about how content standards are going to

> be used?"

>

> "Assessment:  While states have been encouraged to develop widely

> different content standards, the majority continue to use a very

> limited set of approved standardized assessments that may or may not

> be very closely aligned to those standards.  If due to increasingly

> tight financial constraints states are generally unable to develop

> NRS-approved standardized tests that are aligned with their

> standards, is it reasonable to expect that their content standards

> will have an impact on instruction and student performance?  Do

> teachers really have an incentive to teach from those standards if

> what they are teaching is not going to show up in the TABE or BEST

> Plus or CASAS?  Are there plans to develop such tests?"

>

> David J. Rosen

> Special Topics Discussion Moderator

> djrosen at comcast.net

>

>

>

> -------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Special Topics mailing list

> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics

> Email delivered to tmechem at doe.mass.edu

>

>

> -------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Special Topics mailing list

> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics

> Email delivered to garinderknecht at dmacc.edu

>

>

>

> -------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Special Topics mailing list

> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics

> Email delivered to nancy.markus at gmail.com

>

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20080618/3ef00e2e/attachment.html