List discussants:
The following is excerpted from a post by Sondra Stein to the Assessment 
discussion list.  You can go to the archives of the assessment list if you 
want to read the whole post.
Donna

Donna JG Brian
Moderator, NIFL Workplace Literacy Discussion List, and
Coordinator/Developer LINCS Workforce Education Special Collection at 
http://worklink.coe.utk.edu/
Center for Literacy Studies at The University of Tennessee
600 Henley Street, Suite 312
Knoxville, TN 37996-4135

865-974-3420 (desk phone) FAX 865-974-3857
djgbrian at utk.edu




>Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 14:26:17 -0400 (EDT)

>...I have been focused on working with a small group of state and

>national partners (mostly workforce focused) on the development of a

>Work Readiness Credential based on Equipped for the Future Standards and

>business consensus of what entry-level workers need to know and be able

>to do.  This effort began in 2002 when EFF National Policy Advisors --

>including state directors of adult education and other leaders -- asked

>us to consider development of such a credential to address the

>difficulty employers were having finding applicants who were work

>ready.  You may remember the NAM Skills Gap report of 2001 in which 69%

>of employers said that applicants lacked basic employability skills. Our

>advisors thought EFF would be a great foundation for such a credential

>because we had developed rigorous research based standards for

>interpersonal, problem-solving, and learning skills --as well as the

>three R's. State Directors if Adult Ed felt that an assessment that was

>aligned with entry-level skills would meet their need for a "mid-level"

>pre-GED credential.

>

>We began the work with initial funding from NIFL in 2003, and

>subsequently identified 6 partners that have invested in the costs of

>developing the credential.  The project is now based at the Center for

>Workforce Preparation at the US Chamber of Commerce. Visit our website

>at www.uschmaber.com/cwp or http://eff.cls.utk.edu/workreadiness

>

>The credential development process has reiterated the EFF development

>process.  We spent the first year conducting surveys and focus groups

>with front line supervisors, entry-level workers, and other stakeholders

>in the workforce system, to build consensus on what you can think of EFF

>terms as an entry-level worker role map.  It's a profile of the critical

>tasks and behaviors that entry-level workers need to be able to perform

>in order to be successful -- across industry sectors -- and of the most

>important skills for performing those tasks.  These include nine of the

>16 EFF Standards: Speak so others Can Understand, Listen Actively,

>Cooperate with Others, Resolve Conflict and Negotiate, Solve Problems

>and Make Decisions, Take Responsibility for Learning, Observe

>Critically, and Read with Understanding and Use Math.  This profile is

>proposed as a business-driven, standards-based, research-and-consensus

>built national Work Readiness Standard. (Another EFF mouthful!) It

>identifies what job seekers need to know and be able to do (how well

>they need to be able to use what skills) in order to qualify for

>entry-level jobs that lead to better jobs.

>

>For the past year and a half our assessment development team -- led by

>SRI International and HumRRO  -- has worked with state partners to

>develop and implement an assessment plan for assessing this new work

>readiness standard. After reviewing existing assessments, we set out on

>a path to develop new ones that were designed to assess the profile.

>

>There are four modules in the assessment package which will be

>field-tested this fall.

>One that focuses on Reading, one on Math, one on Speaking and Listening,

>and one on the 5 interpersonal, problem solving, and learning skills in

>the profile. Three of the assessments have been developed by HumRRO and

>SRI, using subject matter experts from across industry clusters (rather

>than teachers) to help develop assessment items.  The fourth assessment

>is being developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics, using a new

>COPI approach to assessing oral communication skills by computer.  All

>four assessments were piloted this spring and will be included in the

>field test this fall.  The field test will be conducted in the six

>states mentioned above that are partners in the development of the

>credential.  The field test will focus on issues of fairness and

>validity.

>

>What continues to be exciting to me about this credential is that it

>enables us to fulfill the vision of EFF -- an assessment that focuses on

>most of the skills that adults really do need to be successful in their

>roles as parents, citizens and workers.

>

>

>The credential will be available for broad use next spring.  If you are

>interested in finding out more, check out the websites or contact me at

>sstein at uschamber.com

>

>Sondra Stein

>Project Manager, EFF Work Readiness Credential

>sstein at uschamber.com