Here's another crosspost of interest from the NIFL-Assessment list:



>Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 11:39:05 -0400 (EDT)

>From: Marie Cora <marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com>

>Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:1229] CASAS-based assessment efforts in CT

>Sender: nifl-assessment at nifl.gov

>To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-assessment at literacy.nifl.gov>

>

>

>Dear List Members,

>

>The following post is from Ajit Gopalakrishnan, in response to Sondra

>Stein's update on EFF assessments.  My apologies to Ajit and readers

>that this post has taken so long to get up here - email glitches are

>rearing their heads.

>

>If you are experiencing difficulties posting, please refer to

># [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:1219] Plain Text posting Marie Cora (Tue Aug 16 2005

>- 11:32:28 EDT) that can be found in the archives at

>http://www.nifl.gov/nifl-assessment/2005/.  That contains some

>suggestions for trumping a glitch.  If that does not work, please don't

>hesitate to email me directly.

>

>Thanks,

>marie

>mariecora at hotspurpartners.com

>_____________________________________

>

>

>After reviewing this update on EFF, I thought states might be interested

>in learning about some activities that CT has been working on, in

>partnership with CASAS. Many states are involved in these discussions

>through CASAS and it would be great to have more states involved.

>

>For those who may not know, CASAS is a comprehensive system for adult

>student assessment that links curriculum, assessment and instruction.

>CASAS is also a vehicle for collaboration among states. Member states

>participate in prioritizing CASAS' activities, competency-validation,

>item writing, field-testing, standard setting, and research and

>development. Over the past two decades, these experiences have served as

>tremendous opportunities for practitioners to learn more about

>assessment development and assessment research.

>

>There are three particular projects I would like to mention here.

>

>Workforce Skills Certification:

>There is some interest in CT to pilot a skill-based certification system

>for youth in WIA programs. The CASAS Workforce Skills Certification

>System is one of the options we are considering. There are many aspects

>of this system that people seem to find attractive including the fact

>that it was driven during its creation by industry/employer standards

>and expectations of what workers need to know. It offers certification

>instruments in not just reading and math but includes tools to certify

>problem solving, critical thinking, and applied performance. There is

>also an elaborate portfolio assessment piece that can be used to certify

>customer service, team skills and such. In addition to these skill

>areas, we are also considering certification in technology literacy.

>

>Workplace Speaking Assessment:

>We will be piloting this CASAS performance-based assessment this fiscal

>year after having been involved closely in its development. It measures

>the speaking skills of ESL learners through oral interactions and is

>based in a workplace context. It targets ESL learners at the high

>beginning to advanced levels who are currently employed or have had work

>experience. We are looking to use this in our increasing workplace

>education efforts.

>

>CASAS Functional Writing Assessment:

>We have been implementing this writing assessment in adult education to

>inform instruction and report for accountability purposes for some years

>now. It utilizes picture prompts in varied contexts and offers an

>analytic rubric that informs instruction.

>

>Results from CASAS assessments are reported in scale scores that define

>the basic skills along a fixed continuum of difficulty. For a variety of

>reasons, I agree with many who wrote in an earlier discussion about the

>inappropriateness of using grade level equivalent scores with adult

>learners. With minimal familiarity, scale scores can be more effective,

>accurate, and relevant.

>

>Cheers,

>

>Ajit

>

>

>

>Ajit Gopalakrishnan

>Education Consultant

>Connecticut Department of Education

>25 Industrial Park Road

>Middletown, CT 06457

>Tel: (860) 807-2125

>Fax: (860) 807-2062

>ajit.gopalakrishnan at po.state.ct.us

>

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

>From: nifl-assessment at nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-assessment at nifl.gov] On

>Behalf Of Marie Cora

>Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 2:26 PM

>To: Multiple recipients of list

>Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:1211] EFF-based assessment efforts

>

>Hi everyone,

>

>The following post is from Sondra Stein.

>marie

>

>

>Dear all --

>Before I run off for a much needed summer vacation I wanted to respond

>briefly to Marie's query about EFF -based assessments.

>

>There are two EFF-based assessment efforts going on.  One that parallels

>the work that Bob initiated in Massachusetts in that it is focused on

>the EFF standards that are included in the NRS: Reading, Writing, Math.

>This is a collaborative effort between ETS and a number of states that

>are using EFF standards and is in the early stages of development.  In

>February 2004 when we completed the assessment framework for EFF

>standards we hosted a meeting for assessment developers to introduce

>them to the work we had done and to invite them to build assessments

>that were aligned with EFF standards.  We told them that there was

>dissatisfaction in the field with the assessments that were available

>and that the states that were basing their system improvement efforts on

>EFF Standards would be a ready market for assessments aligned with the

>standards.  Representatives of about 6 states were at the meeting, as

>well as representatives of five or six assessment publishers.  A number

>of publishers at the meeting expressed an interest in cross walking

>their assessments with the EFF performance levels.  ETS was the only

>firm interested in working with states to develop new assessments

>aligned with the standards.  At COABE that year NIFL hosted a special

>meeting at which Irwin Kirsch talked to interested states about an

>approach to collaborative assessment development that ETS was beginning

>to use -- a process that has resulted in the new computer literacy

>assessment that ETS released this year.  Irwin proposed a similar

>process with state adult basic literacy and education leaders which is

>now underway.  I am not integrally involved with this group right now,

>but I believe they have met two or three times and are coming to

>agreement on the blueprint for tests that ETS will develop.  I am very

>excited about this effort -- both the process, which continues EFF's

>commitment to collaborative development with the field, and the products

>which promise to be state-of-the-art assessments, aligned with what

>people using EFF standards really teach in their classrooms, so enabling

>them to measure results that matter.  You can find out more about this

>from Regie Stites, Irwin Kirsch at ETS, or one or more of the states

>that are involved -- I know they include District of Columbia, New

>Jersey, Ohio, and Washington and several other states.  I'm not sure

>which ones since I haven't been involved for the past year.

>

>Instead 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 http://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