Hi Lisa and all,
Thanks for your questions. In a nutshell:
 
1) The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) is retiring the BEST oral
interview on September 30, 2006 and will no longer distribute it after
that date. Adult ESL programs can continue to use existing supplies of
the BEST oral interview, or they can purchase it until September 30. The
BEST oral interview can continue to be used for federal reporting
purposes even after September 30, 2006, provided that it is on your
state's approved list of assessments. It will be up to each state (and,
ultimately, the NRS) to determine how long the BEST oral interview will
be approved for NRS reporting. 
 
The rationale behind the retirement of the BEST oral interview is to
better focus on our much newer and improved oral language assessment,
BEST Plus. For general information about BEST Plus, please visit the
website at www.best-plus.net <http://www.best-plus.net/>  or email
best-plus at cal.org.  
 
An additional note for those of you who use the BEST literacy skills
section: 
The current BEST literacy skills section will not be affected by the
retirement of the BEST oral interview. However, an updated version of
the BEST literacy skills section is in development. This new version
will be called BEST Literacy. Forms B and C will be made current without
affecting the basic integrity of the test, and a new, parallel form will
be available - Form D. Programs will be able to pre-test with the old
version of BEST Literacy and posttest with the updated forms. BEST
Literacy is scheduled for launch on October 1, 2006. There will be no
change in pricing of these forms. More information can be found here:
http://www.cal.org/BEST/
 
2) Your second question is referring to BEST Literacy (Student
Performance Level 2 = new Low Beginning ESL level with a score range of
8-35).  As you may know, all of CAL's adult ESL assessments are
correlated to Student Performance Levels (SPLs). For background
information on SPLs, CAL assessments, and the NRS educational
functioning level changes, see http://www.cal.org/BEST/NRSchanges.pdf
<http://www.cal.org/BEST/NRSchanges.pdf> . 
 
When the NRS level changes took effect on July 1, ESL assessments that
are correlated to SPLs were also affected. Although 8-35 may seem like a
wide range, the description of an SPL 2 in reading and writing best
matches student performances on BEST Literacy within that range. Reading
and writing SPL descriptors have been posted by the Center for Adult
English Language Acquisition (CAELA) here: 
http://www.cal.org/caela/esl%5Fresources/

I hope this has been helpful.. Please feel free to shoot more questions
our way!
 
Thanks,
Sarah Young
Center for Applied Linguistics
4646 40th St. NW
Washington, DC 20016
 
Phone: (202) 362-0700 ext. 529
Fax: (202) 362-3740
Web: www.cal.org <http://www.cal.org/>  
Email: sarah at cal.org
CAL: "Improving communication through better understanding of language
and culture"

________________________________

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of Marie Cora
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 11:04 PM
To: Assessment at nifl.gov
Subject: [Assessment 410] NRS changes--message for the discussion list


The following post is from Lisa McKinney.
 
 
Hello, Marie,
 
Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions about the NRS's ESOL level
descriptors and recent changes.  I have two questions:
 
1) My director recently told me that we will still be able to use the
BEST Oral test for our NRS reporting, even though I've been told for
months that the test would no longer be accepted after September 1,
2006.  Are we still able to use the Oral BEST (not BEST Plus, the old
Oral test)?
 
2) What is the rationale for the 2nd level being so much larger than all
the other levels?  Yes, I know it was recently changed from a range of
8-41 to a range of 8-36, but it's still larger than any other level.
Why?
 
Thanks,
 
Lisa McKinney
Coosa Valley Technical College
Calhoun, GA
lmckinney at coosavalleytech.edu
 
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