Thanks very much for this summary overview.  It's very helpful.

There are many similarities in your overview to the Canadian situation.
Canadian Language Benchmarks were developed by the federal government in
1996 with 12 benchmark levels and a separate set of ESL literacy benchmarks
levels - Foundation, Phase I, II and III.  The national assessment tools
that exist to measure CLB, measure in benchmark levels for each skill -
reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Some practitioners think that 12 benchmark levels is too many, and that it
may have been better to have had only 6 levels. (It takes a lot of work to
document all the competencies necessary to move up one level for each of the
4 skills.)  However, even with 12 levels there are concerns that progress
can only be measured by achievement of an entire benchmark level - and that
a great deal of progress made by learners, is not recognized because it may
not result in completion of an entire level.

There are many ways to measure and document the achievement of specific
competencies in the classroom.  We've developed collections of formal,
standardized, exit assessment tasks that allow classroom teachers to
accurately measure specific competencies.  But record keeping and
certificates of completion at this point only measure whole benchmark level
achievements.

This is why the idea of the European Language Portfolio model which I talked
about yesterday in response to the email "Keeping Students eyes on teh
prize" interests me  - because it does get at the competency level and helps
the learner (and teacher) target important competencies and measure those
achievements.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Condelli, Larry [mailto:LCondelli at air.org]
  Sent: July 20, 2006 5:20 PM
  To: The Assessment Discussion List
  Subject: [Assessment 418] Re: Questions on ESOL Level Descriptors in NRS


  Hi to all,

  I thought it would be helpful to give a brief background on the NRS
descriptors and why the ESL levels and descriptors were changed, one of the
topics that Marie wanted us to address in the brief discussion this week.

  Those of you that have been in adult literacy for a while know that we
have divided students into ABE, ASE and ESL for some time.  There were
levels within each of these areas defined by student literacy, language and
functional skills long before the NRS.  (I have heard from the ancients that
way back there were no levels, but that was before my time.  I am not that
old!)  When I started in adult education in 1990, there were only 3 ESL
levels, two ABE levels and one ASE level.  In 1995, we added what is now the
beginning literacy level to both ABE and ESL and that is where we were when
the NRS development started in 1997.

  With the NRS, the importance of showing student educational gain by level
became the key measure and we focused a lot of attention on developing
levels that reflected what is taught in adult education, determining skills
that would define levels and identifying tests that could the test levels
measure student skills within these levels. We also wanted to narrow the
levels because we realized the range of levels was too broad to reflect
student learning.  So we created 6 ESL levels, 4 ABE levels and 2 ASE
levels.  We hoped these levels would provide a meaningful framework for
measuring educational progress.

  In early 2004, with three years of experience with this system, some
dissatisfaction from states and the federal office emerged with the
beginning and high advanced ESL levels:

  §    Many state staff and practitioners claimed that the wide range of
skills encompassed within the beginning ESL level made it difficult to show
educational gain and to demonstrate student progress accurately.



  §    Enrollment in high advanced ESL was low over the three years – about
40,000 students or about 4 percent of total ESL students.  In contrast, over
340,000 students were enrolled in beginning ESL (about 30 percent of total
ESL students) during that same period.



  §    There were limited ways of showing completion of the advanced ESL
level.  Until the development of BEST Plus in 2003, there were no valid and
reliable NRS assessments that could measure completion from high advanced
ESL, which was defined as SPL 8.



  For these reasons, the Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL) in
the Department of Education, changed the levels for ESL by splitting the
beginning level into low beginning and high beginning.  The high advanced
ESL was been eliminated and the existing low advanced ESL was renamed as
advanced ESL.  The  exit criteria for this level was lowered to better match
currently available assessments.   Before making these changes, DAEL
consulted with the NRS technical working group and the state directors of
adult education and it received extensive support.



  The proposed change was first announced in spring 2004 and we re-wrote the
descriptors with help from CAL and CASAS staff in 2005.   The new levels
went into effect this month and we hope they will help us provide a better
picture of adult ESL student's education progress.





----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
  From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Marie Cora
  Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 7:59 AM
  To: Assessment at nifl.gov
  Subject: [Assessment 406] Questions on ESOL Level Descriptors in NRS


  Good morning, afternoon, and evening to you all.  I hope this email finds
you well.



  I wanted to let everyone know that during this week, Larry Condelli from
AIR (American Institutes of Research), who works with the NRS, and Sarah
Young, from CAL (Center for Applied Linguistics) who works with BEST Plus
will be available to answer any questions you might have regarding the
changes in ESOL Level Descriptors, which go into effect this summer (this
month I believe).  I also encourage anyone who has questions regarding other
ESOL tests (CASAS or EFF for example) to join in this Q&A.  Because the
Level Descriptors have been adjusted, the tests used to track learning gains
also have undergone some shifting and it is important that we understand
what these changes are.



  Larry and Sarah will be present on the List during this week, but perhaps
intermittently – replies may not come immediately.  I encourage you to post
your question to the List, or to send your question to me for posting, if
you prefer that.



  Larry, Sarah, and others working with any of the ESOL tests – feel free to
jump in and give us a thumbnail sketch of what the changes are and how they
might affect our work in programs and with students.



  The NRS homepage is located at:  http://www.nrsweb.org/

  To view information on the NRS Level Descriptors, please go to:
http://www.nrsweb.org/reports/NewESLdescriptors.pdf

  At the bottom of the NRS homepage, see also:  NRS Changes for Program Year
2006



  Thanks so much – I’m looking forward to understanding this information,
and hearing what folks questions are regarding the changes.



  Marie T. Cora

  Assessment Discussion List Moderator

  marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com


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