Marie - I went to the discussion, as I was intrigued/dismayed by the
thread title "Surviving the CASAS". This is a misnomer for the
discussion. Attached is one response, from CASAS.

 

On behalf of Jane Eguez, CASAS: 

We were also intrigued by the title. The presenter extended an
invitation to me to attend her poster session - which I did. The
presenter works in a large urban school district. In her classroom, she
administers the statewide-mandated assessment (CASAS) to meet NRS
requirements, plus local district-developed assessments, as well as her
own teacher-developed assessments. She feels she is spending too much
time testing. 

During the poster session, the presenter acknowledged publicly that she
likes the CASAS assessment, and that the CASAS test itself isn't the
problem - since it assesses basic skills in the context of essential
life skills she feels her students need. In fact, her poster
demonstrated creative ways for students to acquire real language
practice (via life skill competencies) outside the classroom. 

We agree that it is a challenge for local programs to balance the
collection of good formative and summative assessment information to
help students and improve programs.

 

 

My program in RI uses the CASAS, and for learners who attend up to 100
hours we pretest and then post test once or twice. Those with
significant hours beyond that post test regularly, as improvements are
noted by the instructor and learner. We feel that by more fully aligning
our learning with the CASAS, we reduce the amount of testing that we
have to do. We also find that most learners do not resent or reject
assessments that clearly show them what they have learned and what they
need to learn next, given their current learning goals and next steps
past the program. Of course, if instructors are negative or do not see
connections - or worse, there are not connections - then that negativity
is soon shared by the learners. That is true for any material and for
any assessment - the CASAS, publisher- and teacher-developed ones.

 

The majority of our learners are with us for six months to a year,
before they move on or stop out. They have no issue with us working
together and motivating them to succeed as much as they can in that
short time, or assessing them at least monthly, either by informal or
formal assessments, to make sure for them and for us that they are
progressing significantly each time they are in our learning
environment. That is why they are here, and that is why we are, too.

 

Howard L. Dooley, Jr.

RIRAL / Woonsocket, RI

 

 

________________________________

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of Marie Cora
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 3:33 PM
To: Assessment at nifl.gov
Subject: [Assessment 699] Discussion on CASAS on Adult English Language
List

 

Hi everyone,

 

Perhaps some of you are interested in the discussion taking place right
now on the Adult English Language Learners Discussion List focused on
the CASAS.  The discussion stems from subscriber feedback on sessions
attended at either of the recent national conferences, TESOL or COABE.

 

Go to  http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Englishlanguage to read the
archives:  click on Read Current Posted Messages at the top of the page;
look for (or use the search button) posts with the subject heading
"Surviving the CASAS?"  

 

If you have thoughts regarding that discussion and would like to share
them here (or there!), that would be great.

 

Thanks,

 

marie

 

Marie Cora

marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com <mailto:marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com> 

NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator

http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment

Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection

http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/

 

 

 

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