Barbara and others --

Every test we've done, and communications from a wide range of people, indicate that the document can be accessed without trouble from our website -- for both Mac and PC. But 2-3 people have reported that they had difficulty on the first try (it is a very large document) and that only on the second attempt did it "take" (because a portion of the document had already moved to their computers. I am in the process of having the site rechecked to see if some problem has crept in that we're not aware of or if a certain computer capacity is needed to receive the download. But in the meantime, a bound copy of the publication can be ordered at a nominal cost by e-mailing bheitner at caalusa.org for ordering and payment instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Gail Spangenberg 
Manager, National Commission on Adult Literacy
President, Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy
1221 Avenue of the Americas - 46th Floor
New York, NY 10020
212-512-2363
http:www.caalusa.org

-----Original Message-----

>From: "JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall" <crandall at umbc.edu>

>Sent: Apr 26, 2007 12:06 AM

>To: The Assessment Discussion List <assessment at nifl.gov>

>Subject: [Assessment 799] Re: Using Data

>

>Dear Barbara,

>

>I just tried the site and had no difficulty.

>

>Here is the website for the Executive Summary:

>http://www.caalusa.org/eslexecsummary.pdf

>

>The website for the full publication is:

>http://www.caalusa.org/eslpassingtorch226.pdf

>

>Try these again.  If you still have difficulty, you may want to contact

>Gail Spangenberg, the Executive Director of the Council for Advancement of

>Adult Literacy at

>gspangenberg at caalusa.org

>

>Hope this helps.

>

>Jodi Crandall (one of the authors of the report)

>

>

>> I have tried to access the publication "Passing the Torch" but keep

>> getting a network error.  Does anyone know how to report the error?  I

>> have tried going to the caalusa.org website but no contact information

>> is listed.  Thanks.

>>

>>

>>

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

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

>> On Behalf Of forrest

>> Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 11:47 AM

>> To: assessment at nifl.gov

>> Subject: [Assessment 786] Re: Using Data

>>

>>

>>

>> Dan, you have raised some critically important questions. NRS data

>> indicates that only about 36% of ESL students "complete a level" each

>> year. This is cause for concern, because the same data show that the

>> vast majority of ESL students are at the lowest levels of proficiency

>> and have low levels of education in their native countries. However, the

>> NRS data is not definitive for a number of reasons -- such as low rates

>> of re-test in many programs, the use of tests that do not measure the

>> full range of English language skills, and the fact that data is

>> reported only for a single year (students may persist in programs long

>> enough to achieve much larger learning gains).

>>

>>

>>

>> As a first step toward finding out more about the learning gains and

>> persistence of ESL students, Jodi Crandall and I worked with the faculty

>> and staff at 5 highly regarded community college programs to use student

>> record data as a means of determining both learning gains and

>> persistence rates. At several of the colleges we were able to track the

>> learning gains and persistence of students for as long as seven years.

>> At most of the colleges, the measures of learning gains used was

>> completion of one or more additional levels AS THE COLLEGE DEFINED THE

>> LEVELS. Both the definition of levels and the standards of completion

>> took account of test scores (of the sort reported to the NRS), but they

>> also took account of other measures of student achievement (including

>> proficiency in all core ESL skills).

>>

>>

>>

>> Needless to say, our findings were fairly complex and cannot be

>> adequately set forth here. In summary, however, we found that at most

>> 30% of students persist for 2-3 college terms and complete more than 2-3

>> levels over a seven year period. More than 40-50% of students do not

>> complete a level or complete only a single level at any time over a

>> seven year period. Although we could not be sure, it appears that low

>> level students were more likely to persist than higher level students.

>> About 10-15% of adult education ESL students enrolled in credit ESL at

>> these colleges, and the number who eventually enrolled in academic

>> credit courses was in the single digits.

>>

>>

>>

>> We also found that all the colleges we examined employ strategies that

>> significantly improve the rate of learning gains and retention. Among

>> these were high intensity/managed enrollment classes (more than 3-6

>> hours per week), strategies to encourage learning outside the classroom,

>> appropriate uses of echnology for instruction, co-enrollment of adult

>> education ESL students in vocational programs taught in English,

>> curricular designs that insure instruction is relevant to the interests

>> of students (such as Frerian approaches), enriched

>> guidance/counseling/support services, setting high expectations, and

>> VESL programs. Unfortunately, only small numbers of students have access

>> to most of these strategies at most colleges, because they are far more

>> expensive on a per student basis than is standard ESL instruction.

>> Conversely, it appears that large numbers of students would like to make

>> the committment to enhanced programs, if they were available.

>>

>>

>>

>> The results of our research were published by the Council for the

>> Advancement of Adult Literacy (under the auspices of which the research

>> was conducted) in February as the report " Passing the Torch:Strategies

>> for Innovation in Community College ESL." This is available at the CAAL

>> website: www.caalusa.org. CAAL will be publishing more of the data we

>> gathered later this spring.

>>

>>

>>

>> Among the "take away" messages we gathered from our work were: 1) The

>> use of longitudinal (multi-year) data and holistic assessments of

>> learning gains are essential for understanding and improving the

>> effectiveness of ESL programs. In many programs it is feasible to gather

>> and use longitudinal data in this way, but few programs do so due to a

>> variety of perceived constraints and/or a lack of support for data

>> analysis by their host institutions. 2) Research can be very helpful in

>> program improvement, but it requires a substantial committment on the

>> part of programs to gather relevant data and tease out its lessons on an

>> on-going basis. Programs should receive far more support for this. 3) It

>> is posible to greatly improve ESL program outcomes using a variety of

>> strategies, but these require a larger investment in instruction per

>> student -- an investment that we believe is well worth the cost. 4)

>> Numbers do not speak for themselves. For example, low rates of learning

>> gains must be read in the context of the goals that both students and

>> programs set for ESL instruction. It may be that some portion of

>> students legitimately wish to use ESL programs as an initial platform to

>> learn SOME English, and that their learning gains after separating from

>> programs are substantial. Too little is known about this. Conversely, we

>> found that the more students learn, the more ambitious their learning

>> goals become. Because numbers do not speak for themselves, it is all the

>> more important for individual programs and state agencies to invest in

>> the use of research for program improvement and to ACTUALLY USE IT for

>> therse purposes. Too often over-burdened ESL faculty and staff consider

>> research an after-thought. They need the time, encouragement, resources,

>> and training to development "continuous program improvement" models to

>> their work.

>>

>> -------------------------------

>> National Institute for Literacy

>> Assessment mailing list

>> Assessment at nifl.gov

>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

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

>>

>

>

>-- 

>JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall

>Professor, Education Department

>Director, Ph.D. Program in Language, Literacy & Culture

>Coordinator, Peace Corps Master's International Program in ESOL/Bilingual

>Education

>University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

>1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

>ph:    410-455-2313/2376  fax:   410-455-8947/1880

>email: crandall at umbc.edu

>www.umbc.edu/llc/

>www.umbc.edu/esol/

>www.umbc.edu/esol/peacecorps.html

>

>

>

>-------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

>Assessment mailing list

>Assessment at nifl.gov

>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment