The following post is from Tom Sticht.



January 12, 2006

Competency- or Standards-Based Education for Adult Literacy Education:
Faith-Based or Evidence-Based?

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

In the K-12 system standards-based education has been around now for the
last decade, and has been reinforced by President Bush's No Child Left
Behind program. Unfortunately, data from the National Center for
Education
Statistics released this year indicate that from 1971 up to 2004, a
graph
of average scores on the NAEP for 9, 13, or 17 year olds for the thirty
year period from 1971 to 2004, on a scale ranging from 200 to around 320
scale scores, shows that 9 year olds increased from 208 in 1971 to 215
in
1980, then fell to 209 in 1990 and then rose again to 219 in 2004. This
is
only 4 scale score points higher than in 1980.  This is evidence of ups
and
downs over a thirty year period but no real improvement. There is a more
pronounced lack of evidence of any average improvement in reading for 13
and 17 year olds over this period.

The lack of evidence for gains by 9 year olds is made even more
apparent,
and disappointing,  when the data for 9 year olds at differing
percentiles
of achievement are examined. In 1971 students at the 90th percentile
scored
260, then rose gradually to 266 in 1990 and then fell to 264 in 2004.
Nine
year olds at the 50th percentile scored as indicated above. Really
poorly
reading students, those at the 10th percentile scored 152 in 1971, then
rose to 165 in 1980 and then rose again to 169 in 2004, though the
latter
was not statistically greater than 25 years ago in 1980.

Thirteen year olds  at the 10th percentile scored 208 in 1971, rose to
213
in 1988, and then fell to 210 in 2004. The least able 17 year old
readers,
those at the 10th percentile, scored 225 in 1971, rose to 241 in 1988,
and
then fell to 227 in 2004.

Though there were some improvements in the scores for 9 year old
African-Americans and Hispanics from 1988, scores for 13 year olds were
flat and they actually dropped for 17 year olds. Hence there is little
evidence for the practical impact of standards-based education on the
reading skills of various ethnic groups in over the last decade and a
half.

The data for the three decades from 1971 to 2004 do not show substantial
increases in reading achievement for 9, 13, or 17 year olds at various
percentile ranks, even for the decade after the start of standards-based
education. The NCES data do show that as children go up through primary,
elementary, and secondary school, they do get better at reading across
the
percentile spectrum. But in 2004 the bottom ten percent of 17 year olds
scored below the median for 13 year olds, and were just 6 scale score
points above the median for 9 year olds. These poorly scoring students
will
no doubt be those who will later discover the real life importance of
literacy and will enter into adult basic education to try to gain skills
needed to support themselves and their families.

Mathematics
Regarding mathematics, there were gains for 9 and 13 year olds across
the 30
year period starting in 1971, but no evidence that the implementation of
standards-based education in the decade of the 1990s up to the present
made
any acceleration in the rate of improvement which started before the
standards-based education movement. And for 17 year old
African-Americans
there were declines in mathematics from 1990 to 2004 and declines for
Hispanics from 1992 to 2004.

Overall, the NCES long term trend data for reading and mathematics do
not
support the claim that standards-based education over the last decade
has
had a positive effect on student achievement in these curricula areas.

Efforts to implement either competency-based or standards-based
education
in adult literacy education over the last quarter system have also
produced
no evidence to support these reforms. There has been no evaluation of
the
Equipped for the Future (EFF) effort and the Comprehensive Adult Student
Assessment System (CASAS) with its competency-based education (CBE)
approach has produced no evidence that programs implementing CBE are
more
effective than programs that do not implement CBE.

At the present time, then, the movement to implement either CBE or EFF
content standards education in adult literacy education is progressing
as a
faith-based rather than an evidence-based movement.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net