I and my colleagues at CASAS find this discussion quite interesting. We want
to take the opportunity to respond to clarify and comment on some of the
statements that have been made.

 

CASAS began in the 1980s as a competency-based assessment system assessing
reading comprehension, listening comprehension and applied mathematics in
functional adult contexts related to the family, the community and the
workplace. Over a 25-year period, the CASAS system has evolved to include
and reflect recent cognitive science research and theory. This research is
reflected in the development of CASAS performance assessments in writing,
speaking and developmental skills which use rubrics to evaluate both the
underlying knowledge, skills and abilities and competencies. It is also
reflected in an additional component in the CASAS system, the CASAS Content
Standards. 

 

CASAS assessments, like EFF, measure both what someone knows and is able to
do. The underlying knowledge, skills and strategies are embedded in each
performance task and test item, and are spelled out in the CASAS Content
Standards. These new Content Standards directly address the manner in which
knowledge, skills and abilities are applied to accomplishing a task. They
provide a framework to understand the cognitive complexity within each
performance task and test item, and they allow teachers and students to gain
a fuller understanding of the underlying basic skills.

 

We would further suggest that, like EFF, CASAS assessments provide a
"purposeful application of an integrated skill process in performing
increasingly more challenging tasks" through the use of competencies and
content standards, as well as rubrics for performance assessments. The
competencies and content standards can be assessed over a broad spectrum of
instructional levels so programs can teach and measure progress from
beginning literacy through high school completion. In fact, the same
competency can be targeted to one or more instructional levels. In addition,
the range of contexts for CASAS standardized assessments is very wide, with
separate test series focusing on life skills, employability, and workplace
settings. 

 

The new CASAS Life and Work Reading series was developed based on both
competencies and content standards, and each item is coded in both ways.
CASAS Content Standards are currently available for Reading and Listening,
and will soon be available in all skill areas. 

 

We would also like to refer readers to the CA Dept. of Education sponsored
EL Civics website developed by CASAS, a rich resource that exemplifies an
approach to integrating underlying language and literacy objectives with
competency and performance objectives in the area of EL Civics instruction.
This El Civics website also includes performance assessment plans for
classroom-based assessment, and information about it can be found in an
article on the CASAS website at
http://www.casas.org/Online_Quarterlies/Index_fall04.cfm?selected_id=1400
<http://www.casas.org/Online_Quarterlies/Index_fall04.cfm?selected_id=1400&w
target=body#2> &wtarget=body#2.

 

Linda Taylor, Director of Assessment Development, CASAS

 

 

  _____  

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Regie Stites
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 6:50 PM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Assessment] EFF Discussion Begins Today!

 

Marie and all,
Thanks for invitation to participate in this discussion.  I have some
initial thoughts in response to your question about the complexity of EFF
in comparison to competencies.  I want to ponder a bit more before
responding to the second part your question about how EFF is different from
other standards?  (Thanks to my EFF colleagues Aaron Kohring and Peggy
McGuire for comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this.  I'm sure
they will have more of their own thoughts to add as the discussion
continues).

The EFF Standards are grounded in different conceptualizations of adult
performance and adult learning than competency-based education (CBE).  EFF
is based on an understanding of expertise (high-level human performance)
that comes out of cognitive science research and theory developed in the
late 1970s and elaborated in the 1980s and 1990s.  CBE is based on a
somewhat different (and earlier) model of human performance that stems from
cognitive psychology and industrial/organizational psychology research and
theory from the 1960s.  The CBE model is fairly simple.  It assumes that
human performance can be understood as the ability to accomplish tasks.  It
is basically focused on the question "What should people be able to do?"
Researchers studied human performance in various contexts and analyzed the
tasks that people performed in those contexts.  Through large-scale surveys
(such as the Adult Performance Level study - APL) tasks were identified and
through task analysis tasks were placed in a hierarchy from simple to
complex. This is the basis for the scaled lists of CASAS competencies that
are the foundation for CASAS tests.  Items on CASAS tests are designed to
simulate as closely as possible, the tasks that people perform in work and
life. Through careful design of test items and analysis of test results
(using Item Response Theory - IRT), CASAS has been able to provide a clear
picture of the relative difficulty of each item (test question) used in the
CASAS tests. 

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