MONDAY, JUNE  4, 2007, NEW YORK, N.Y. --  The Council for Advancement  
of Adult Literacy today releases TORCHLIGHTS IN ESL: Five Community  
College Profiles. The publication is a supplement to PASSING THE  
TORCH: Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL -- the  
result of a two-year CAAL study by Forrest P. Chisman and JoAnn  
Crandall, published in March 2007. Both projects were made possible  
by support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Harold W.  
McGraw, Jr., The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,  the Ford Foundation,  
and the Dollar General Corporation.

TORCHLIGHTS, 123 pages, gives detailed profiles of the ESL programs  
of each of  the five colleges at the heart of CAAL's study. It was  
authored by Elizabeth Zachry & Emily Dibble (Bunker  Hill Community  
College, MA), Sharon Seymour (City College of San Francisco, CA),  
Suzanne Leibman (College of Lake County, IL), Sandy Ares & Beth  
Larson (Seminole Community College, FL), and Pamela Ferguson (Yakima  
Community College, WA).  The profiles, especially if read in  
conjunction with CAAL's main research report, should be helpful to  
those who design and operate community college ESL programs as well  
as to policy makers and funding agencies. For example, they each  
contain a discussion of the financing and levels of funding needed to  
provide high quality adult ESL services.

The five programs profiled in TORCHLIGHTS offer extraordinarily high  
quality ESL instruction. They are considered exemplary according to  
standards and criteria developed in the CAAL research project and as  
judged by dozens of professionals across the country who nominated  
the programs for inclusion in the study. CAAL promised in releasing  
PASSING THE TORCH that it would publish detailed profiles of the  
programs. The release of TORCHLIGHTS makes good on that promise.

The main research report focuses on noncredit ESL services. It  
concentrates on generating learning gains, retaining students, and  
bringing about transitions to future education. Among the effective  
strategies examined are high intensity instruction, learning outside  
the classroom, and the use of "learner-centered" curricular. Special  
attention is given to curricular integration, coenrollment,  
vocational ESL (VESL), and the Spanish GED. Issues of faculty  
training, development, and quality are examined, and recommendations  
are given for "engineering innovation" in ESL colleges and programs.  
Funding and assessment issues are also treated.

To access the free PDF version of TORCHLIGHTS, click on the link  
provided above. Bound copies may be purchased directly from CAAL ($25  
plus postage and delivery, contact bheitner at caalusa.org for ordering  
instructions). Many other publications from CAAL, and from the  
National Commission on Adult Literacy, are available in PDF form at  
the CAAL web site (www.caalusa.org). All may be used freely with  
attribution.



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