Thanks, Barbara, for letting me tag on to your email.

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to
support adults in this transition journey.  There are several types of
collaborations that I know of that have been very, very helpful along
the way.  Here's just one example.

In El Paso, several adult education centers created a consortium that
began by just talking about ESL-to-college transition for their upper
level students.  Some centers were small, some were large.  Together
three centers, with support from El Paso Community College, developed
and piloted what was eventually called a "pre-transition" program
because they felt students needed to be better informed about the option
of college before they decided to commit the amount of
time/energy/family goodwill to such an endeavor.  It ran at San Jacinto
Adult Learning Center.  Almost all of the student stayed on for another
semester to focus on reading/writing/math for an college setting then
matriculated to college or university.  Working separately this would
not have happened when it did.

Cynthia

Cynthia Zafft, Senior Advisor
National College Transition Network
617 385-3650
www.collegetransition.org 
www.collegeforadults.org 



>>> "Barbara Tondre" <btondre at earthlink.net> 2/3/2009 6:00 PM >>>

Everyone, 

Small programs that can not set up separate transition classes must
often
get very creative.  I've been collecting data on local programs that
have
some promising practices in place when it comes to transition from ESL
to
ABE/ASE.  One program in central Texas (Community Action, Inc. in San
Marcos) has such an obviously good practice in place, you would miss it
if
you weren't looking for it!  The Kyle Learning Center uses a teacher
exchange between ESL and ABE/ASE classes to "wean" reluctant ELLs and
move
them on to ABE/ASE.  See Literacy Links, Volume 11, no.1, April 2007,
"Building Bridges to the Next Level - A Successful Experiment" by Jan
Greening and Lee Williams (www-tcall.tamu.edu; then click on quarterly
publcations).  Talk about a confidence builder!  

 

Barbara Tondre

Texas LEARNS

 

 

  _____  

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov]
On
Behalf Of Forrest Chisman
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 9:39 AM
To: barbara.jacala at guamcc.edu; 'The Assessment Discussion List'
Subject: [Assessment 1583] Re: Transitions Discussion begins today!

 

Barbara,

 

You have done about as much as you can do, as far as I can tell. Let's
face
it, many ESL students aren't going to progress very far on their first
try,
because the skills of most of them are so low, and it takes so long to
get
much of a payoff. Managed enrollment helps. It's best if it can be done
in
high intensity and/or short module classes that help students get a
sense of
making progress. Also contextualization of workforce or postsecondary
material from the beginning appears to help - think of where they might
be
going as soon as they start. Also I believe that personal learning
plans and
MUCH more investment in guidance/counseling help a great deal to
motivate
students. Some programs have "recovery" efforts that reach out to
students
who have "stopped out? Finally, I think the ESL curriculum needs to be
reviewed to include more emphasis on helping students become
self-directed
life-long learners. Most won't learn most of their English in the
classroom,
so ESL should have as a goal helping them to learn better and more
outside
it.

 

Forrest Chisman     

 

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov]
On
Behalf Of Barbara Jacala
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 6:44 PM
To: 'The Assessment Discussion List'
Subject: [Assessment 1562] Re: Transitions Discussion begins today!

 

1.  What seem to pose the biggest obstacles for your program when
trying to
successfully transition adult students from one education level to
another,
or from education to the workforce?  What does your program try to do
about
this?

The biggest obstacle for my program when trying to successfully
transition
adult students from one education level to another is persistence and
motivation. Attendances at classes are inconsistent. What we try to do
in
our program to address these obstacles are varied. We have managed
enrollment so that we have a cohort of students going through the
program.
We try to communicate often with instructors, coordinators and
students. We
occasionally bring in guests from the community to address to the
class
about careers and other issues. We are trying to set up a student
support
group to hold regular group sessions where students can get emotional
support. We have approached our funding partners to support high
achieving
ABE students in taking post-secondary certificate classes. We have
reviewed
and rewritten our course guides using the CASAS content standards.

 

2.  What resources have you found helpful when trying to successfully
transition a student?  How have they been helpful?

We are a CASAS state and we use it to measure student progress and
determine
class placement. We have used this system successfully in ABE, ESL and
ASE.

 

3.  Please comment on the Introduction and/or Recommended Preparations
for
this Discussion, found at the announcement URL above.

I look forward to learn from the guests and the discussions.

 

Barbara Jacala

Guam Community College

  _____  

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov]
On
Behalf Of Marie Cora
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 12:52 AM
To: Assessment at nifl.gov 
Subject: [Assessment 1557] Transitions Discussion begins today!

 

Good morning, afternoon and evening to you all.

 

Today begins our week-long discussion on Transitions in Adult
Education.  

 

For full information on this discussion, go to:

 

http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/assessment/09transitions.html 

 

I have some questions for subscribers:

 

 

 

Please post your questions and share your experiences now.  

 

Thanks!!

 

Marie Cora

Assessment Discussion List Moderator