CASAS Life Skills Pre - and Post-tests—ESL Listening

Purpose: To assess the development of adult English language learners' functional listening skills within an instructional level.

Target: Adult English language learners in basic skills programs.

Method and format: This assessment is a group-administered 23-item multiple choice test; students listen to a cassette tape and choose from three options for each item. After 80-100 hours of instruction, learners' progress may be measured with the appropriate post-test.

Content: Content includes lifeskills vocabulary and language functions. Test items are aligned with more than 300 learner competencies related to basic communication, employability and workplace skills, and computer literacy.

Administration time: 28-40 minutes.

Levels and scoring: Scores are reported on a numerical scale; CASAS skill descriptors provide information on how the numerical score corresponds to the ability to accomplish life skills and job-related tasks and correspondence of scaled scores to student performance levels (SPLs). The post-test gives measurable results after 80-100 hours of instruction.

Reliability/validity: "All CASAS assessment instruments undergo rigorous test development and validation procedures and meet the standards of the American Education Research Association (AERA), the National Council for Measurement in Education (NCME) and the American Psychological Association (APA). The CASAS Technical Manual contains detailed information about test validity and reliability" (publisher's statement).

Number of forms: Pre- and post-test at each level

Materials available: Training is required for all test administrators. Materials are available only after training has been completed.

CASAS
51551 Murphy Canyon Road, Suite 220
San Diego, CA 92123
858-292-2900
http://www.casas.org