Learner Assessment and Program Accountability

Learner assessment is an important priority in adult ESL education. Many adult ESL programs use a variety of assessments to place learners in classes, inform instruction, evaluate learner progress, and report outcomes. Informal assessments, for teachers' and programs' use in placing students and tracking their progress, include materials-based and teacher- made tests, projects, demonstrations, and portfolios that compile learners' work.

Formal assessments are used for accountability reporting purposes. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA; Public Law 105-220), Title II, The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) provides funding for adult ESL instruction through the U.S. Department of Education. WIA requires states to evaluate each local program's performance according to outcome measures established under the National Reporting System (NRS) (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Division of Adult Education and Literacy, 2001). States have flexibility to choose the assessments and procedures they will follow to measure these outcomes within acceptable parameters. Some states have chosen one standardized test, and others allow programs to choose from a list of approved tests. (For more information about learner assessment, see Assessing Adult English Language Learners and English Language Assessments for Adults Learning English. See http://www.nrsweb.org for a description of the purposes and structure of the NRS.)

Conclusion

The number of adult English language learners in the United States will continue to grow. To ensure that these learners receive the best instruction possible, adequate resources and creative strategies are needed to address the challenges in the areas of learner assessment and reporting requirements and the recruitment and ongoing professional development of high-quality teachers.

References

Adult Education and Family Literacy Act of 1998, 20 U.S.C.A. §9201 et seq.retrieved on July 25, 2004 from http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

Belzer, A., Drennon, C., & Smith, C. (2001, March). Building professional development systems in adult basic education: Lessons from the field. The Annual Review of Adult Learning and Literacy, 2. Retrieved July15, 2003, from http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/ann_rev/index.html