ESL Provider Group Meeting
April 4, 2014
Adult Learning Resource Center
In attendance
Moraine Valley - Nina Shoman-Dajani
Moraine Valley – Gant Matthews Oakton – Robert Anzelde
Rock Valley – Dana Carlson
Dist 211 – Julie Frost
Kishwaukee – Tricia Wagner
Albany Park Community Center – Cathy Swanson
Elgin Community College – Marcia Luptak
McHenry County College – Sherry May
Joliet Jr. College – Brenda Roland
World Relief Aurora – Liz Clinton
World Relief Aurora – Andrea Gerhart
Harper – Kathryn Powell
Participated on conference call following meeting:
Department of Corrections – Becky Burgin and Rick Robbins
Dist. 214 Community Education – Rhonda Serafin, Jeanne Williams, Agnes Gaszak
ROE 27 – Kang Hee Hong
Prairie State – Delia Garcia
Dist. 94 – Kristi Moran
After introductions, the discussion opened with the question What regular data analysis is being done in programs?
Liz Clinton (World Relief Aurora): They collect data other than DAISI data (using very outdated software) to keep information on things like how many students got a library card, what SPL gains students made, etc. to satisfy their funders’ reporting requirements.
Cathy Swanson(Albany Park): They use an additional database for other grants. They track family members who live in a household and how the agency serves those members through its various services.
Robert Anzelde (Oakton) commented on the importance of looking beyond the numbers to the larger context, such as the economy or immigration trends. Data analysis should be accompanied by a narrative explaining the interpretations.
Liz Clinton (World Relief): They have improved student retention, but their total student number is down. With a limited number of seats, if students stay in the program, the number of students served is lower. This is a problem now because they are serving their students better, and performance is improved, but the overall numbers are lower. Funding is attached to enrollment numbers.
Grant Matthews (Moraine): Funding is enrollment based, so it may be better to be enrollment based, trying to serve as many students as possible, to bring in the money. Programs have to find a balance.
Tricia Wagner (Kishwaukee): Their student enrollment numbers declined this year. Tricia asked Suzanne Reese, the Region II Support Specialist from ICCB, how the drop compared to other programs across state. Suzanne gave her enrollment numbers for IL and the Midwest. Overall adult education enrollment is down 6% in the Midwest, 4% in IL. The largest decrease at Kishwaukee is ESL students.
Tricia Wagner (Kishwaukee): She looks at the DAISI NRS report weekly. They target students who have dropped and invite them to return.
Grant Matthews (Moraine): How do you extrapolate information from DAISI? He would like to have access to the raw data to run reports and analyses of his own, not just the DAISI reports.
Several people responded that Jay Brooks at ICCB will pull data for you or show you how, if you tell him exactly what you’re looking for. There is a new mechanism in DAISI that will be announced soon to enable users to pull different data.
Robert Anzelde (Oakton) and Nina Shoman-Dajani (Moraine) suggested working with the community college’s advancement / data office and see if they can provide other data.
New topic: How does data inform your program decisions?
Grant Matthews (Moraine): Look carefully at the pre- and post-test data. See if the student came in at the bottom or the top of the score range for an NRS level. A score gain may not put them into a new NRS level, but might be a really strong gain nonetheless. Determine if the lack of a level gain is a function of where the student started.
Tricia Wagner (Kishwaukee): Also look at the level of the post-test. Students’ scores may go down if the post-test is a more difficult level.
Catherine Porter (ALRC): It’s important to be sure the test score is within the accuracy range for the specific test level of the CASAS or TABE.
Robert Anzelde (Oakton): They have found that they get good gains after 80 hours of instruction, so they try not to post test before that. They have open enrollment but will only enroll students mid-term if it will be possible for the student to get at least 55 hrs instruction before their post-test. In addition, to increase the hours of instruction, Oakton offers short intensive classes during the breaks between semesters. Joliet Junior College and Kishwaukee have similar short intensive classes.
Robert Anzelde (Oakton): They look at the test data to determine certain testing procedures. If students read better than they speak, and score out of range on the CASAS, Oakton gives them a BEST Plus. All the students tested this way have scored within the acceptable range for ESL classes.
Catherine Porter (ALRC) said that a recent study showed that about 65% students who topped CASAS scored within range on BEST Plus.
New Topic: Transitioning ESL students out of ESL classes into ABE, development ed, or college classes
Several people noted that ESL students often can’t afford to pay tuition, especially if they’re undocumented and no financial aid is available.
Tricia Wagner (Kishwaukee): They did a focus group with advanced ESL students to ask about their goals, and they didn’t have goals for going to college. ESL students often believe they can’t move on. Programs need to educate teachers and students on options.
Brenda Roland (Joliet Jr. College): They have college career advisors visit ESL classes to do goal-setting. The advisors will make individual appointments with students, take them through the application process and financial aid, give campus tours, etc. About 2-3% of their ESL students continue into college.
Marcia Luptak (Elgin Community College): They have developed “learning communities” for advanced ESL students. Students who are ready to move up into ECC’s highest ESL class, Level 10, can co-enroll in the college’s English 101 class. The two teachers work together to coordinate instruction. Students pay tuition for English 101 and get credit for it. Students don’t have to take the COMPASS to get into the English 101. The adult ed department has a good relationship with the college’s English department, so they negotiated around the COMPASS test. They use teacher recommendations from the ESL level 9 class and other assessment information to gauge if the student is ready to go into ESL Level 10. ESL students don’t go to developmental ed. The Level 9 and 10 classes are funded only partially by ICCB. Some students continue after getting English 101 credit, but it’s a new program, and the college hasn’t tracked the students. Some have gone into job certificate programs.
In addition, Elgin Community College has focused on writing, not reading, for more instruction and support. They are also looking at transitioning high-intermediate ESL students into a “learning community” with college-level Business Writing. Marcia taught developmental reading and writing and found that typical development ed classes are not designed for ESL students. ESL students don’t succeed in developmental classes because of vocabulary, grammar or other issues, which are not the same issues that affect native English speakers in developmental classes.
Several people observed that having a person on staff serving as a transitions coordinator was very important.
Robert Anzelde (Oakton): They offer low tuition classes to intermediate and advanced ESL students. Instructors are paid $25/hr. Tuition is about $3 per hour of instruction. The tuition covers the instructor’s salary. Students buy their textbooks at cost. The level of the classes is between adult ed and college ESL level. These classes are not supported by their ICCB grant. They try to populate these classes with students who are short-term students, such as au pairs (nannies) who are in the U.S. temporarily.
Dana Carlson (Rock Valley): They offer low tuition classes with the textbook included. Students must get at least a 4.0 on the TABE to be “invited” to join the class.
Tricia Wagner (Kishwaukee): They used to have low tuition classes. Once a student reached a certain level, that was their next step. But students would fake their tests so that their scores would be low enough to stay in the free ESL classes.
New topic: Do programs share test scores with students? Is there motivation for students to improve on test?
Kathryn Powell (Harper): Teachers show post test scores to the entire class, point out gains and celebrate.
Jeanne Williams (Dist. 214): Teachers share pre- and post-test scores with students.
Kishwaukee, Joliet, Rock Valley, Prairie State, Dist. 214 and other programs said they have students sign an agreement at registration that details the program’s expectations.
New topic: Do you use data for teacher evaluation?
Dana Carlson (Rock Valley): They look at the class data (attendance, gains, etc.), but sometimes it doesn’t match her impressions of the teachers. A teacher she thinks is great in the classroom can have poor data, or vice versa.
Marcia Luptak (Elgin): Some levels are easier to get level gains on, so level gains shouldn’t be the only way to evaluate teachers. It’s easier to get level gains in beginning classes and difficult to get gains in higher level classes.
Tricia Wagner (Kishwaukee): At the last staff meeting of the year, they give teachers their current year and past year data, just for their own information.
Jeanne Williams (Dist. 214): Teachers receive the outcome report for their classes, and the head instructor also conducts observations and evaluations. Following an observation, the lead instructor meets with the teacher and also provides a written summary of the observation. The teachers are also expected to observe experienced teachers and report on their observations.
New topic: Professional development for teachers
Sherry May (McHenry): They are going to be using a curriculum that aligns with CASAS test levels. They will be training their teachers on it for a pilot.
Robert Anzelde (Oakton): They also looked at their own curriculum carefully and aligned it with CASAS. It may be shared with other programs in the future.
Kathryn Powell (Harper): The CASAS website and test manual has a description of each test item.
She attended TESOL convention sessions on sustained PD over time. Study circles and other types of PD where teachers learn, then apply new knowledge in their classroom, then learn more, and continue the cycle of learning and applying, show greater change in teacher instructional behaviors. Harper holds brown bag lunches and teacher roundtable discussions to get teachers’ input on core text selection, computer literacy competencies for each level, critical thinking infused across levels. These forms of PD have helped to create a community among teachers.
Rock Valley and Oakton: It’s difficult to get commitment from teachers. More paperwork is required, better teaching is expected, and teachers may feel they’re not paid enough to meet the institution’s expectations.
Brenda Roland (Joliet): Their instructors are paid $45-50 per hour. There is a union for adjuncts. Teacher commitment isn’t a big problem.
Jeanne Williams (Dist. 214): Teacher commitment isn’t a problem. ESL teachers seem to love teaching and they stay because they enjoy it.
Julie Frost (Dist. 211): To find PD time when all the teachers could attend, she sent TAs and volunteerss into classrooms for 15 minutes before the standard 15 minute break. In that 30-minute time period, the teachers attended a PD meeting on how to make better use of their textbook series (Ventures), presented by the publisher. They also have a 2-3 hour meeting prior to the start of the semester for PD, too. For the next semester, she hopes to introduce a PD focus during that meeting, then continue working on the same PD topic for the shorter 30 min sessions once or twice per semester.