ACLS April 2017 Monthly Mailing

Massachusetts Department of

Elementary and Secondary Education

75 Pleasant Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148-4906Telephone: (781) 338-3000

TTY: N.E.T. Relay 1-800-439-2370

Adult and Community Learning Services

TO: ABE Directors, SABES Coordinators, WIA Administrators, Career Centers, LWIB,

Teacher/All Staff

FROM: Jolanta Conway, ABE State Director

DATE: April 14, 2017

RE: What's in this Mailing?

The monthly mailing for Aprilwill be posted to our website shortly. Please review the information and share with your staff.

Reminders:

ABE Directors’ Meeting – “Connecting for Student Success”

Tuesday, May 23, 2017 8AM to 5PM

Devens Common Center and Hilton Garden Inn – See March 2017 Monthly Mailing

Online Digital Literacy Tool – Pilot for Multilevel Reading Materials

ACLS is looking for ABE/ESOL teachers who are interested in participating in a FREE four (4) to six (6) month pilot of an online multilevel reading resource. The pilot is anticipated to begin shortly. – See March 2017 Monthly mailing

ABE Licensure Guidelines – Revised

Policy Memorandum 17.01 dated November 9, 2016 announced the changes to the process of obtaining a Professional Adult Basic Education (ABE) Teacher License going into effect on July 1, 2017. The new guidelines will be posted to the licensure website by the end of April 2017.

Assessment – MAPT Update

Changes to the Test Specifications for FY2018 – Beginning on July 1, 2017, the content specifications for the MAPT for Reading and the MAPT for Math will transition to reflect the content off the college and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRSAE).

Curriculum Updates

-Beyond the Conference: Next Steps for Using the CCRSAE I ABE and ESOL Classrooms

-Free COABE Journal Highlights the Expertise of the SABES PD Center for Mathematics and Adult Numeracy

-April is National Poetry Month

-USCIS Adult Citizenship Content Standards

Network 2017 Conference

The Network 2017 Conference, sponsored by the Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Basic Education (MCAE), will take place on Friday, May 12, 2017 at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough, MA. The conference provides attendees with opportunities to network with colleagues, learn from experts in more than 50 workshop sessions, honor award winners, meet with exhibitors, and celebrate the field of ABE. Note that the Registration Deadline is May 1, 2017. For more information, see

Site Visit/Monitoring Open Comment Survey Reminder

The open comment survey for the site visit and monitoring process is now available and can be accessed to this link: . Please note that the link to the 13 WIOA considerations referenced in the survey may not work with Internet Explorer; if you have difficulties, please use Chrome or Firefox.

ACLS is interested in your feedback on this new process and is encouraging ABE directors to share the survey with key staff. The survey will be open until May 15, 2017.

For any questions regarding the survey, please contact Dana Varzan-Parker, Program and Assessment Specialist at .

SMARTT Update:

All updates can now be found on the new SMARTT Dashboard by following this link:http://www.doe.mass.edu/acls/smartt/dashboard/.You can also access the dashboard by clicking on “What’s New” from the SMARTT landing page. Be sure to visit the dashboard often to get the latest information on all things related to SMARTT.

The Change Agent:

A beautiful, full-color issue ofThe Change Agentis available for free online to state-funded programs in New England. This issue -- "When We Fight, We Win!" -- includes inspiring and engaging, student-written pieces about engaging in struggle.

ABE Licensure Guidelines – Revised

These changes include:

New explanatory statements to which licensure candidates write brief narratives describing the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to demonstrate proficiency in the professional standards. For some standards, there are now two sets of explanatory statements; one for ABE candidates, the other for ESOL candidates.
Coursework may be used as evidentiary documentation to further support the knowledge the candidate possesses relevant to the standard; however, it cannot be the sole method of demonstrating proficiency in the professional standards.All candidates must respond to the explanatory statements.
With the exception of candidates currently teaching in a correctional facility, all teaching demonstrations must be submitted on DVDs along with the portfolio. The option to conduct the teaching demonstration with the Licensure Review Panel is still available.
Candidates need to submit lesson plans using the standardized template provided in the guidelines.
Candidatesfor the professional license who are already working with the current explanatory statements must submit a completed portfoliothat includes all eight of the current standards to ACLS no later than 6/30/17.

Assessment Update

MAPT Update: Changes to the Test Specifications for FY2018

Beginning on July 1, 2017, the content specifications for the MAPT for Reading and the MAPT for Math will transition to reflect the content of the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRSAE). For the past several years, staff from the Center for Educational Assessment at UMass Amherst have been developing and evaluating test items to measure the standards in the CCRSAE to ensure that the MAPT Reading and Math are measuring the curriculum in use in ABE classrooms in Massachusetts.

The appearance, navigation, structure, and EFL cutscores of the MAPT will not change for your students. What will be different from July 1, 2017 forward is the underlying representation of the various content domains (in Reading, the CCRSAE anchors; in Math, the content domain groups). Content specifications guide test development and assembly by defining how many items on the test come from different content areas, and these new MAPT specifications were developed by committees of ABE educators with extensive knowledge of the CCRSAE.

To review the new test specifications for the MAPT for Reading: http://www.umass.edu/remp/pdf/CCRSAE-ReadingSpecs.pdf

To review the new test specifications for the MAPT for Math: http://www.umass.edu/remp/pdf/CCRSAE-MathSpecs.pdf

If you have questions about this change to the MAPT test specifications, please contact April Zenisky at UMass Amherst () or Dana Varzan-Parker at ACLS ().

Curriculum Update

Beyond the Conference: Next Steps for Using the CCRSAE in ABE and ESOL Classrooms

We’ve come a long way since 2013 when ACLS began a long-range plan to support all programs in fully integrating the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRSAE) into curriculum and instruction. Over the last four years we saw impressive results:

-4 CCRSAE curriculum conferences featuring national ESOL, ELA, and Math experts

-90% of ESE-funded programs attended each year

-1,500 Massachusetts teachers, advisors, and directors unpacking the CCRSAE

-10,000+ hours spent learning to develop curriculum aligned to the CCRSAE

Annual conferences helped practitioners begin building their capacity to implement the CCRSAE. Now, having met our initial goal of unpacking the CCRSAE and beginning to integrate them into curriculum and instruction, Massachusetts is ready for its next step towards full CCRSAE implementation. Full CCRSAE integration is essential to programs’ ability to help students complete EFLs, achieve their high school equivalency credentials, and transition to postsecondary education and training.Beginning in FY18, ACLS and SABESwill discontinue offering an annual CCRSAE conference. In its place, we will putgreater emphasis on a more customized approach to PD that is responsive to programs’ individual strengths and needs including program-based PD. To continue this evolution,ACLS encourages all programs to:

-Reach out to the appropriate SABES PD center director(s) to explore how SABES can help meet the specific PD needs of your staff and program.

-Visit the SABES calendar to locate PD that addresses your program’s staff needs and goals. While there, visit the SABES PD Center web pages regularly for updates and newly posted research and other resources.

-Ensure that all staff have viewed the CCRSAE online tutorials for the content areas they teach as they are a helpful starting point before participating in PD:

Math:
ELA:
ESOL:

-Encourage all staff who haven’t yet done so to create a SABES account so they can get notifications when new resources and PD activities related to their personal areas of interest are posted.

An effort of the magnitude of four consecutive annual curriculum conferences doesn’t come without a lot of hard work done by a lot of individuals. ACLS wishes to recognize and thank SABES for the expertise and excellence it demonstrated in the development and implementation of the four exceptional conferences. ACLS looks forward to our continued partnership with SABES -- and programs -- in order to make the very best possible learning opportunities available for every adult learner.

Free COABE Journal Highlights the Expertise of the SABES PD Center for Mathematics and Adult Numeracy

COABE’s Journal of Research and Practice for Adult Literacy, Secondary, and Basic Education enables the adult education field to share research and best practices with the goal of improving the quality of services for ABE, literacy, and numeracy learners.

Each issue of the Journal contains thought-provoking research articles on topics such as distance learning and technology, ESL, instructional strategies, and program improvement. The Journal also contains articles that focus on practice, such as:

Practitioner Perspective: articles that share practical experiences/strategies
Web Scan: online resources useful to practitioners
Research Digest: brief overviews of recent research that affects the field
Resource Reviews: electronic and print products of use to practitioners
Viewpoint: leaders in the field discuss trends and key happenings impacting ABE

COABE has provided free accessto its current Journal, and best of all, it highlights the work of Massachusetts mathematics experts! Donna Curry is a nationally recognized educator, curriculum developer, and PD specialist, and currently is the director of the SABES PD Center for Mathematics and Adult Numeracy at TERC. Melissa Braaten is an ABE educator at Saint Mary’s Center for Women and Children and a consultant for the SABES PD Center for Mathematics and Adult Numeracy. Well done!

Read the excellent articles in the Forum Section on The Challenges of Adult Numeracy:

What’s an Adult Numeracy teacher to Teach? Negotiating the Complexity of Adult Numeracy and Instruction, by Lynda Ginsburg

Where to Focus so Students Become College and Career Ready, by Donna Curry

Time Well Spent: Making Choices and Setting Priorities, by Melissa Braaten

Aprilis National Poetry Month!

in time of daffodils (who know

the goal of living is to grow)

forgetting why, remember how

in time of lilacs who proclaim

the aim of waking is to dream,

remember so (forgetting seem)

in time of roses (who amaze

our now and here with paradise)

forgetting if, remember yes

in time of all sweet things beyond

whatever mind may comprehend,

remember seek (forgetting find)

and in a mystery to be

when time from time shall set us free)

forgetting me, remember me.

e.e. cummings

Inspire a love of poetry and improve your students' reading comprehension withReadWorks collection of poems at different levels. Below are selected poems that would be interesting or appropriate for adults.

GLE 2: Afternoon on a Hill, Edna St. Vincent Millay
GLE 5-6: The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus and Beclouded, by Emily Dickinson
GLE 7-8: Hope is the Thing with Feathers, by Emily Dickinson, If, by Rudyard Kipling, and Paul Revere’s Ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
GLE 9-12: Loveliest of Trees, by A.E. Houseman, The Bloody Massacre and The Bloody Massacre in King Street, March 5, 1770, by Paul Revere

Each poem comes with a list of vocabulary and definitions, a text-basedquestion set that checks recall, text structure, main idea and inference, and connection to the Common Core Standards (a verbatim subset of the CCRSAE).

USCIS Adult Citizenship Content Standards

This past October, LINCS hosted a discussion with staff from the US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) on topics covered in its handbook, Guide to the Adult Citizenship Education Content Standards and Foundation Skills, a framework for developing a comprehensive curriculum to help English language learners looking to prepare for the naturalization interview and test.Though not intended to replace the ESOL Curriculum Framework standards and benchmarks nor the CCRSAE, this document could be used as a helpful resource:

Use as a checklist to ensure that they are teaching the content that adult citizenship students need to successfully navigate the naturalization process
Use the standards to create thematic lessons by combining related or complementary progress standards. At the most comprehensive level, the standards serve as a content inventory from which a citizenship curriculum with course outlines, syllabi, lesson plans, and activities could be developed.

Questions, Comments, or Suggestions?

Please contact Jane Schwerdtfeger at .

The Change Agent

A beautiful, full-color issue ofThe Change Agentis available for free online to state-funded programs in New England. If you don't already have your username and PW, please go to fill out the form, and hit "send." You will immediately see a pop-up window with your username and password. We appreciate people filling out the form as it helps us know how many people are taking advantage of the bulk online subscription we bought for state-funded programs. Consider also getting a paper subscription. They are relatively inexpensive, and it is a great literacy-builder when a student can hold the magazine in his or her hands and peruse it. A bulk set (25 copies) costs $85 per year. Find out morehere.

This issue -- "When We Fight, We Win!" -- includes inspiring and engaging, student-written pieces about engaging in struggle. Not everyone wins the exact goal that they set for themselves, but everyone finds their voice, gains allies, develops strengths, and learns useful skills. Students will love the beautiful art in this issue and the accessible, multi-level articles. Teachers will love the CCR-aligned teaching tools. There are alsomany articles available in audio, which are also sort-able by level. Simply share the username and PW with your students, and they can listen anytime, while they follow along with the text.

Learn more about how to use this issue by listening to a recording of the webinar -- available on the top page ofThe Change Agentwebsite: The first portion of the webinar covers the academic and skill-building benefits of using "text sets." The second part includes a teacher and student from a literacy program in Atlanta who discuss using the Call for Articles in the classroom. This is very informative and humorous "real-talk," as they share what it is actually like to coach students to submit articles and to be the student trying to submit the article. No one ever said writing is easy! These guest speakers tell it like it is and manage to be extremely encouraging at the same time -- reminding all of us of the community-building and self-esteem-building aspects of telling your story! The final part of the webinar offers some ideas about how to bring LGBTQ topics up in the classroom.

Want to give your students an authentic audience to write for? Try sharing thecurrent Call for Articleswith them. The theme is Career Pathways, and the deadline is May 4, 2017,

Questions? Contact the editor, Cynthia Peters,