State Assessment and
Goal Setting/Attainment Policy for Adult Education

Effective Date – July 1, 2011
Revised April 1, 2011

Appendix A
Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

ABE – Adult Basic Education

ACES –Adult and Continuing Education System is the Texas management information system designed according to NRS guidelines and is a historical data base in Texas. (effective July 1, 1998-June 30, 2005)

Alternate Test Forms – any two comparable forms of the same test, e.g., Form B and Form C of the BEST Literacy or the Form 9 and Form 10 of the TABE .

ASE – Adult Secondary Education

Baseline – The placement of a student each new program year into an Educational Functioning Level (EFL).

BEST Plus – Basic English Skills Test Plus – measures oral proficiency of English language learners

BEST Literacy – Basic English Skills Test Literacy version – measures literacy or reading/writing skills of learner.

CAL – Center for Applied Linguistics

Contact Hour – (NRS definition) Contact hour are the hours of instruction or instructional activity the learner receives from the program. Instructional activity includes any program-sponsored activity designed to promote student learning in the program curriculum such as classroom instruction, assessment, tutoring or participation in a learning lab. 
(State Board of Education Rule definition)  A contact hour is the cumulative sum of minutes during which an eligible adult student receives instructional, counseling, and/or assessment services by a staff member supported by federal and state adult education funds as documented by local attendance and reporting records.

Core Outcome Measure – Measures that are required and include outcome, descriptive measures, and participation measures that reflect the core indicator requirements of the Workforce Investment Act. States must report the required measures on students who receive 12 hours or more of service . The Department of Education will use these measures to judge program performance, including eligibility for incentive grants. There are 5 core outcome measures : (1) Educational Functioning Level Gains, (2) Entered Employment, (3) Retained Employment, (4) Receipt of a Secondary School Diploma or GED, (5) Placement in Postsecondary Education or Training. Note: Numbers 2-4 above are required measures for students with the stated goals and exit the program.

Domain Code – The abbreviation for the subject area of an assessment (e.g., RD, the abbreviation for Reading)

Domain – A subject area tested by an assessment. Examples: TABE Reading, TABE Language, TABE Mathematics, BEST Literacy (reading/writing), BEST Plus (oral) TABE CLAS-E Reading, TABE CLAS-E Writing, TABE CLAS-E Listening, TABE CLAS-E Speaking, GAIN English and GAIN Mathematics.

Domain of Significance (DOS) – The domain (subject area) within which a participant has the most room for improvement (lowest placement) according to the assessments administered within the month or the year before the participant’s first instructional contact hours. The DOS is the domain or sub-test area in which the student is placed and reported on the federal report (i.e., NRS Tables) and the post-assessment in the DOS determines if the student completes the Educational Functioning Level. Tests administered in a particular instrument (e.g., TABE or BEST Plus ) are compared to determine the DOS. The tests used for comparison must be administered within 30 days of each other, and one of the sub-tests in the instrument must be administered before the first contact hour.  Within the 30/14 day rule, a test administered within 14 days after the first contact hour (day) will also be included in the comparison if the 14 days are within the 30 day rule. These are examples of possible scenarios and are used as explanation only and are not intended to direct programs to particular testing dates.

Examples:
(1) TABE 9 Math M is administered on August 3, TABE 9 Reading M is administered on August 14, and TABE Language M is administered on August 20. The first contact hour was recorded on August 17.  According to the 30/14 day rule, all three sub-tests will be compared to determine the DOS.  All sub-tests are within 30 days of the Reading Test which was the test closest to the first contact hour and before the first contact hour. The Math test was within the 30 days of the Reading sub-test. The Language sub-test was within 30 days of the Reading and Math sub-tests and within the 14 days after the first contact hour.

(2) TABE 9 Math M is administered on July16, TABE 9 Reading M is administered on August 14, and TABE Language M is administered on August 20. The first contact hour was recorded on August 3.  According to the 30/14 day rule, only two sub-tests Reading and Math) will be compared to determine the DOS.  The Math sub-test is within 30 days of the Reading Test which was the test closest to the first contact hour and before the first contact hour. The Math test was within the 30 days of the Reading sub-test. The Language sub-test was not within 30 days of the Reading and Math sub-tests.

(3) TABE 9 Math M is administered on July 1, TABE 9 Reading M is administered on August 14, and TABE Language M is administered on August 20. The first contact hour was recorded on August 17.  According to the 30/14 day rule, two sub-tests (Reading and Language) will be compared to determine the DOS. Math sub-test was not used for the comparison since it was administered outside the 30 days of the Reading sub-test which was before and closest to the 1st contact hour (day). The Language sub-test was used in the comparison since it was within 30 days of the Reading sub-test.   

(4) TABE 9 Math M is administered on July 1, TABE 9 Reading M is administered on July14, and TABE Language M is administered on August 20. The first contact hour was recorded on August 17.  According to the 30/14 day rule, two sub-tests (Reading and Math) will be compared to determine the DOS. Math sub-test was used for the comparison since it was administered within the 30 days of the Reading sub-test which was before and closest to the 1st contact hour (day). The Language sub-test was not used in the comparison since it was not within 30 days of the Reading sub-test.  

Domain Level – The level of a sub-test at which the participant was assessed.

Domain Name – The name of the subject area of assessment (e.g., reading, math, language, literacy, oral)

Domain Score – The scale score given to a participant in a specific domain (subject area) based on assessment instruments.

ELL – English Language Learner.

Educational Functioning Level (EFL) - Describes a set of skills and competencies that students entering at that level can do in the areas of reading, writing, numeracy, speaking, listening, and functional and workplace areas.  Four levels for adult basic education (ABE), two for adult secondary education (ASE), and six levels of English as a Second Language (ESL).  The National Reporting System EFL Descriptors are located in Appendix B.

Educational Gain – (Core Outcome Measure): Every student registered in the adult education program has a goal to complete the level in which he/she is placed.  The measure of student literacy gains is a result of instruction.  Learner completes or advances one or more educational functioning levels from starting level measured at entry into the program. The Appendices contains tables and descriptions that provide entry-level descriptors for the educational functioning levels.

ESL – English as a Second Language.

Exceptions – Post testing exceptions should be rare and limited.  Post-testing will occur after completion of at least the minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines.   The only exception approved by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education is for students in the Adult Secondary Education (ASE) levels post tested with the TABE .  The following must be in place when administering a post test before the approved instructional period of at least the minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines.

1. Exception and associated documentation is pre-approved by a supervisor;
2. The student must be assessed and enrolled in Low ASE or High ASE;
3. The student’s short term goal in TEAMS is either to Obtain Employment, Retain Employment, Obtain a GED, or Transition to Post Secondary Education; and
4. The student has 30 to 59 hours of instruction.

There are no exceptions for testing Adult Basic Education or English Second Language students before the student receives at least the minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines.  Annually, the program will determine the percentage of students tested before receiving the required minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines. If the percentage of ABE and ESL students who are tested with the TABE and/or BEST Plus before they receive the minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines is above the previous year’s percentage of total tested in those levels with the TABE and BEST Plus tests administered, the program will be required to begin a program improvement plan to decrease the number and percentage of students tested prematurely.

The state’s goal is to keep the percentage of exceptions for all assessments to 20% or less. Each program will negotiate a target rate annually with their Grant Services Manager to determine the program’s target percentage.  At the end of the program year, programs with an increased percentage of students prematurely tested over the previous year’s baseline target (or more than 20%) will be required to begin a program improvement plan.  (Please note that programs on program improvement plans during a fiscal year prior to a grant competition will not be eligible for priority points during the competition.)

Exceptions must have supporting documentation that describes the reason or reasons for the exception and back-up evidence or data proving the need for the exception.  Data must prove a student is making learning gains (moving from EFL placement level to a higher level) in fewer than the minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines or before the end of the instructional session.  Example: Student enters the program with a DOS of Intermediate ABE Low and the student demonstrates completion of benchmark in the Content Standards for the Intermediate ABE Low level. The teacher has documentation of the learning gains through student completed worksheets.  The teacher documentation allows the program to assess the student before the minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines. The documentation must be kept on file for review upon request.

Documentation for exceptions must be available for review during technical assistance visits, monitoring visits, and program audits.

Exiter – As per federal guidelines, an exiter is an enrolled participant who has not participated in adult education for 90 days and with no indication of intent to return the following program year.  Additionally, if the learner leaves during the last 90 days of the program and gives reason for not returning, the learner is included as an exiter in the exit cohort. 

Functional – The functional level descriptors describe what an entering learner “can do” in the areas of reading, writing, numeracy, speaking, listening and/or functional or workplace skills.

Functioning Levels – The NRS approach towards measuring educational gain is to define a set of educational functioning levels in which students are initially placed, based on their ability to perform literacy-related tasks in specific content areas.

GREAT Centers – GREAT: Getting Results Educating Adults in Texas Centers are regional professional development and teacher training projects. Texas has 8 regions and 8 GREAT Centers, one center for each region.

GSM – Grant Services Manager – A GSM is a person in the State Office – Texas LEARNS - who is designated to provide technical assistance to adult education state and federally funded programs.

Instructional session – A semester of time determined and published by the program and approved in the eGrant application delineating the beginning and ending of a semester with predetermined objectives and outcomes being met. The semester must allow enough time for movement of students from one level to the next level as described in the National Reporting System (NRS) ESL, ABE, and ASE Functioning Level Descriptors.

Long Term Goal – Goal generally attainable outside the program or calendar year. Long term goals are not reported or matched for federal reports.

National Reporting System (NRS) – NRS is a project to develop an accountability system for the federally funded adult education program. This system includes a set of student measures to allow assessment of the impact of adult education instruction, methodologies for collecting the measures, reporting forms and procedures, and training and technical assistance activities to assist states in collecting the measures. The goal of the NRS is to produce a set of measures that describe adult education students and the outcomes they achieve due to their participation.

Official GED Practice Test – Reliable, authentic score prediction, from the exclusive distributor of the Official GED Practice Tests . This test was developed and normed side-by-side with the GED Test.

Post-assessment – Progress or subsequent test administered after at least the minimum hours of instruction recommended in the publishers’ guidelines. 

Pre-assessment – Test administered to place a student into an educational functioning level generally before instruction takes place.

Primary or Main Goal – Goal which is listed as the foremost goal in the students profile.

Rolling Forward Scores – The practice of using previous program year’s post assessment scores for the new program year’s pre-assessment scores for particular or all students.

Secondary Goal – Optional measures of student outcomes and status that will not be used as a basis for assessing state or local performance under WIA. These measures are important to the identity of the program and the goals and purposes of adult education and include employment (reduction or elimination of student’s public assistance grant as a result of employment only ), community (citizenship, voting, community involvement) family (increased involvement in children’s literacy activities and in children’s education).

Semester – The instructional session determined and published by the program and approved in the eGrant application delineating the beginning and ending of an instructional session with predetermined objectives and outcomes being met. The instructional session or semester must allow enough time for movement of students from one level to the next level as described in the National Reporting System (NRS) ESL, ABE, and ASE Functioning Level Descriptors.

Short Term Goal – Goal attainable during the program or calendar year.  Obtaining a short term goal of a GED and Entering Postsecondary or other training is matched until the end of the calendar year (December 31) after the end of the Program Year. (Example: a person exiting the program in May 2007 with a short term goal to obtain a GED or enter post secondary education that obtains the GED in December 2007 will be matched [until December 31, 2007] and be recorded as reaching their short term goal.  That match will count in the federal and state report.) (National Reporting System Guidelines, 2006).

Skill Areas – Educational Functional Levels. 

SPL- Student Performance Levels – Basic English Skills Test levels and benchmarks as described in the BEST Administrator’s manual.

Student Goal Form – Locally designed form that captures short term, long term, main/primary and secondary.

Student Portfolio – Locally designed individual student record keeping at the local program level organized to allow analysis of student.  Data collected and maintained in the portfolio should be accurate for data entry to insure data integrity for state-required reports.  Goal Setting worksheets are maintained in the student portfolio.

TABE – Test of Adult Basic Education.

TABE Battery – Long form of TABE.

TABE Survey – Short form of the TABE.

TEAMS – Texas Educating Adults Management System (i.e., management information system for Texas adult education which became effective 2005-2006 program year.)

Teacher/Program Professional Judgment Examples – Teacher documentation of student progress.   If a program is monitored or receives a technical assistance visit, the local program must produce documentation that supports the teacher or program’s decision to test before the completion of the minimum hours of instruction recommended by the publisher.  Examples of this type of supporting documentation are (1) student portfolios (2) student journals (3) program data.  There may be other examples that could justify this exception.

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