Handout # 12: ASSESSMENT - Measuring the Skills and Needs of the Targeted Workforce

Description - Objectives - Cost - Availability	Medium - Measures	Special Features and/or Strengths	Limitations - Comments - Concerns
3. AMES: Adult Measure of Essential Skills. Developed for Steck Vaughn by the Riverside Publishing Company, publisher of the IOWA Tests of Basic Skills. 1-800-531-5015. http://www.steck-vaughn.com. Cost: varies according to volume. Promoted as an adult-friendly assessment that measures skills with items tied directly to workplace, community, and home experiences.	Can be scored by hand or scanner. Provides norm-referenced interpretations. Can provide information for developing individual education plans, evaluating learner progress, placing learners, establishing links to curricula, addressing accountability issues.	* Includes a pre-reading section, locator, administrator's manuals, assessment booklets, and answer sheets. Level A is designed for use with adults with little schooling as well as those with limited English proficiency; can be used with non-readers. Majority of test items use illustrations and are dictated to examinees at this level, with a focus on pre-reading and applied problem-solving. Developed in response to SCANS and the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). Also offered: scoring and reporting software. Administrator's Reference Manual links assessment results to specific instructional strategies and reviews current learning theory supporting the strategies.	* AMES Administrator's Reference Manual links assessment to appropriate instructional materials, but only to those published by Steck Vaughn or one of its affiliates. Not workforce-specific in design.

Description - Objectives - Cost - Availability	Medium - Measures	Special Features and/or Strengths	Limitations - Comments - Concerns
4. CASAS Employability Competency System (ECS) and Workforce Learning Systems (WLS). Clairmont, California. 1-800-255-1036. http://www.casas.org. Cost contingent upon volume. Part of the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System, ECS and WLS provide assessments linked to employment competencies and relevant competency-based curriculum materials. The ESL Appraisal offers preliminary assessments, including an oral interview as well as listening, reading, math, and writing exercises, to establish starting points for instruction.	Learners are rated on a multi-level scale of descriptors, outlining levels of competency and skill. Limited English proficient learners take the ESL Appraisal. Appraisal results (like locator or survey results) provide base line data for further assessment. Multiple forms for multiple levels of assessment. All purpose answer sheets can be hand scored; scan score sheets also available.	* Comprehensive system of assessment. WLS helps education and training providers identify specific basic skills required for jobs and design programs responsive to learners' needs. Workplace appraisal matches skill levels of learners with skills required for job. Offers occupation specific testing in four areas: auto mechanic, clerical, food service, health occupations. Pre-employment - work maturity checklists can be used to assess learners' job-seeking skills and on-the-job behavior. Can be coupled with CASAS Workplace Analysis Process used to identify basic skills and skill levels needed by employees to perform specific worksite tasks. Spanish language assessment (reading comprehension) can be used as one of several activities to measure Spanish literacy and employability. Occupation Specific Spanish test in reading comprehension for auto mechanics; can also help determine readiness for vocational training conducted in Spanish. Data analysis system can generate reports with TOPSpro software. CASAS maintains a curriculum materials database to locate appropriate instructional materials for specific education and training programs (in printed form or software). Provides extensive training for use of all instruments.	* Initial costs for various assessment systems is significant. Training is extensive and required; CASAS offers a dozen different training workshops plus a national summer institute to address each user's needs. Its comprehensive nature requires designated staff to administer, score and interpret, relate to instruction, support instructors, and maintain management and reporting system.

Description - Objectives - Cost - Availability	Medium - Measures	Special Features and/or Strengths		Limitations - Comments - Concerns
5. TABE (Test of Adult Basic Education). McGraw Hill Contemporary, New York, N.Y. 1-800-624-7294. http://www.mhhe.com Mandated for use in all state and federally funded adult education programs in Texas. TABE WF is intended to assess employability skills with both general and specific references to SCANS competencies.	Locator determines which level of TABE test is appropriate for learners. Multiple levels and multiple forms. TABE en Espanol also available; used by some providers with limited English proficient learners.	* Multiple forms, multiple levels. TABE WF specifically designed to assess employability skills. Includes a literacy level. Spanish version could be a useful resource to assess Spanish-speaking learners' native literacy.		* The TABE (Test of Adult Basic Skills) is not appropriate for assessing limited English proficient adult learners. Adult English language learners at the beginning levels would not be able to respond to items on the locator test. The literacy readiness test, while it may be useful for testing adults with little or no previous alphabetic literacy experience, can do little more than that, since there are too few test items at the lower range of language development. For more advanced levels of ESL, the TABE may be useful to pick up where the BEST literacy section or CASAS leaves off.
6. Text-based Assessments. Many instructional series are accompanied by text-based assessments to place learners at appropriate levels and/or measure progress. Sold as separate packages or included in teacher guides and reproducible examples: Steck Vaughn English ASAP series 1-800-531-5015, http://www.steck-vaughn.com ; and New Readers Press Life Prints series 1-800-448-8878, http://www.newreaderspress.com Costs vary but usually quite reasonable.	Assessments are closely linked with instructional materials.	* Effective way to measure learner's mastery of material covered in instruction. Are often competency-based and allow for work-related adaptation. Good means of demonstrating progress within series of instruction to both learner and funding sources.		* Not intended as a means of assessing learners' workforce-related skills and education/training needs. Validity is limited to use with a particular instructional text or software package. While good for inclusion in student portfolios, must be preceded by other means of determining learners' proficiencies and needs.

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