CHAPTER 4 AND CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 4 : Professional Development and Teacher 

Hello everyone! see me again in my blog. Like usually, here i will share some review from chapter 4 and chapter 5. I hope you guys can enjoyed it. Happy reading people!

The need for qualified personnel to work with adult English language learners has risen rapidly in recent years due to the ever-increasing demand for classes. in addition, changing immigration patterns and demographics have had an impact on teachers and on their professional development needs. New teachers are entering the field, experienced teachers are being asked to take on greater challenges, and many adult basic education teachers are working with English language learners in classes along with native English speakers. much of this is occurring in areas where the adult ESL education infrastructure is limited or nonexistent. Professional development is crucial for these teachers.

Studies of professional development in adult education shed light on the factors to consider in designing and delivering professional development to teachers of adult English language learners. They identify the need to do the following:

• Examine data to see what kinds of teachers are needed and what those

teachers need.

• Design professional development that is coherent and reflects what we know about how adults learn. include opportunities for the application of new ideas in instruction, collaboration among practitioners, and feedback.

• Ensure that teachers have access to professional development opportunities.

• Encourage the participation of teachers who work together and promote reflective practice and the formation of professional communities.

• increase the time and duration of professional development.

• Provide a system for professional development.

• Use technology to offer professional development that optimizes financial resources, reaches scattered teachers and programs, and promotes collaboration and community.

• Encourage teachers to bring theory, second language acquisition and reading research, and practice together through practitioner research or joint projects between teachers and researchers.

• Implement systems for teacher credentialing and certification based on the skills and knowledge that teachers working with adult English language learners need to demonstrate.

• Deliver professional development that meets national guidelines for quality and is consistent with other national efforts.

CHAPTER 5 : Assessment Accountability 

Learner assessment is a priority in adult education. Programs use a variety of assessment tools to place learners in classes, inform instruction, evaluate learner progress, and report outcomes of instruction. These tools include standardized tests, materials-based and teacher-made tests, portfolios, projects, and demonstrations. Needs assessment and goal-setting activities also play an important role in determining the areas on which teachers and classes need to focus. The workforce investment Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–220), which funds adult ESL instruction through the U.S. Department of Education, requires states to evaluate each local program’s performance according to outcome measures established under the National Reporting System (NRS), which include educational level advancement and subsequent goal achievement. States have the flexibility to choose which assessments and procedures they will use to measure these outcomes as long as the assessments are standardized and conform to accepted psychometric standards for validity and reliability.

Assessments currently approved for use for NRS reporting include BEST (Basic English Skills Test) Literacy, BEST Plus, CASAS (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems), CELSA (Combined English Language Skills Assessment), Compass ESL, REEP (Arlington Education and Employment Program) Writing Assessment, and TABE CLAS-E (TABE Complete Language Assessment System English).

The adult ESL field faces a number of challenges in the selection, use, and development of assessments for accountability reporting:

 1. Staffing issues, such as inexperienced instructors and volunteers, high teacher turnover rates, part-time and temporary employment, and limited professional development, may affect practitioners’ knowledge of assessment, its purposes, and its alignment with instruction.

 2. Program administrators may not know how to use assessment data to make decisions about instruction, program, and professional development needs.

 3. Students may attend class sporadically, making it difficult for teachers to align instruction and assessment and to show educational gain for accountability purposes.

 4. Tests used may not align with the goals and content of instruction, or they may not document incremental changes in learning that occur over short periods of instructional time.

Recommendations for the development and use of adult ESL assessments indicate that assessments must :

 Meet standard psychometric requirements related to appropriateness, reliability, validity, standardization, bias review, and test development procedures

 Have a clear purpose and a defined construct and be able to reliably show learner gains over specific periods of time

 Evaluate language proficiency through learner performance

 Be useful for all stakeholders involved in teaching and learning through timely, clear, and accessible scoring, interpretation, and reporting of results include documentation that supports the recommended number and intensity of instructional hours necessary to show learner progress

 Be cost effective and incorporate an understanding of ESL program limitations in terms of funding, personnel, time, materials, logistics, and support

 Be carried out within the context of a comprehensive program evaluation plan

 Include uses of technology as appropriate

 Be informed by a variety of perspectives, including new research on language learning processes, psychometrics, educational measurement, and curricular frameworks and instructional content areas

Maybe just enough from me. Thank for your attention and for reading guys! see you next week!