ESL Provider Group Discussion Notes

ESL Provider Group Discussion Notes

November 8, 2013

Adult Learning Resource Center

Note: These notes are meant to capture key topics and discussion points. An effort has been made to connect a person or program name with each point so that provider group participants may contact each other for more details. Please email Laurie Martin, , for participants’ contact information if needed.

Meeting attended by Rose Diaz (YWCA Elgin), Jennifer Eick-Magan (Prairie State College), Kate Szetela (College of DuPage), Mary Beth Selbo (College of Lake County), Cathy Swanson (Albany Park Community Center), Kathryn Powell and Paty Loyola (Harper College), Dana Carlson (Rock Valley College), Layni Myers (ORT Technical Institute), Debbie Lindley (The Literacy Council), Felicia King (YWCA Elgin), Nelson Aguiar (ICCB), Brigitte Oltmanns (Triton), Teresa Guia (Prairie State), Robert Anzelde (Oakton)

Recruitment

It is a requirement for students to note where they heard about the program on the intake form.

Recruitment can involve:

• Word of mouth
• School announcements
• Flyers given to students at the end of their present class
• Contact through a network of community people, e.g. principals in local high schools, church pastors
• Radio or TV spots

Kate (College of DuPage). The program puts up and distributes site specific flyers in places such as supermarkets in Spanish, English, and Polish.

Enrollment

There are still a variety of enrollment structures at various programs and sometimes different structures at different sites.

Kate (College of DuPage) There are 25 sites. Students register on site. They must be in their seats by the third day of class. When the sites are small, the classes are multi-level. The intensity of the classes has increased with full time enrollment encouraged. The seat count is increasing.

Felicia (YWCA, Elgin) This is an open-entry program.

Dana (Rock Valley) Rock Valley has closed registration. There are some programs with open-entry that are now trying various forms of closed registration.

Paty (Harper) For both location and types of students, some sites have more open-entry than others.

Dana (Rock Valley) A requirement that students commit to the class at the beginning adds credibility to the program. Our numbers support this.

Kathryn (Harper) Bonding happens at the beginning of the class. Having all students there at the beginning increases class cohesion.

Paty (Harper) Students like it when new students are not coming in all the time during the semester.

Felicia (YWCA, Elgin) Even though we are open entry, most students are there by the first few weeks.

Robert (Oakton) although we have open enrollment, we are thinking of really strictly monitoring who comes in the program.

Orientation

Dana (Rock Valley) We begin registration a month before classes start in order to have time to carry out an orientation and do STAR assessment.

Paty (Harper) Students have to take a test and go through an orientation. During that orientation we use a specific form. Students write in answers and then sign the form at the end. The questions include what supplies they need, how long it takes to learn English, and their ability to commit to regular attendance. We ask them if they have child care, work, or transportation complications. If a student decides they can’t commit to class right now, we don’t feel we’ve lost a student – we feel that we will have a more responsible one next time.

Robert (Oakton) We can influence students’ lives, but we cannot control their schedules. 90% of those students who leave, leave because of scheduling issues, especially child care. We make sure that students are ready to make that decision to come and stay in class. We have to have students who will stick it out, even though being restrictive about who enrolls affects our desire to serve everyone in the community.

We have an ATF (Assessment Task Force) of people who are experienced in curriculum. We are assessing the BEST Literacy and CASAS for skills taught. We emphasize a curriculum that applies these skills along with test prep, test taking strategies, and reading skills such as skimming and scanning. Our next step is to get materials that support these skills. This is a long term process which we hope to begin to have in place next semester.

Dana (Rock Valley) Orientation is three hours. Students can choose from any of three orientations. At the orientation, students select the site where they want to attend class.

Testing

Kathryn (Harper) We use our old CELSA tests as a resource so students can practice multiple choice.

Paty (Harper) Students struggle putting answers on an answer sheet instead of on the test. We’ve just adopted a new form of CASAS and we like it better for placement than the BEST Literacy. We put students in a lower level if they want a lower level so they don’t get frustrated and leave.

Jennifer (Prairie State College) We use CASAS for our pretest, but we don’t use it for placement. We use a placement test from the textbook, e.g. Standout. Then we have the student give a writing sample. We do look at CASAS for any “red flag” issues. Finally, we look at progress reports from a previous teacher and notes on homework, attendance, and recommendations as to placement. We also look at students’ prior level of education. If they’ve had a number of years of schooling, we might put them in a class that would challenge them more. During the first week, teachers conduct informal assessments.

Paty (Harper) Some students don’t want to move from one level to another. “I don’t want to move because I don’t understand everything.”

Robert (Oakton) Students test out of ESL if we use CASAS, however, we’ve never had a student test out with the BEST PLUS.

Absences

Rosa (YWCA, Elgin) If a student drops out of a class they can’t come back for a year unless they have had a discussion with staff and given a good reason. They have to post test in the summer or they can’t come back in the fall. We let students know that their attendance affects the dollars we get.

Dana (Rock Valley) It is the same with us, one year.

Robert (Oakton) We don’t let students in a class when there are not at least 48 hours left so that they can have enough hours to post test.

Paty (Harper) Many of our students work part time. They don’t know if they are going in to work until they are called in the morning. This makes it difficult for them to attend class regularly.

Kathryn (Harper) I have them call me (their teacher) if they are going to be absent.

Rosa (YWCA, Elgin) After 3 consecutive absences, the transition specialist calls them up.

Paty (Harper) It is better for the teacher to call them. When they call the office, they are speaking to a stranger.

Nelson (ICCB ) There should be a back up person, if the first person is not there when they call.

Mary Beth (College of Lake County) Teachers should call. If students miss a class or two, they are afraid to come back.

Kathryn (Harper) It is good to send them a postcard if they miss.

Cathy (APCC) We had an attendance competition between classes with a party as a prize.

Rosa (YWCA, Elgin) We have surprise raffles…you have to be here to get a ticket. The prizes are bags, folders, T-shirts from the college or a $5.00 subway card.

Robert (Oakton) we about a 1000 old textbooks that we can give as prizes.

Nelson (ICCB) Sometimes it is good to keep the old textbooks in classrooms. They can another way to explain something that students may not understand from their new textbooks.

Misc

Some programs have eliminated classes that cannot be used to improve test scores such as Conversation classes, Writing classes, even Saturday classes.

Transition

Robert (Oakton) at Triton, 9 years ago, we did a study. 5% of our students want to attend college, but only 1% could afford to go.

Rosa (YWCA, Elgin) Transition is also jobs but we have to be careful about who is legal and who is illegal.

Jennifer (Prairie State) We need the college to track more carefully which students enter college from adult education programs. Our college has not academic ESL.

Kate (College of DuPage) We have transition counselors, a scholarship fund, and academic ESL. More ABE/GED students try to attend college full time than ESL students.

Five out of fifteen people reported that they had special transition specialists.

Books

Dana (Rock Valley) At orientation, students pay for books if they wish and then bring a voucher to class and get their book. Refugees get books free.

Robert (Oakton) We don’t require purchase of a book, but we remind students that if they buy a book, they can write in it.

Jennifer (Prairie State) We alternate books every year so that if students repeat a class, they don’t get bored.

Support

Kathryn (Harper) We have one support person per 1000 students.

Paty (Harper) We have a student bilingual advisor.

Jennifer (Prairie State) We have a caseworker.

Rosa (YWCA, Elgin) We have a student service specialist for ESL and one for ABE/GED. We try to go to specialized workshops, e.g. immigration workshops; so we know what they are facing. We also bring in speakers for students to hear on issues that involve many of them.

Debbie (Literacy Council) We make referrals and sometimes send students to our one-on-one tutoring.

Felicia (YWCA, Elgin) Because of liability issues, even when our teachers want to give advice, they should refer.

Cathy (APCC) Volunteers are helpful

The biggest social issues for all were domestic violence, child care, and health problems. Money issues, especially those who were scammed buying a car or other big ticket items, are also a problem.

Cathy (APCC) Students sometimes need separation letters from public schools. We will walk them over to get one.

Kate (College of DuPage) We have a tutoring program for those with special learning needs.

Info from ICCB

(Nelson) ICCB is focusing on lesson planning, technology use, and special documents for teacher evaluation, especially for those evaluators who are not familiar with ESL.

ICCB is also working on sample classroom activities for Civics at low, intermediate, and advanced levels. Students must cover 2 competencies every 15 hours of attendance and must be tracked.