Please read the following information and share it with instructors and other appropriate staff for implementation on October 1, 2006. 

Revised Assessment Policy

On October 1, 2006, a revised Assessment Policy will be in effect for all KYAE-funded providers.  These changes are required by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), U.S. Department of Education, which oversees federal funding for adult education. 

The significant revisions are:

• Pre-assessments must occur at orientation or within the first 12 hours of instruction.
• Providers must comply with test publishers’ recommended timeframes for post-testing as provided by OVAE: for TABE, which is the most commonly used assessment in Kentucky, the recommended timeframe is 60 hours of instruction before post-testing if different forms of the test are used; for BEST, 60 hours; for CASAS, 40 hours; for WorkKeys, a regular course of instruction.  Please see the “Details” section below for full policy language and OVAE requirements.
• Instructors may grant an exception to the post-testing timeframes based on professional judgment for individual students. KYAE has developed a “Post-Assessment Exception Form,” which must be completed by the instructor for each exception granted.  A link to the form is in the “Details” section below. 

KYAE has worked with OVAE over the past year to develop a strategy to fully comply with OVAE requirements while allowing instructors to make exceptions to post-testing timeframes.  KYAE believes strongly that instructors need the flexibility to administer post-assessments in the best interest of students.

It is critical that programs:

• Document all exceptions for students who post-test prior to the test publisher’s recommended timeframes as provided by OVAE; timeframes are spelled out in the revised Assessment Policy.  Original forms must be in the student folder; copies are to be kept by the program director.
• Collect and report all daily student contact and attendance hours to limit the number of exceptions.  NRS defines contact and attendance hours  as “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.  (Note:  Time spent on assessment can be counted only if the assessment is designed to inform placement decisions, assess progress or inform instruction.  Time used to take the GED test, for example, cannot be counted as instructional activity.)” 

Details

The following are links to important information on the revised Assessment Policy, which is effective October 1, 2006.  Please print this information and share it with instructors and other appropriate staff.

Revised Assessment Policy, p. 10-21 (257K PDF)

KYAE Post-Assessment Exception Form (30K PDF)

History of Changes (This document allows providers to compare the previous KYAE policy language with the new language.) (91K PDF)

Training

The revised Assessment Policy will be discussed in several upcoming workshops, including TABE training and Orientation to Program Leadership, and regional meetings later this year. 

Monitoring

During program visits, KYAE staff will review student folders for copies of the “Post-Assessment Exception Form” and will review the program director’s file for copies.

Background

As reported in the June and September 2005 issues of News to Use, OVAE representatives met with KYAE staff and visited two local programs in May 2005.   As a result of the visit, OVAE required KYAE to:

• Revise its Assessment Policy to include publisher recommendations for the time interval between pre- and post-testing (changes announced in this e-mail).
• Include an accommodated testing section in the Assessment Policy (effective July 1, 2006).
• Discontinue the use of the A-LAS assessment (effective July 1, 2006).
• Revise AERIN so that assessment scores automatically populate the NRS functional level and determine if an educational gain has been made (effective July 1, 2005). 
• Collect daily student contact hours (effective July 1, 2005). 

Questions

If you have questions, please contact Janet Hoover at Janet.Hoover@ky.gov or (502) 573-5114, ext. 109.