[AAACE-NLA]Closed enrollment

[Eileen Eckert]

One way I think professional development can assist in situations like the 
one Sandra describes is to reflect on the problem-structuring, 
option-generating, and problem-solving process. I'd ask whether teachers, 
programs, and administrators at all levels are agreed that the problem is a 
matter of choosing between open and closed (or managed) enrollment, or 
whether they're seeing it as how best to facilitate achievement of outcomes 
that matter to learners, or something else.

One way to look at it is to see the questions as: How can we accommodate 
anyone who wants to learn, and still develop learning communities and manage 
the logistics of testing, reporting, etc?

Given that problem structure, programs might have the option of having 
"enrollment windows" for regular classes (every 6 weeks? every 8 weeks? 
every 10 weeks?). Learners who come when the window is "closed" might be 
assigned to a learning-lab-type class where an instructor or tutor does some 
screening, orientation, and placement testing and provides oversight or 
guidance of a kind of "study hall" until they can join a regular class.

I don't mean to suggest that this is the "best" answer to the question of 
open or closed enrollment, just that there may be solutions that are not 
"either/or".

Eileen






From: Sandra Robinson <srobinson at doe.state.vt.us>
Reply-To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [AAACE-NLA]Closed enrollment
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:30:55 -0400


We've seen the research and are thinking about moving from open to closed
enrollment in our state.  Are there programs experienced with closed 
enrollment
and if so, would teachers or administrators share what they know with us?
What's positive and what's negative about the approach with respect to 
students
( retention, skill gains and a stable learning community) and with respect 
to
teachers. If your program changed from open enrollment to one that's closed,
we'd appreciate knowing why and how you did it, whether it worked initially,
what processes you used, and what factors you think affect the outcomes -
whether you think it would work better in an urban vs rural area, etc.
Thanks.

<< srobinson.vcf >>


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