[AAACE-NLA]Closed enrollment

[Sissy Kegley]

Eileen makes a good point.

We struggled for years in our cbo with these issues. Finally, we garnered the resources and the will to support two types of classes:   morning open enrollment classes AND evening classes which were more structured (registration, fees, etc.)

Sissy Kegley
CASA of Maryland

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From: "Eileen Eckert" <eileeneckert at hotmail.com>
Date: 2003/04/25 Fri PM 03:13:09 EDT
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA]Closed enrollment

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


Sissy Kegley
Adult Education
sissy.kegley at verizon.net
home office: 301-588-4333
cell phone: 301-467-5364