[AAACE-NLA] CAAL Releases New ESL Study

[Gail Spangenberg]

NEWS RELEASE (January 7, 2008 - NYC) -- The Council for Advancement  
of Adult Literacy today released PATHWAYS & OUTCOMES: TRACKING ESL  
STUDENT PERFORMANCE. It is a longitudinal study of adult ESL services  
at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF), completing a trilogy by  
CAAL about adult ESL service in community colleges. Its primary aim  
is to help those who plan and design community college ESL programs  
assess and develop effective services. But it will also help those  
who offer adult ESL services in other institutional settings, and  
policymakers and funding organizations. The authors note that CCSF's  
ESL program has features in common with many other community college  
programs, and point to the model's importance because so many ESL  
professionals across the country consider it to be "exemplary." It is  
both "a typical case and a best case of adult education ESL in the  
United States."

Steven Spurling and Sharon Seymour of the City College of San  
Francisco, and  CAAL's Forrest P. Chisman conducted the study. The  
report contains a wealth of highly detailed research information and  
analysis. It is groundbreaking in a number of respects. It may well  
be the most comprehensive, in-depth research ever conducted on any  
adult ESL program. It is based on College records tracking all  
students over a seven-year period who first enrolled in CCSF's credit  
and non-credit ESL programs in 1998, 1999, and 2000. More than 38,000  
non-credit and some 6600 credit ESL students make up the "cohort"  
that was examined. The primary focus is on persistence, learning  
gains, and transition to credit studies, and on the success in credit  
courses of non-credit ESL students. Major attention is given to the  
various features of CCSF's ESL program that affected student outcomes  
and pathways -- such as terms and hours of attendance, and program  
design and policy. CCSF's substantial data on "stop-outs" is also  
presented and analyzed in depth.

As the authors explain, PATHWAYS & OUTCOMES can be used and navigated  
in many different ways. It is organized to serve the needs of various  
kinds of readers. For some, the short Executive Summary will suffice.  
For others, selected chapters will be sufficient. Others will want to  
read the entire document and may be motivated to conduct additional  
analyses on their own.

This study was made possible by CAAL discretionary funds; a  
considerable amount of pro bono CAAL staff time and resources; and  
staff time, data, and computer resources provided by City College of  
San Francisco. Forrest Chisman was responsible for overall project  
direction. Steven Spurling (Institutional Research Officer, Office of  
Research, Planning, and Grants, CCSF) conducted the data analysis and  
had primary responsibility for interpretation of that analysis.  
Sharon Seymour (former Chair, ESL Department, CCSF) was  a key  
researcher in both of CAAL's prior ESL studies; she contributed to  
the study's design and interpretation of its findings. Her special  
insights into the College's ESL program helped shape findings about  
student performances and program features that influenced performance.

The report is available at no charge from the CAAL website  
(www.caalusa.org) as item ESL5 of the ESL section of the Publications  
page. It is optimized for printing and can be downloaded either as a  
single large document (212 pages) or in four smaller units. Bound  
copies of the publication can be purchased directly from CAAL  
(contact bheitner at caalusa.org for ordering instructions and price).

[The other two reports in this series are: "PASSING THE TORCH:  
Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL" and "TORCHLIGHTS  
IN ESL: Five Community College Profiles." They are available from the  
CAAL website as items ESL2 and ESL4. Funding for the earlier reports  
came from the Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, CAAL  
discretionary funds from The McGraw-Hill Companies, and the Dollar  
General Corporation.]





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