[NLA] Questions/Discussion: How is NRS follow-up going?

[David J. Rosen]

NLA Colleagues,

In a recent workshop on NRS follow-up two adult education program
directors said they were pleasantly surprised that they had responses
from 70-80% of their "exiting" students which they obtained by using
follow-up telephone interviews and/or written surveys.  That's good
news.  It was unsettling, however, that the other 30-40 program
directors in the room were silent about their success.  So this prompts
me to ask  from  ground level folks here, what has been your experience
in doing NRS follow-up, or what are your colleagues saying about their
experience doing this?  Is a 50% return rate on follow-up surveys a
reasonable standard? (Too high? Too low?) And do you feel the data being
collected are valid and reliable?  (If you prefer to e-mail your
response in confidence, send it to me at djrosen at massed.net instead of
the NLA list.)

Last year some people said they believed (and I am one) that the
required follow-up on employment-related goals would be a disincentive
for listing these goals, that, ironically under the Workforce Investment
Act, many fewer students would be recorded as having employment-related
goals.  State ABE Directors, USDOE folks, or anyone else who has
experience with this, are you seeing data that suggest that students now
have fewer employment-related goals?

David J. Rosen
<djrosen at massed.net>

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