PAWG I Final Report - SABES

The Massachusetts ABE
Performance Accountability Working Group
Final Report
This report is organized as follows:
1. Overview: Background, PAWG Statement of Purpose and Questions (pages 2-3)
2. Purposes for the ABE Performance Accountability System: laws and requirements according to
WIA and the state, how well we are serving our students, and implementing continuous improvement
(pages 4-5)
3. Student Primary Assessment: short- and long-term recommendations for testing and accompanying
challenges (pages 5-10)
4. Student Goals and Countable Outcomes: both a chart and a narrative description are provided as well
as a list of accompanying challenges (pages 10-12)
5. A Cohesive System and Unfinished Business: a description of how the system fits together and a
presentation of issues we must resolve in its implementation, what remains, and the plans for a “PAWG
II” in January 2003 (pages 12-14)
For more information on the topics within this document, please refer to the PAWG Notes posted at the
SABES web site at http://www.sabes.org, or to the Assessment Policy Manual available on line from the
Massachusetts Department of Education Adult and Community Learning Services at
http://www.doe.mass.edu/acls/news.htm.
Members of the PAWG would like to thank Marie Cora, Dineen Casilli, Robert Foreman, Jane
Schwerdtfeger and others who drafted and edited this report.
1. OVERVIEW
This summary report is intended for ABE practitioners and other stakeholders and interested parties in
Massachusetts. It briefly outlines the work of the Performance Accountability Working Group (PAWG)
over the past one-and-a-half years, focusing on how we arrived at and grappled with various ABE
performance accountability issues, and they were resolved. It is intended to give the field a sense of how
we dealt with the enormity of developing a statewide system of accountability. Of special concern to the
PAWG was how to balance the demands of an accountability system that honors the “breadth” of our work
(the diverse, rich and complex purposes that motivate our students to enroll) with the goal of keeping these
demands as manageable for programs and staff as possible. To this end, the PAWG consistently found
itself making compromises as it determined what elements to include in the performance accountability
system.
The PAWG’s recommendations cover two main components of the ABE performance accountability
system we envision: Student (“Primary”) Assessment, and Student Goals achieved or Countable Outcomes.
It is important to keep in mind that the PAWG’s work provides a starting point. We did not develop the
whole system; we began to develop components of that system. We did not develop new assessments; we
explored and selected from a variety of available assessments and recommended assessments that need to
be developed consistent with the Massachusetts ABE Curriculum Frameworks. We did not finish our
business; we set in motion a work-in-progress to fully develop an accountability system within our state.
We regard the next few years as an interim period that ensures we are in compliance with federal
requirements while we continue to work steadily at building an effective ABE system of services in
Massachusetts that reflects our values and the dreams and aspirations of our students.
Performance Accountability Working Group / Final Report / September 2002 / page 2