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About CSCAE
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Reports from the Field Imperial Valley Assessment Collaborative How can a small school, staffed by one administrator and one secretary, offer classes, intake students, and collect all of the data required these days of an adult school? One creative solution has been developed by the Imperial Valley Assessment Collaborative. In order to meet the accountability requirements of programs receiving federal funds, several small agencies in the Imperial Valley in Southern California developed and put in place a collaborative assessment process. This joint effort replaces a more traditional approach where each agency used its own resources entirely to conduct pre and post tests, with varying degrees of success. Now, after pooling resources from federal Adult Education Act Section 225, CalWORKs and ROP funds, program administrators in six districts - Calexico, Holtville, Brawley, Calapetria, Imperial, and San Pasqual - have collaborated to hire and train an assessment technician who works under an agreed upon schedule to collect all program data and conduct CASAS pre and post-tests. The technician works at the large centers one full day each week, and a half-day at each of the two smaller centers, giving CASAS pre and post tests individually or to small groups. Holtville USD, one of the larger agencies in the collaborative, reported a more than 50% increase in the number of students taking the pre and post tests last year. Celso Ruiz, director of Holtville Adult School, declares the program a success and says it enabled her school to exceed the projected number of benchmarks for last year. Contact Ms. Ruiz at 760-356-1304
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