ACLS June 2020 Monthly Mailing

Adult and Community Learning Services

Desk Review
When ACLS announced that the June Desk Review submission was optional, we neglected to consider the federally required Career Services and Workforce Training expenditures that are recorded in the financials sheet. Please enter this information at https://webportalapp.com/appform/junedeskreview by June 30.

Thank you to the programs that submitted the optional April desk reviews. ACLS encourages programs to complete the LACES areas of the June review to support grantee
·       Understanding of the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on participation
·       Monitoring of program expenditures
·       Increasing awareness of the employment indicators

Spring Cleaning
On May 20, ACLS sent out two memos that focused duplicate records and missing reportable data in LACES. The recent state auditor report of Massachusetts adult education cited ACLS for inadequate oversight of program data collection and entry. The desk review process and the spring-cleaning analyses are examples of steps to improve the quality of our data. Thank you to the many program directors that immediately addressed duplicates and corrected as many records as possible.

Employment and Wage Records

   ACLS submits data via the state’s secure exchange system to the Department of Unemployment Assistance twice each year to meet the WIOA employment indicators. This year, in late January and early May, ACLS sought wage records for 22,354 participants. These were students who exited between January 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019. Of those, 10,397 (46.5%) were matched. Of these, nearly 90% had signed the confidentiality release of information form so 9,959 LACES student records were updated.

However, only 13,654 (61%) of the exited students provided a social security number. While ACLS and DUA also attempt to match based on first name, last name, and date of birth, that effort yields only another 5%.

For various reasons not every working student who provides a social security number will be successfully matched to a DUA record. First, many of our students are self-employed or subcontractor and their wages are not reported to DUA, so even if they provide your program with a social security number, there may not be a match. In addition, data entry errors persist. Wage records rely on an exact match between the SSN entered in LACES and the DUA wage record. For Massachusetts to meet these WIOA performance requirements, programs must follow up and enter that information.

FY20 Data Freeze and Rollover
Programs must have all FY20 participation data entered by July 31. Then ACLS will review the data with the goal of rolling over into FY21 by August 14. Programs do not have to wait to enter FY21 data.

FY21 Changes
Starting July 1, “Highest Degree/Diploma Earned” will be required when adding or editing a staff record. This enable ACLS to monitor compliance with the director and teacher degree requirements.

“Birthdate” will also be required when adding or editing a staff record. This information will improve the matching of assessment credentials and staff records.

New Comment Types
This section has been adapted from Shannon Stangis’ notes from the Directors Meeting webinars.
Several new Comment Types have been added to enable programs to have a way to indicate and track students who have been impacted by the pandemic. These Comment Types are:
·       Unable to post-test due to COVID-19
·       Unable to pre-test due to COVID-19
·       Unable to enroll in Post-Secondary due to COVID-19

To apply this Comment Type, locate the students for whom this will apply. In most cases, you will know the students affected for each of these options. For students unable to post-test, you can search based on those students with enough hours to have been post-tested (regardless of Overall Status) who were still attending at the time programs shut down because of COVID by following these steps:

1.     Apply the Hours view from the View Manager.
2.     Once this view is applied, type 65 (40 hours for AECI) in the blank search window below the column heading for the Instr Hours Since Last Assess in Subj Area column. Click the filter icon and select Greater than or equal.
3.     Next, type the first date on which students began being affected by COVID (most likely sometime in very late February or early to mid-March of 2020) into the Last Hours Date column. Click the filter icon and select Greater than or Equal.

To identify students who had enough hours to be eligible to receive a post-test at the time that COVID started affecting the student’s likelihood to attend. You could also use the Dashboard Student Alerts widget for students eligible for post-test; however, the alert only displays Active students, so it will miss anyone you may have already exited who met the criteria for this indicator.

4.     Open the student record for the first student returned in this list. In the Student Data tab, click the Comment panel to expand it.
5.     Then click +Add New Record.

Follow these steps for any student who should have any of the various comment types added related to COVID.

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This will return all students who have had this Comment Type applied. If you wish to search on a specific COVID option, such as COVID exit, use the full comment type rather than just COVID, which will return all of the COVID options.

You can also go to Reports from the Student grid and select the “Comments by Date Range, Type and Like” report and use the filters for that report before running it. Putting COVID in the ”Comment Type is like” field will return all of the COVID options.

Please note that after creating any search using the + Add Search criteria builder, you can click the Save Search option once it is applied. This will generate a window where you can name your saved search and allow it to be shared with all staff in your program. Once saved, it will be available by going to Searches>My Searches OR Shared Searches. Saved searches can be edited if there are criteria within the search that you would like to change.

HSE Testing

GED® and HiSET® intend to begin remote- proctored testing. GED® has piloted the process in five states and will begin nationwide testing “before mid-June.” HiSET has announced that it will launch its remote-proctored testing nationally “sometime before the end of June.”

Both exams require desktop or laptop computers. Chromebooks are not suitable for this type of testing. All computers must have video and audio capabilities and must pass a system test before candidates will be allowed to register.

GED® will not have a Spanish language version and candidates must score 145 or better on the GED Ready (GED® Official Practice Test) as a prerequisite to registration. Testers will not be able to retest remotely.

HiSET® will have a Spanish language version, no pretest will be required, and remote retesting will be allowed (up to two retests per subtest in a calendar year).

Pricing and additional information will be found at www.GED.com and www.hiset.ets.org.

Online and Distance Education

1.             Material from the Directors Meeting Distance Education Presentation
The recording, slide presentation, planning template and Strengthening AE Remote Learning resources used during the Directors Meeting presentation can be found here: Distance Education in FY21: A Working Session

2.             Planning Ahead for Distance Education: Continuing the Journey
The SABES Program Support PD Center will be hosting two directors’ learning and sharing sessions as part of their ongoing support for programs as you continue designing your distance education programs.
Diana Satin and Luanne Teller will discuss some key topics that have surfaced following our ACLS Directors' Meeting session on designing a distance education program, such as recruitment and intake, orientation, assisting students with access to devices and connectivity, assessment, and class planning. You will have the opportunity to submit questions in advance to help Diana and Luanne plan this session.
Please go to the SABES Calendar to register for one of the two sessions:
·                Monday, 6/15 from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
·                Tuesday 6/16 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
For more information, please contact Luanne_teller@worlded.org

3.             ACLS seeking programs to pilot VOXY in FY21
ACLS has recently purchased seats in VOXY an ESOL online product that supports accessible and effective English (ESL) instruction to underserved adults. Programs interested in participating in the ACLS pilot of VOXY would need to meet the following criteria:

·                demonstrated evidence of ability to support distance education
·                ability to offer real time feedback to ACLS during the pilot
·                staff experienced in online instruction
·                commitment to sharing of best practices with ACLS and the field

Please email Paula Jurigian, Technology and Distance Education Program Specialist, no later than June 30^th at paula.jurigian@mass.gov and provide a 1-2 paragraph description of interest and ability to meet the criteria above. Please include name and contact information of program contact and ESOL instructor (may be the same person) who would be accountable for the pilot.

4. Note to Programs Currently Using AZTEC

The AZTEC Locator Assessment has been added to our AZTEC system. Programs currently using AZTEC can now enroll students in the AZTEC Locator Assessment.
AZTEC describes the locator as “a potential resource to be used for placement while programs are not able to give regular face-to-face placement tests or” while programs develop in-house remote placement tests.

Current AZTEC users who enroll students in AZTEC classes can find the class by searching for AZTEC’s Locator Assessment in the Class Center.

Aztec Locator Assessment is an optional placement resource for students using AZTEC. It is NOT a formal assessment and it must not be used as an NRS pre- and post-test or in lieu of NRS tests to determine learner gains.