26, no. 3 (Spring 1995): 44-45
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Ohio's Collaborative Articulation and Assessment Project
Diane W. Birckbichler
LIKE many students at other postsecondary institutions, large numbers of students entering Ohio State University with three years of high school study place into first-quarter language courses instead of into higher-level courses as anticipated. The problems related to this failure to articulate are well known: duplication of course content, reduction of student motivation, the perennial problem of false beginners, and finally, financial constraints and personnel costs. The perceptions (and misperceptions) of high school teachers further complicate articulation efforts. In the teachers' view, university-level programs are more traditional and do not represent current proficiency orientations, placement tests tend to reflect these more traditional preoccupations with linguistic form, and research-oriented university faculty members demonstrate little concern for high school programs.
The Collaborative Articulation and Assessment Project (CAAP), composed of representatives from Ohio public schools, Columbus State Community College, and Ohio State University, represents a cooperative effort to solve the articulation problems among participating institutions and to dispel the stereotypes that often impede such efforts. CAAP has two major goals. The first is the formulation of a workable plan for articulation between the secondary and postsecondary levels, and the second is the creation of an early-assessment program to evaluate the language skills of high school students, giving them a projection of their possible university placement and providing diagnostic feedback where appropriate. Both goals are based on the expectation that college-bound students will continue their language study at postsecondary institutions, most of which have language requirements. With articulation and assessment in place, students would be able to take greater advantage of their high school language coursework to place at higher levels, which would allow them to complete their requirements more quickly, or better yet, students would be motivated to continue to advanced levels of language study.
To achieve these goals, participants needed to learn about the programs, students, school settings, and situational strengths of colleagues at other levels of instruction. Reciprocal classroom visits were essential in increasing the participants' understanding of the contexts in which their colleagues at other levels operated (e.g., availability of current materials and textbooks, working conditions, student population, available resources, administrative and parental support). Language-specific subgroups (French, German, and Spanish) met frequently to compare and contrast the methods, curricula, materials, and assessment procedures used in their programs. Workshops and general meetings provided further opportunities to discuss these topics in larger groups that contained teachers from all the languages and levels of instruction involved in the project.
The project also included a series of experiences designed specifically to establish an equal partnership among participants and to create an atmosphere of mutual trust. For example, the project was led by a steering committee with representatives from each level, meetings were held in a variety of locations, and participants from all levels were encouraged to take leadership roles. The participants have worked to disseminate the project through presentations at state, regional, and national conferences and through written publications related to the project. Most important, decisions related to the articulation plan and the early assessment measures were reached through consensus and thus did not represent mandates emanating from the university.
In the first year of the project, teachers from the Columbus Public Schools worked with language program directors and language teachers from OSU and Columbus State Community College to identify roadblocks to articulation between the secondary and postsecondary levels (e.g., lack of communication among teachers at different institutions, the sense of superiority at the university level, overly complicated administrative procedures, different goals and contexts, resistance to change) and to suggest possible ways to improve articulation (e.g., opportunities for teachers to meet and discuss problems, better access to information about language programs at different levels, open avenues of communication).
In the second year of the project, teachers from suburban schools in the Columbus area joined the collaborative. Participants finalized the CAAP Articulation Plan, which contains several components. The first, containing subcommittee reports for French, German, and Spanish, summarizes comparisons of curricula, testing, and classroom practice among participating schools and makes recommendations that could improve articulation both within and across schools. For example, participants felt that the current practice of combining upper-level high school classes had a detrimental effect on articulation, especially in the development of oral skills. They also felt that schools should consider using proficiency measures rather than seat time as a basis for awarding language credit in high school. The reports also underlined the value of reciprocal visits and the importance of regular and focused communication with other language teachers. The second component, the CAAP Common Core, consists of a set of user-friendly outcome objectives in listening, speaking, reading, and writing for four different levels of instruction, roughly the equivalent of four years of instruction at the secondary level or four quarters at the postsecondary level. The framework for each level includes functions to be emphasized (e.g., persuading, negotiating, describing), formats to use in planning activities, possible exercise types to employ, and strategies to target (e.g., skimming and scanning in reading, paraphrasing to avoid vocabulary difficulties). Clearly framed objectives of student behavior accompany each level so that the information can readily influence classroom practice and, at the same time, be easily understood by students and their parents. Participants also drew up a set of project recommendations, including concrete ways to continue the CAAP collaborative after termination of funding (e.g., frequent meetings, workshops, the establishment of a materials center). The recommendations also contained specific suggestions for strengthening and enhancing language study, such as the establishment of language exit examinations for preservice teachers; increased communication with parents, administrators, and guidance counselors; and more language and culture courses for high school teachers in foreign language departments. In the second year of the project, participants also finalized the CAAP Early Assessment Program, which includes proficiency-oriented tests in listening, speaking, reading, and writing; a student self-assessment questionnaire that asks students to evaluate how well they speak, understand, read, and write the language; and teacher assessment of students' language skills. Although the language tests were derived from the CAAP Common Core, they are designed to reflect regional and national efforts to develop standards, in particular ACTFL's national standards project.
During the third year, a pilot version of the early-assessment measures will be tested at the secondary and postsecondary schools participating in the project. The results of the pilot testing will be used to prepare the 1995–96 version of the early-assessment measures so that the test can be implemented in schools around Ohio in 1995–96. Additional high schools, community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities will be invited to join the collaborative.
Project evaluations and a study of the processes and politics of CAAP by an ethnographer attached to the project revealed that participants valued highly the collegial exchange afforded by the project and felt that the project had help reduce their professional isolation. Teachers from all levels also indicated that the project had increased their understanding of the constraints present in the different settings. They spoke, in particular, of change in classroom practices, including establishing formal oral testing, using small-group activities more frequently, increasing emphasis on developing discursive-writing skills in language classes, and working with colleagues in their own schools and systems to increase articulation among classes at the same level of instruction.
The success of the CAAP early assessment program will be evaluated over the next several years. Longitudinal studies will track the relation among students' performance on the early-assessment measures, their university placement scores, and their performance in postsecondary language classes. Other studies will assess the influence of the project on high school and university language programs. The process dimensions of the project have already been proven to be very successful, however, and can provide a working model for institutions and organizations seeking to increase communication and cooperation. The establishment of a collaborative in which participants work as equal partners with an equal voice and equal stake in a project of real importance served as a powerful motivating force for participants. This collaborative effort has gone a long way toward dispelling the stereotypes and misperceptions that often characterize the relations between secondary and postsecondary levels.
The author is Professor of French and Director of the National Foreign Language Resource Center at Ohio State University, Columbus.
© 1995 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
ADFL Bulletin 26, no. 3 (Spring 1995): 44-45 |
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