26, no. 3 (Spring 1995): 55-57 To the Editor Search

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SCHOOL districts around the country are changing the way they assess, credit, and report student progress and achievement. Performance and portfolio assessment, monitoring of student achievement of outcomes, and interdisciplinary instruction are beginning to appear in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. As new curricula, assessment, and instruction ripple upward, postsecondary institutions are facing students that present new and different credentials for admission. These students are still few, but it is clear that students may soon not be able to present a transcript that can be recognized and evaluated by the present admissions process. In the light of these changes, the University of Wisconsin (UW) system has begun a project to develop, pilot, and implement an alternative system for admission, based on clearly defined competencies in five subject areas.

Rationale for the Project

In October 1992 UW system administration appointed the Competency-Based Admission Task Force to consider the restructuring efforts in the K-12 schools, the assessment process being developed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (which includes performance and portfolio assessments in addition to knowledge and concepts tests), and admission policies of other colleges and universities around the country. During the 1992–93 school year, the task force developed the process for creating an alternative admissions process and the goals it should serve.

In the executive summary of its recommendations, the task force gives three important reasons why the UW system needs to consider an alternative to its current admissions policies.

• UW admission policies need to anticipate the changes that will follow from the curricular restructuring that is now taking place in some K-12 schools. As school districts change their curricula, students and admission offices will need an alternative to the traditional Carnegie unit approach to admission for all students.
• The UW system will benefit from a competency-based admission policy. If performance-based instruction in K-12 schools results in higher levels of student preparation, there should be a reduced need for remedial courses in English and mathematics.
• UW admission expectations defined in terms of competencies will improve articulation among K-12 schools, technical colleges, and UW system institutions. With a common set of competencies, all levels of educational institutions will be able to communicate more directly. The bases on which admission decisions are made should, consequently, be much clearer to students and parents.

Criteria for the Project

The task force then proposed that the model for competency-based admission should have the following features:

• Students will be admitted to UW system institutions based on competency attainment rather than completion of courses that translate into Carnegie units;
• the responsibility for defining the competencies rests with the faculty and staff from UW system institutions in consultation with the Department of Public Instruction, technical colleges, and the K-12 schools;
• the responsibility for presentation of the students' case for college readiness rests with the K-12 schools;
• faculty and staff from UW system institutions, in consultation with K-12 schools, will develop a standardized profile of student achievement to be used to report competency attainment for each student;
• each UW system institution will specify the performance standard that will stand as an alternative to the required Carnegie units that will be in effect in 1995; and
• the Competency-Based Admission policy will be implemented and evaluated as a pilot project in a small number of districts to verify its effectiveness.

Process for Developing the Competencies

The project then moved forward to establish competencies in English, social studies, mathematics, science, and foreign languages during the 1993–94 school year. The Foreign Language Subcommittee consisted of one representative from each of nine campuses of the UW system, one representative from a campus of the UW two-year-center system, one representative from an institution in the Wisconsin Technical College system, the foreign language consultant from the Department of Public Instruction, one teacher from a K-12 school, and a representative of the UW system administration.

The subcommittee developed competencies in six clusters to describe the proficiency level to be required for admission to UW system schools.

Competency in culture

A student who demonstrates competency in culture

• demonstrates basic familiarity with the role of important social institutions within the target culture or cultures and
• is able to identify and evaluate superficial stereotypes of the target culture or cultures.

Competency in writing

A student who demonstrates competency in writing can

• communicate information on familiar topics in the target language;
• make correct and appropriate use of present, past, and future forms of common verbs; and
• make correct and appropriate use of case and agreement in the target language.

Competency in speaking

A student who demonstrates competency in speaking can

• respond appropriately to an inquiry;
• participate in discussion about familiar topics;
• use the target language to accomplish everyday tasks; and
• address everyday problems by asking pertinent, logical questions and making suggestions.

Competency in listening

A student who demonstrates competency in listening can

• understand and respond to native or near-native speech in familiar situations and on familiar topics.

Competency in reading

A student who demonstrates competency in reading can

• demonstrate comprehension of authentic written materials on familiar topics and
• extract particular information from a variety of authentic documents and make reasonable comments about style, tone, purpose, and audience.

Competency in transferable skills (provisional)

Foreign language competency shall include the ability to

• contrast and compare the structure and usage of the target language with those of English and
• summarize, isolate main and subordinate ideas, infer meaning, and draw conclusions from context.

Implementation of Competency-Based Admission

During the 1994–95 school year, eight school districts are being prepared as pilot sites. High school guidance counselors, administrators, faculty leaders, and UW system admissions directors will receive training. In their training, they will explore issues such as dealing with subjectivity in admission decisions, making the system efficient, and avoiding the addition of a layer of testing for students seeking admission. A related goal of the project is to develop a seamless, competency-based admission process through which students may enter a two-year institution, a technical college, or a four-year institution. Through the training process, a sample reporting format or profile of student performance will be refined. This student profile will be completed by the school districts and sent to admissions offices for consideration.

The real trial will come during the 1995–96 school year, as the eight pilot districts implement this alternative admissions process. Through the implementation process, two important questions will be resolved: how to assess the competencies and how well one must perform the competencies to be admitted. As these questions are answered, the value of the project will become clear. By establishing jointly what students should know and be able to do, creating a process to assess progress toward that goal, and linking those two pieces to continuous advancement to a higher level, the Competency-Based Admission Project will provide the common ground currently missing in articulation discussions between secondary and postsecondary institutions.

The potential of the competencies project is great. The developing national standards will inform this project, assisting in the creation of a common language for describing our goals in foreign language education. The promise will be realized as we create a common vision to align the curriculum, assessment, and instruction of foreign language education from kindergarten through the university level. ¹

The author is Consultant in Foreign Language Education in the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and President of the National Council of State Supervisors of Foreign Languages.

Note

¹ For more information write or call the Foreign Language Subcommittee chair, Tony Ciccone, Associate Professor, Dept. of French and Italian, Univ. of Wisconsin, PO Box 413, Milwaukee 53201, (414 229–6638), or Foreign Language Consultant, Paul Sandrock, Dept. of Public Instruction, PO Box 7841, Madison, WI 53707–7841 (608 266–3079)

Work Cited

Competency-Based Admission Task Force. Competency-Based Admission: The Wisconsin Model, Executive Summary . Madison: U of Wisconsin System, 1993.

© 1995 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.

ADFL Bulletin 26, no. 3 (Spring 1995): 55-57

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