Massachusetts State Profile

Professional Development System

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education invests federal and state funding toward the continuous improvement of Adult Basic Education (ABE) services through a variety of program and professional development initiatives. The largest of these is the System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES). Since 1990, the SABES program has provided funding for five Regional Support Centers (RSC) that work in coordination with a Central Resource Center under the direction of the Department. Through the five RSCs located at community colleges across the state, and with statewide coordination and development from the Central Resource Center, SABES provides training and technical assistance for ABE providers. Decisions about which activities SABES offers each year are based on factors that include Department requests, information from workshop evaluations, sharing groups, attendance data from prior fiscal years, and reviews of continuous improvement plans for all programs.

Types of SABES Activities include

• Multi-session courses and planned follow-up: participants receive assignments that require them to apply lessons learned during and after their training, and are asked to develop an action plan to integrate new knowledge and skills. SABES staff follow up after the course to discuss application of new knowledge.
• Intensive focus on curriculum content: professional development in this area centers on a theme such as reading, writing, or math. For example, reading workshops were offered that were specifically tailored to regional needs.
• Sharing groups: offered for volunteer coordinators, GED teachers, ESOL teachers, and counselors.
• Student involvement activities: SABES offers student-focused activities such as Student Writing Publication; Worker Rights, Including Health and Safety; and Workplace Immigration Issues Facing ABE/ESOL Learners. 
• Print and electronic resources: Practitioners may receive books and multi-media resources through online access to a Department-funded ABE library housed at a Regional Support Center. SABES also publishes newsletters devoted to math, and financial literacy, posted at http://www.sabes.org/. A Teachers’ Resource page allows practitioners access to lesson plans and other teaching resources. The web site also contains links to pages on Curriculum and Instruction, Licensure, Technology, Student Leadership, Workforce and Community, among others.
• ABE Teacher Licensure: SABES supports practitioners seeking voluntary ABE licensure through a Web page with licensure resources (www.sabes.org/license/index), and monthly meetings of license-seekers working together on their portfolios, among other activities.

STAR Implementation

Eight Adult Basic Education programs were selected through a competitive RFP process open to Community Adult Learning Centers and Adult Basic Education for Incarcerated Adults Programs with at least one Pre-ASE class. Conditions for eligibility included the Program Director and Pre-ASE level reading teacher(s) must attend all three two-day trainings. 

Priorities of this grant were given to support Community Adult Learning Center Programs and Adult Basic Education for Incarcerated Adults Programs that offered intensive classes (i.e. nine or more hours/week); and met the Department’s performance standard for learning gains in FY08 and FY09. Learner Gain is defined as all students increasing 21 scale score points for the MAPT assessment between pre- and post-testing and that between 35% and 49% of students demonstrate an increase in the MAPT post test.

A scoring rubric was developed and a reader team evaluated individual proposals in the following areas:

• Program goals to increase learner gains, prior experience of staff (training in reading methodology, experience in teaching reading particularly to GLE 4-8.9 students),
• Performance data (including attendance percentage, average attended hours, number of meaningful learner gains as defined in the ABE performance standards, number of learners advancing from intermediate level (GLE 4-8.9) to Adult Secondary Education level (GLE 9-12),
• Hours per week and weeks per year for intermediate classes,
• Responsiveness to change (any initiatives the program has successfully participated in that required design changes, the process involved in bringing change, and the program’s capacity to adopt the STAR approach to teaching reading).

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Adult and Community Learning Services, envisions the STAR approach eventually being taught in every Pre-ASE class the state funds. It is our hope that this intensive training will better equip Pre-ASE teachers to have the training needed to better help our learners advance to the next level, and therefore achieve their goals.

Programs Implementing STAR

• Citywide Board of Boston Community Centers, Inc., Blackstone School
  Boston, MA
• Framingham Public Schools, Framingham Adult ESL Plus
  Framingham, MA
• Jamaica Plain Community Centers Adult Learning Program (JPCCALP)
  Jamaica Plain, MA
• New Bedford Public Schools, New Bedford Adult Basic Education Program
  New Bedford, MA
• Springfield City Library, Read/Write/Now
  Springfield, MA
• Taunton Public Schools/Bristol Community College
  Taunton, MA 
• United South End Settlements
  Boston, MA
• Valley Opportunity Council, Inc., Adult Education Program
  Chicopee, MA