From the archiveProject page, captured November 2010
Standards in Action
Standards in Action (SIA) is a pilot program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education and operated by MPR Associates, Inc., to evaluate processes and materials for the implementation of standards-based adult education.
Virginia is one of six states participating in the second stage of the pilot program, which consists of two phases spaced out over a period of 10 months, from August 2008 to June 2009. Two ESOL programs, Prince William County Adult Education Program and Roanoke City Adult Education, were chosen to test out materials and activities for helping instructors align student assignments to standards and to conduct targeted classroom observations using a standards-based protocol.
In the first phase, teachers regularly met with their colleagues to discuss their classroom assignments and evaluate, using a five-step process, how well these assignments reflected Virginia’s ESOL content standards. In the second phase, the program coordinators conducted classroom observations documenting standards implementation by using a protocol developed by the national SIA team. Results of the observations will inform professional development for the two local programs.
Orientation meetings for all participating state teams (Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia) were held in August 2008 and in January 2009 in Washington, D.C. Members of Virginia’s team are:
- Debby Cargill, ESOL Coordinator of Prince William County’s Adult ESOL Program
- Aimee Grant, ESOL Coordinator of Roanoke City’s ESOL Program
- Jim Andre, Program Development Specialist, Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center
- Nancy Faux, ESOL Specialist, Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center
- Randall Stamper, Specialist for Communications and Initiatives, Office of Adult Education and Literacy, Department of Education
As a testimony to their exceptional work in this pilot project, Prince William County’s group of teachers and coordinator were selected to showcase the Classroom Assignment Process at the 2009 National Meeting of Adult Education State Directors in Washington, D.C.
Added in 2026: what the “classroom assignment process” looks like
The five-step review the page mentions is simple enough to borrow. A group of teachers brings one real assignment each. They read the standard it is meant to serve, decide what a learner would actually have to do to finish the task, compare the two, and agree on one change. The point is that a worksheet labelled “reading for main idea” often only asks learners to copy a sentence. Teachers who do this a few times start to catch the gap in their own planning. It is the same habit that the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education, published by the U.S. Department of Education in 2013, asked programs to build. Why ESOL learners with little schooling need teachers who look this closely is covered in Teaching adults who are new to print.
Questions readers ask
What was Standards in Action?
A U.S. Department of Education pilot, run by MPR Associates for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, that tested ways to put adult education content standards into everyday teaching.
Which Virginia programs took part?
Two ESOL programs, Prince William County Adult Education and Roanoke City Adult Education, from August 2008 to June 2009.