Product Description

After a review of Bluegrass CTC performance data,  PLC members decided that they would address issues related to the intake and testing process. This led PLC members to develop:

• An Intake and Testing Review Process
• A redesigned Intake and Testing Process

The initial decision was to redesign the Intake and Testing process. However, they realized that in order to thoroughly review the existing intake and testing procedures, they had to take a systematic approach. This realization led to the development of a review process that could be beneficial to other providers and programs.

The PLC members wanted to address several issues.

• The current intake and testing process is lengthy and cumbersome.
• A significant percent of students do not remain in the program long enough to achieve participant status.
• A significant percent of students leave programs before earning MSGs.
• The loss of potential participants impacts the number and percent of MSGs that can be earned in a given fiscal year.
• Some students got lost in the intake and testing process and were taking too long to begin classroom hours.

LIVE AND LEARN, MESSY MOMENTS

The following issues arose during the process:

• Survey was not administered to students throughout all programs due to time constraints. Therefore, the results did not include student input from the smaller programs in the area.
• Survey was administered to students who are currently enrolled in the program. It was not administered to those who were in the midst of the intake process or those who had “dropped out.” This may have skewed the data.
• Time limitation resulted in only being able to survey 18% of student population.
• Survey questions could have been more closely targeted to intake and testing process.

Based on discussions during the third meeting, the members decided to:

• Continue administering the survey to all students program-wide, thus obtaining input from smaller programs.
• Expand the base of students who will be surveyed: currently enrolled, those in the intake process, and those who did not complete testing.
• Conduct the survey via phone when doing follow-up with students who have not completed testing.
• Develop additional survey questions during FY 2019-2020 to target specific aspects of the process.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

1. Define the current process including components and time for each to be completed
2. Identify what is necessary and what could be streamlined within the current process
3. Identify what could be eliminated from the current process or completed at a different time after the student is enrolled in class.
4. Survey current students (ABE and ESL) to obtain their input on the current intake and testing process and identify what would make the intake process more efficient, effective, and better meet students’ needs.
5. Analyze results of student survey and provide data to the PLC
6. Redesign the intake process to address the issues identified in steps 2-5.
7. Provide information and training to all staff about the new intake

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

A preliminary evaluation of the redesigned intake and testing process yielded the following results.

• The number of GED Ready® examinees has increased by 35% since the implementation of the changes to the Intake and Testing Process.
• Students are benefiting from a more targeted approach to reaching their educational goals.
  • Students move directly from TABE testing to GED Ready® testing based on TABE results.
  • Students who pass specific areas of the GED Ready® are referred directly to take those areas of the GED®
  • Students who do not pass specific areas of the GED Ready® enter classrooms with more targeted instructional plans and a more efficient approach to reaching their educational goals.
  • Instructors have more information to assist in developing a study plan for students.
• There has been an initial expansion of Spanish GED Ready® testing for Spanish-speaking students .