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Transcript of NTA Conference Call Presentation held on 10/21/97

Student Assessment Tools for Workplace Readiness

Presented by

Edward Roeber, Director, Student Assessment Programs
Council of Chief State School Officers

Ed Roeber: Welcome to a session on Student Assessment Tools for Workplace Readiness. This is a topic that I've been interested in for a number of years, both in my work for the Council of Chief State School Officers, where it is one of nine State Collaboratives on Assessment and Student Standards, but also prior to that in my work in the Michigan Department of Education, where I directed the Statewide Student Assessment Program for sixteen years. It is also something that I've been personally involved in as a father of a high school student: i.e. wondering what he is going to do for a living, and if he is going to be prepared for that. So it has a personal element for me, as it probably does for a number of you.

I'll give you a little historical background of my interest in the area, and some of the work that I've been involved in, and then we can talk about what is happening nationally. In 1989, I literally came to the office one day to discover that the assessment program had been mandated to assess workplace readiness or "employability skills." It was the day following a midnight budget agreement in the state of Michigan, which were typically finished the last day or two of the fiscal year. Around the end of June, all of the work that should have taken place in the previous six months getting the state budget was completed in about six hours. And, in that process, someone from the governor's office had inserted language that required the Assessment Program to assess the employability skills of all high school students and award diplomas based on whether or not students had sufficient employability skills to graduate.

Now one of the interesting things was that none of us that worked in the Assessment Program had the foggiest notion of what "employability skills" are. But, being good bureaucrats, we said, "Well, what was the legislative intent in adopting this language?" It might have been the late hour in which the language was inserted or the fact that at that late hour people are not paying too much attention to what is added to state budgets. But, we could not find any agreement among the legislators on the House and Senate Education Committees, other than the state thought that "employability skills" was educational jargon for a mathematics and reading competency test, things that people would need to be employed. Fortunately, the employer group that set about trying to define employability skills did not use this definition. And thankfully, the legislature soon removed the requirement for that to be a requirement for graduation. Michigan employers defined employability skills as falling into three broad areas: academic skills, personal management skills, and teamwork skills. An illustration of academic skills would include understanding spoken language, speaking the language in which business was conducted. An illustration of personal management skills would be to exercise a sense of responsibility, demonstrate self-control, or show pride in one's work. And the illustration of teamwork skills were things, such as communicate with all members of the group, use a team approach to identify problems, and devise solutions to get a job done. We were presented with this framework and expected to develop assessments of those.

Clearly it did not take a measurement expert to realize that many of these skills would lend themselves to paper and pencil measurements, and in fact, they were not even things that necessarily could be tested. One piece of advice that we got from some employers and some university experts that worked with employers on assessment activity is that the academic skills could be tested, the personal management skills could be rated, and the team skills observed. And that formed, at least initially, the basis of our plans for assessing employability skills in Michigan.

About a year or so into the Michigan effort, the US Department of Labor funded the hallmark Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). It began to look at the issue of readiness and what it takes to be employable. It created a set of competencies that remain very influential at the national, state and local levels, serving to define what at least some individuals feels it means to be work-ready. One feature of the SCANS schema is that they defined two levels of standards. There are the competencies themselves (similar skills in the Michigan framework) and a foundational level that covers some of the basic skills or academic proficiencies. Rather than having the three levels of performance, as Michigan did in the SCANS competencies, there is a foundational piece that is presumed to be basic and needed to be able to carry out the higher-level skills. Regardless of how the skills are organized, however, each definition contained many of the same types of skills. States such as New York and Oregon, and school districts such as Fort Worth, created their own definitions of work readiness, but containing similar definitions.

The work readiness skills or employability skills were presumed to be the basic, generic work skills, which would be applicable to a wide variety of jobs (working for McDonald's or as an engineer in a corporation at a much higher level). These would be skills an individual needs to get and keep a job. These were not viewed as replacements for academic skills, nor were they replacements for specific occupational skills. Instead, they are basic behaviors, skills, and dispositions that are needed in a wide variety of jobs. One observer labeled these the hidden secrets that help persons find work, keep work, and advance. There certainly is data to indicate that people do not lose jobs because they cannot read nor compute; they lose jobs because they do not get along with people, they do not show up for work on time, they're not drug-free, they get into arguments with their supervisors, they do not complete work assignments, or they do not work hard. Ironically, these are things that are often times taught in school, particularly at the elementary level. It is reminiscent of the chart that says everything that I need to learn I learned in kindergarten. Many students do not learn these things, perhaps due to the absence of such teaching in the home before students come to school or the absence of the instruction in school. But the result is that students leave school with expectations about work that they simply cannot match, and employers have expectations that students do not meet.

In Michigan in 1989, the Employability Skills Commission believed that it would be difficult to test students on these types of skills. In fact the Michigan approach was one of creating portfolios, saying to students, "An employer interested in hiring you will be looking for evidence that you work effectively in teams, that you're honest, that you show up on time, that you're willing to take on new activities and learn on your own. What evidence can you muster to be able to show that that's the case?" Certainly, of the skills, are ones there are some things that students might be rated on, some that they might be observed on, and other evidence that might anecdotal.

When I moved from Michigan to the Council of Chief State School Officers, assessing work readiness remained an interest area of mine. One reason it remained an interest of mine is because so much of the attention given to work readiness is given to those students that are not going to college, or are going to a two-year technical training institute or a community college. We separate students artificially, and inappropriately, into the category of students going to college (the ones that we view as successful) and then we have to do something for the remainder of the students. As I left the Michigan Department of Education, I realized that in some ways, this is absolutely backward. Employability skills are called for at least as much in higher level positions that college graduates and those with advanced training qualify for, as much as entry level work. Employability skills are not things designed just for the kids not going to college. Students that are not going to college may still need to pursue further education or training programs within a few years in order to qualify for higher level positions, or simply to maintain their employment.

With this in mind, the Council of Chief State School Officers began a series of assessment projects in 1991. They were set up in different areas. One set of projects were designed to develop full scale assessments in areas such as health education, science, and social studies. Others were designed to tackle assessment issues, such as the assessment of students with disabilities or with limited English proficiency. The third group of projects were designed in areas that had not had much assessment development activity, and to wrestle with the development of assessment prototypes. This is where the SCASS Workplace Readiness Assessment Consortium began.

One of our first tasks, of course, was to examine what types of assessment frameworks existed across the country. Business and industry, as well as projects such as ASTD, New Standards or SCANS, states such as California, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon and New York and others, had defined work-readiness. The group developed a framework of skills (see attachment A). The group defined nine areas of work readiness. Our goal was not to create yet another definition. What the group did was take the important elements of each of the definitions that we were able to find and represent those in one framework. Our goal was to use the resultant framework in order to provide a mechanism for states to work together to create innovative approaches to assessment. But first we had to arrive at the consensus framework.

The first area in which we have outcomes in is the area of personal management: a person needs to do things such as demonstrate integrity, refrain from substance abuse, work safely, demonstrate promptness, adapt to change, and avoid absenteeism. Second, we recognized that there were academic foundations necessary for the job, so that people who are work-ready would be developing and improving their applied academic skills in areas such mathematics, communication skills, science, and technology. Third, we realized that part of success in employment is having a plan for your current and future opportunities, based on who you are, your personal qualities and your interests, and therefore it is important for students to be able to analyze themselves in order to know what they are good at and what they are not, what they enjoy and what they do not, and how to develop a personal career program for themselves, knowing the steps needed to achieve these goals.

Four, the area of interpersonal skills includes being not only a leader, but also a follower, knowing when to do each, knowing when to build consensus, deal with conflict effectively, negotiate agreements, work with all members of the workforce, and listen attentively. But there are a number of important interpersonal skills. The area of thinking and problem solving is something that many definitions of academic or work readiness will include because obviously employers will want people who understand that there are problems, will be able to analyze these and understand what available information is at hand and develop potential solutions to them.

As we talked with employers, the issue of technology kept coming up and it was one that we struggled with considerably. First, technology is changing very rapidly. Students need to not only understand how to use the technology, but also how to actually use these skills. The area of communication ­ written, verbal, non-verbal and symbolic, technological, multimedia, abstract, as well as concrete ­ represent many different ways of defining how you gather, organize, interpret, and share information. This is another important part of the job, whether it is working in a hospital or a high level position in a corporation.

As we talked with employers, they wanted workers to understand that they are part of a bigger whole, that workers need to understand how they fit into the organization, and that the job that they do is important. If one person does not do their job well, then others would suffer as the result, and if those people suffered, that particular organization would suffer, and perhaps the industry and even the local economy would as well. As we talked with employers they kept coming back to the idea that giving people a sense that they are important, that what they do matters, and, therefore, working with quality is important. Your job is more than a job; you are trying to help the organization be successful by being successful in your job.

Employers have some very interesting ways in which they hire people, some of which relate very little to any objective information about prospective employees. Employers have generally agreed, however, that if job applicants have skills such as these, the employer would be very pleased.

The process of assessment is what I call a 3-D process: How do I discover what are the work-readiness skills, how do I document where I am at, and how do I develop these? As we worked with employers in Michigan and with employers nationally since then, the goal has been not to create a credentialing system, and certainly not to create any way to screen, sort and select people, but to develop the talent pool, to be able to go beyond where students are right now and help more students become more ready for their future. Part of the discovery process is sharing lists of skills like those found in the attachment with students, letting them know that the skills are important.

Part of the process is not only to discover what these are, but to document where each student is. As indicated earlier, however, these skills are not easy to test. In most cases you cannot directly assess whether somebody is honest, whether they're reliable, whether they are willing to learn new skills at their own initiative. Educators need to work with students to document their work-readiness. They are not easily testable skills, which makes it an ideal area for the use of multiple approaches to measure student performance. Assessment is based on a couple of assumptions. First, these kinds of skills are needed by virtually everyone. Second, work skills are not unrelated to academic skills, so they ought not to be taught in separate classes, but taught by all educators. Third, they are not a replacement for the academic skills. We want all students to have these skills and we want all educators to stress their importance.

This, frankly, is tough, because most schools teach academic proficiencies, and are not too worried whether students are able to use these in other contexts. But the assessment part of this is something that can be done throughout the curriculum in all classes.

As for assessment instruments, there are some traditional vocational interest batteries, which will be of assistance to students as they think about developing a career plan for themselves, giving them some sense of what they would like to do and how that may be related to occupations. These tests are not used in all high school settings, particularly for kids going to college. There certainly are some noteworthy attempts to overcome this problem, such as the ACT Discover program. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), which is available free to all students in high school, can again help them look at some of their aptitudes, how these relate to their interests, and how these are career-related.

A couple of assessment instruments have been created for measuring work-readiness. The one that receives the most attention is ACT Work Keys. They have developed performance assessments and other non-performance measures of several of the major areas of the SCANS competencies. I have heard very good reviews of the quality of the assessments, but also the message that the assessments are expensive. They have been used both in schools and work settings. They are used in work settings to not only help in terms of hiring, but also to help employees who are interested in advancement to gain a greater understanding of where their skill levels are so that they know where to prepare themselves for advancement. Learning Resources, Inc. has developed two measures, one called Acuvision and another called Workplace Success Skills, which are instruments that students can take that will give them information on SCANS skills. Another approach by H & H is an assessment battery called Working, which again will give students an idea of where they stand on some of the important SCANS skills. And the SCASS group has developed performance assessments in the area of teamwork, written business communication, and oral business communication, because these are areas that are not commonly assessed by these paper and pencils measures. They created actual performance assessments in this area. In the teamwork area, for example, the group went to the AutoAlliance Plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, and participated in the entry-level teamwork assessment that is given to prospective employees. Part of the group was trained to be observers, and part actually performed the assessment. There were two kinds of tests. First, there was a manipulative test, since they built cars there and want employees that can put things together. Our group was given a set of Lego-like parts and told to build air-boats to quality standards following a model, and our group was observed doing that. Second, the group was given verbal tasks, since part of the work in that environment is working together as a team to solve problems. The test was several personnel issues that the group talked about. The company had extensive observational guides that accompanied each exercise. The feedback from the AutoAlliance group was that we had done well for Ph.D's but they would never hire us to work on the line. (So we were not that good!) With their permission, we were able to use some of the scoring protocols and observational guidelines to build analogs of the tasks that would be appropriate for high school students.

For the written business communication assessment module, we looked at the kind of communications that workers typically are asked to carry out, whether it is a shift note at the end of the shift to the next shift that might happen in a nursing home or hospital to let them know what assistance particular patients need, whether it is a memo, a brief persuasive paper, and so forth. There are some fairly standard genré of written communication that workers are expected to be able to do and we used those as the basis of creating analogs for high school students. We tried to create tasks that they could be used in an English class, a science, or a social studies class, hoping that we might gain greater entry into the high school.

Oral business communication obviously is important because employees are expected to make oral presentations. They may be formal, they may be informal, they may be in small groups or large groups, but there certainly are some things that people are expected to say. This assessment module is being finalized at this point.

In addition to these formal assessments, there are many rating scales, observational checklists, or supervisory rating forms that have been created that could be used in a work setting. If a high school student is working, they can be rated on skills when testing is not feasible. In addition, in small companies, where formal appraisals are not used, a student could ask his supervisor for an appraisal using one of these forms. We created model appraisal forms that the student can give to an employer or supervisor and say, "Would you rate me on these and then discuss what you see as my strengths and weaknesses."

These approaches to assessment began to move us in the direction of the employability skills portfolio, an area that is one of the most fruitful areas for portfolio assessment. The reason for that is because we do not expect the same thing out of every student. Every student is different. Their abilities differ, their interests differ, their aspirations differ. Some students may leave school, for example in my home state of Michigan, some students may want to work in the furniture industry and they may want to be a designer, a builder or a craftsmen. The skills needed may be very different than a student who might aspire to get an MBA degree and work in the furniture company. Another student may want to get an advanced degree in medicine and become a doctor. So when you ask, "Are people work-ready for all of these contexts," it is a challenge to say, "Here is the common instrument that everyone must pass in order for everyone to be successful to the same extent in whatever career they pursue." One of the strengths of the portfolio is that it can be customized to the interest of the students.

The same skills may be needed in different jobs. For example, in virtually every occupation, workers will need to be able to work independently and be self-motivated to continue to build their skills. If the company makes the opportunities available or not, will the employees continue to improve on their own? Now in the furniture industry, that will have one context, and in the medical environment, it may be very different, but the skills are the same. Since the same skill is called for, but the context is different, the evidence that we would want to see would be different. Therefore, it would be very difficult to expect all students to take a test that said that they have these skills, ignoring the moment the issue of whether the skills can be assessed. Portfolio assessment models have been developed in several places. Michigan has one, and an intermediate school district in Michigan has developed one of the neatest looking little packages. It basically is a folder with acetate pages in it, and inserted in the acetate pages are the directions to students. The intent is that students will remove the page and add evidence of their own in the place. Students are encouraged to build their own portfolio and each page has directions. Some pages are to be filled out. For example, one asks students to complete an educational and employability development plan. Others provide a place for evidence to be inserted, such as their transcript, their high school course of study, test scores and other data.

The Michigan approach is much more open-ended. Students were asked to supply evidence in the three areas of the academic, personal management and team skills. Students were given a list of what kinds of evidence might suffice in each area. One student, for example, might be a captain of an athletic team or a first chair in the orchestra. He or she might be able to obtain a letter indicating their leadership abilities from the coach or director. In the case of somebody who is working after school, again a supervisor may be able to comment in a letter of recommendation, or one of the employee appraisal forms that were developed could be used for that purpose, as well. So that what students are beginning to do through this process is to discover that there are things that will help them get a job. They think about how these are appropriate in the context of the career path that they are pursuing and have begun to document how well they are doing. In some cases, this will be direct evidence, such as letters of reference, evaluations, test scores and grades, and in other cases it will be evidence that they need to go out and collect and have people fill out about themselves. And that is when really the third step (development) begins. There are ways in which educators, employers, and others could work together to foster these skills.

One of the impacts of the portfolio approach is that it really puts the onus of performance and documentation on the student. The teacher is not discovering whether the child is ready or not; the individual, the student, has to say, "I'm ready and here's the evidence." And in that process of discovery and documentation, development can begin, because if a student can learn that while they are strong in interpersonal skills and academics appear to be sound, they have little or no evidence that they can lead groups, that they can work well with others, at least in their portfolio. They can begin to think of how they can find evidence, how they can demonstrate their capability in that area, and what evidence they can use to show that. In some cases, it will lead students to be engaged in activities where they can, in fact, develop these skills, and other cases to be involved in situations where their already-developed skills can be observed and therefore documented. But it encourages students to develop along these lines, that they will need to gain employment.

One thing a student with a portfolio may begin to think is, "If I go to a job interview and I have a four-inch thick portfolio, and just drop it on the desk of the person doing the interview, I know I will get the job." That is not usually the value of the portfolio, although I did have one employer who said, "If a student showed up with an employability skills portfolio, they're likely to get the job because I know that they care enough about seeking employment that they really have given it a lot of thought." But that is not true in most cases. In most cases, what is important about the portfolio is the self-knowledge that the portfolio may provide to the student. If they know what the employer wants, if they have evidence that they have actually been able to do these things and they know that they have the evidence, then when they are questioned by the employer they can say, "Yes, I can do that." If the employer asks for evidence, the student can reach into their portfolio, pull out a letter, an evaluation, an appraisal, and so forth to show the employer. It is the ability to know and to speak from what is in their portfolio, though, that I think is one of the most critical elements of the of the use of the portfolio.

As I said at the beginning, this is not an easy area for assessment. It is not one that lends itself to assessment instruments that are given on a mass basis. The result is that this is an area that is undervalued. As I work with states on their large-scale testing programs, it is one that is far too often absent from those plans. As we talked about improving education, helping students achieve higher standards means more productiveness as citizens. Unfortunately, the generic work skills are often times omitted and the result is that students may gain higher and higher academic proficiency, yet not improve in terms of employability. So I think that one of the things that is important is that we think about the assessment and documentation of these types of skills for all students. It is important and needed by all.

Now I would like to see if any of you have any questions, comments or other kinds of issues.

Participant: Hello, this is Ron Marchand (phonetic), I'm the School-to-Work Coordinator in Coventry, Rhode Island. And my question is, is there a document or a list of the common skills that you're talking about?

Ed Roeber: Yes, the Council of Chief State School Officers has prepared two documents, "Consensus Framework for Workplace Readiness," (see attachment) which is the actual framework that I excerpted from earlier, and second, a document called "Assessment of Work Readiness: A Survey of Available Assessment Instruments for Assessing Readiness for Work." If you're interested in ordering either one of these, please call (202) 336-7019 and give your name and address.

Ron Marchand (Rhode Island): Terrific. A second question, within these documents that you are talking about, is there a reference to how these workforce readiness skills have been integrated into the curriculum within the classroom itself?

Ed Roeber: No, there is not and in fact, while they are probably exceptions to what I'm about to say, I think the history of this area has been that any explicit teaching of these kinds of skills has been almost coincidental. Particularly at the high school level, where teachers often feel pressured to teach higher academic skills, skills such as teamwork are not valued, even though teachers may use group work that could move in the direction of providing evidence of teamwork ability. Unfortunately, these opportunities are not used to help students gain an understanding of teamwork. The typical response, for example, when we were piloting our teamwork assessment is, "These are really important skills, but I do not really do not do much of those in my classroom. Maybe another academic area will do it." For example, I think that teachers do not always understand the difference between working in groups and teamwork, because in group work, one strong kid may do the work of five. In the work environment that would be viewed as a very ineffective team, in fact, probably a failure as a team.

Ron Marchand (Rhode Island): Well, one of the things that I will share with you that we are trying to do here is to promote project-based learning in the classroom. We are taking existing curriculum and creating projects, then looking at the SCANS competencies in the basic skills, trying to cross-reference how many of those are actually being incorporated into the framework of that project. We are trying to guide teachers into a mode that really is not that difficult to do if they have created a project around that five-page curriculum that they have all been using, which as we all know is not that effective with high school students. We are having some success with that, but we are just coming out of an initial stage of it through the school-to-career grant here in this state.

Ed Roeber: I think your approach is an excellent one. I agree that I think that there are many places to make connections. The problem is not one of connecting the skills to everyday instructional kinds of things; that can be done fairly readily. It is the attitude on the part of academic teachers that say, "I'm teaching science, I'm not worried about teamwork or whether or not kids can write well or speak effectively." It reminds me of something that happened with my son about three years ago. He was asked in a biology class to write a story about a journey from the outside of a living cell to the inside. He's fairly creative and watches Star Trek and reads Calvin & Hobbs. So he wrote a story that started off on like a Star Trek adventure, "Captain, Captain. I do not think we can take it any more," and wrote a wonderful story of the journey from the outside of a living cell to the inside of a cell (which I found a most incredibly boring topic). And at the end, he snaps awake, as in many Calvin & Hobbs' comics, wondering whether he is on a space ship or stuck in his science class. And, of course, he is stuck in this science class. I said to him, "You know, this is a really interesting story and with some work on it to shape up the grammar and spelling, you can have quite a little story here, something that might even be publishable." He said, "Nah, I'm not going to worry about the spelling and punctuation. The science teacher doesn't care about those things." So, here is a teacher that had an obvious opportunity to work on the ability of a student to communicate effectively who apparently was not interested. He just wanted to make sure that the layers of the cell were in the right order. That too often is the case. Teachers will assign students to work in groups, but students are not evaluated on how effectively they work in the groups. Did the leader listen to the followers, did the followers listen to leader, were they able to get the work done and do so in a harmonious way? These may become problems or nuisances to teachers, rather than viewed as an essential learning outcome of this kind of task. There is a lot of group work that goes on in schools, but rarely is it formally evaluated.

Other comments or questions? What kind of issues do you see in assessing work readiness in your environments? What sort of challenges do you have?

Participant: Yes, this is Nancy Lauria from New York State. The problem that we're dealing with in New York State is the push for higher standards and learning standards. Everyone is supposed to be receiving a Regents diploma within the next three years, and occupational education programs are in a panic over trying to survive this whole initiative, to help people know that children's higher standards ­ learning standards ­ can be met through occupational education programs. There is such a panic right now that they are not even focusing on the needs of kids with disabilities and including them with work experience, so it is very hard to keep that focus in the picture because of the two different pieces that are going on the higher standards and trying to keep occupational education in the picture. So it is a real balancing act here. Is anybody else experiencing that anyplace else in the country?

Ed Roeber: That is a typical reaction when a high school diploma testing is instituted for the first time.

Nancy Lauria (New York): So the portfolio piece is being discussed and they are even talking about guidance plans for all kids, but at the same time, they are talking about everyone must take these four state exams and pass them in order to get a high school diploma. So they are saying one thing, but instituting another.

Ed Roeber: I think that particularly students with disabilities and others, the portfolio is a model alternate assessment for students who are unable to participate in the regular assessment. There is irony in that. One of the things that I see about a portfolio is that it is not a replacement or an alternative to testing. One of the pieces of evidence that students would want to put in their portfolio is whatever state test results or district test results they have received. Employers want to know, "Do you know how to read?" Test scores are one way of providing evidence for that.

Nancy Lauria (New York): It is a component of it, but it does not demonstrate all the other skills and abilities for any student, let alone those with disabilities.

Ed Roeber: I agree. The advantage of the portfolio is that you are giving students a chance to do something, rather than just test them and observe them. That is one reason why learner-centered approaches to assessment can also be helpful. Students are more effective as learners, since they learn more because they are more engaged in the learning process.

Nancy Lauria (New York): And I think it helps them to use the SCANS skills more in the process to think about, "What is it that I've learned, how did I go about doing it, and how does it apply to other kinds of things, besides social studies or English?"

Ed Roeber: The discovery process is not only for students, but also the parents. Many personal and team skills are observable in the home, and parents can become one source of documentation that students can use. For example, if you have a child in an urban environment that is looking after younger siblings before or after school, and that child is doing that successfully, this shows a real sense of responsibility and leadership that other kids do not have an opportunity to demonstrate. So, there are ways that students' work in the home, in the community, in the church, as well as in school can form the basis of the documentation in the portfolio. I think there is a role for employers, too. For example, I have seen schools that have invited employers to review the portfolios of students, and the employers have said such things as, "If I were making a hiring decision today, I probably wouldn't hire you because I do not see any evidence of X, Y, or Z in your portfolio." Or, "I think you've got a real strong portfolio and you look like a candidate that would work out really well in my place."

Nancy Lauria (New York): I think the portfolio also fits in very nicely with the federal requirements for program evaluation. It is not just for kids with severe disabilities. I think that it fits in very nicely and it can help with the transition planning too, because you see where the student is, where their strengths are, and what needs to be built upon.

Ed Roeber: I personally feel that every student leaving high school, regardless of where they are going or what kind of student they are, should have an employability skills portfolio.

Nancy Lauria (New York): I agree. It is a nice beginning for a work experience folder to take with them when they go on.

Ed Roeber: It is the kind of thing I have worked with my son on. When he was in 10th grade he received a Most Improved Bandmanship Award. I asked him, "How would that fit within your portfolio?" And he said, "Well, it shows that I was pretty lousy in 9th grade." And I said, "No, it shows more than that. Doesn't it show something about you between 9th and 10th grade?" And he said, "Yes, it shows that I set a goal, I worked really hard, and I accomplished it." I said, "Yes. And that is good evidence to an employer that you'll work really hard to overcome any kind of deficiencies the employer might find in you when they've hired you. Guess what? That's something that employers really want."

Students need to look at each piece or evidence and ask themselves, "What does it mean, what does it tell about me, what would it say to someone who might want to hire me?" Teachers might want to look at the evidence and say, "What does it say about the quality of the program that we've provided? Has this program been successful?"

Mary Mack: Ed, do you know of portfolio systems where there is also suggestions for reflective learning? You are talking about a reflective learning process and some tools that teachers, parents, and employers can engage in to maximize the benefit of the portfolios to students themselves?

Ed Roeber: Well, I have seen places where they have students complete a reflective summary of their portfolio at a particular time in which they indicate what it says about themselves and what they can and cannot do. I have not seen anything that would draw teachers, parents, or employers into that other than perhaps a student making a presentation about themselves. We have some school districts in Michigan, for example, that have the student present the portfolio to the parents and teachers in a small community group of maybe six to ten individuals, and then the students are evaluated based on that as part of their portfolio assessment process. That proved to be of value to the student. I am not sure of the extent of this.

Thank you very much for the opportunity of speaking.

Mary Mack: This presentation has been extremely informative. There will be a transcript that will go out to the individuals that received the flier and additional paperwork on this conference. Next month in November there will be a teleconference for those state teams that have attended the National Transition Alliance Forum in Washington, DC last month. In December we will not be having a conference call so the next conference call that will be open will be in January and that will be on including youth with disabilities in school-to-work in relation to the criminal justice system. So thank you very much for participating. If there's any information that you need from the NTA, you could give me a call at (612)624-7579.

National Transition Alliance for Youth with Disabilities (NTA) conference call presentations are sponsored by the NTA and coordinated by the National Transition Network. For a copy of this or other transcripts, contact us at:

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URL: http://ici1.umn.edu/ntn/audio/1997/oct.html
Posted May 28, 1998
ncset@umn.edu