Educators

My teachers became my second family. They made me feel a part of something bigger for the first time in my life.

– Juan, Vista Adult School

AEP Questions and Answers

This is a collection of questions that are most frequently asked of the AEP Office. They are organized by topic area and will be updated as needed.

Assessments

WIOA Title II funded providers must use an NRS approved assessment students for all ABE, ASE, and ESL students enrolled in Title II funded programs. In California, the mandated assessment tools for Title II are CASAS.
Non-WIOA Title II funded programs may opt to use a NRS approved assessment to measure student skills gains in ABE, ASE, and ESL or, particularly for colleges, will by December be able to use course completion of a noncredit basic skills course or noncredit CDCP certificate based on the CB21 levels below transfer that are being cross-walked to the NRS Educational Functioning Levels.
Providers who wish to use course completion for reporting a measurable skills gain for ABE, ASE, or ESL students will want to wait until their January data report to report that data as the CB21/NRS crosswalk will not be available to the field until December.

If a student completes HSE or high school diploma, then that student does not need to post-test. Recommended practice for pretesting: administer an appraisal for that student. If using a CASAS appraisal, for example, if the student scores below 236, then that student qualifies for NRS levels and should be pre/post-tested. If the student scores 236+, then they have scored too high to make level gains for NRS reporting, so pre/post-testing is not required.

Citizenship Prep is not part of AEP reporting, so there are no specific requirements in AEP for this focus area. If you have ESL students enrolled in Cit Prep classes for WIOA II, however, then the pre/post-tests you use for this purpose can also serve as the pre/post for AEP.

Technically, pre/post is still required for ESL, ABE, and ASE. What you heard is just an “alternative” based on credits – it is assumed using credits will be practical at some agencies but definitely not all. We still recommend pre/post for HSE and HS diploma students… so the plan you have established should still be effective.

The NRS/CB21 crosswalk is intended to be used to ensure that students transitioning from K12 adult ed into community college coursework are placed at the appropriate CB21 level and to allow colleges to report CB21 course complete as a measurable skills gain for college noncredit students. It is a tool to support local alignment of course content, transition, and service alignment across systems, but there is no specific guidance on its use to address duplication or overlap of services at this time.

This would be true if you are using the appropriate credits to show the gain. Please work with CASAS as they have covered in the regional training how to use high school diploma credits to show gains (which is aligned with the federal WIOA and Carnegie units).

Here is the link Jay Wright says he uses to access the NRS approved assessment list: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/13/2016-29899/tests-determined-to-be-suitable-for-use-in-the-national-reporting-system-for-adult-education

Short answer is pre/post-testing is required for all AEP students in ABE, ASE (Adult Secondary -- that means HSE/HS diploma) and ESL. We use the term "WIOA II" as the way to designate that testing is required for the those federal funded Title II programs (the three I mention above) but is not required for those other programs that are included in AEP reporting but not included in WIOA II.
Slide 83 refers to next year, not 17-18 -- and refers more to which data system you will be allowed to use, not anything related to pre/post. Potentially, next year in 18-19, CCD's will be able to use their CCCCO MIS to report for AEP instead of using TE. You can check with the AEP office, but my understanding is that system currently does not include some critical AEP reporting elements, so it is not authorized for 17-18; but potentially this programming will be ready for 18-19.
The bottom bullet you reference is just to reinforce that, regardles of what is/is not allowed for AEP, CCD's that receive WIOA II federal funding will still need to use TE for their WIOA II reporting, just like always.