The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Department of Elementary & Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148-5023
Telephone: (781) 338-3000
TTY: N.E.T. Relay 1-800-439-2370
Adult and Community Learning Services
TO:
ABE Directors, SABES Coordinators, WIA Administrators, Career Centers, LWIB,
Teacher/All Staff
FROM:
Jolanta Conway, Acting ABE State Director
DATE:
August 8, 2014
RE:
What's in this Mailing?
Attached is the monthly mailing for August. Please review the information and share with your staff.

ABE Career Readiness Initiative Update
Thank you to the 18 programs that participated in July 30th’s Invitation to the Career Readiness Initiative
webinar! We hope the webinar was informative and appreciated all of your good questions. ACLS would
also like to thank Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development Undersecretary for Workforce
Development Jennifer James Price and Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board Director Cheryl Scott
for creating and facilitating the presentation.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, Department of Career
Services, the Executive Office of Education, its Departments of Elementary and Secondary Education, and
the consortium of 15 community colleges represented under the Transformation Agenda have developed
the Career Readiness Initiative (CRI) to improve education and career readiness within our state to help
individuals obtain and retain gainful employment. One exciting component of the CRI is making ACT
Career Ready 101 licenses available to adult education programs – free of charge!
ACT Career Ready 101 is a self–paced, online career exploration and academic remediation system; it
brings together courses from both ACT KeyTrain and the ACT Soft Skills Suite. Through KeyTrain, the
program prepares users for the ACT WorkKeys and the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate
(NCRC), a portable credential that demonstrates achievement and a level of workplace employability skills.
For more information on ACT Career Ready 101, go to: http://www.keytrain.com/careerready101.asp.
For those who could not attend the webinar, here is the link http://acls.adobeconnect.com/p6v3t3auj96/.
Please view the webinar to find out if your program is eligible for this resource. License holder selection
criteria are also attached.

Assessment Update
Take advantage of a 3-Graduate Credit Test Construction Course at UMass available for ABE Instructors!

Education and Career Planning
As part of our state’s ongoing effort to prepare students for college and careers, ACLS created the
following ECP policy:
 In FY15, agencies must engage in Education and Career Planning with at least 50% of students with
some representation at all levels.
 In FY16, agencies must engage in Education and Career Planning with at least 75% of students with
some representation at all levels.
 In FY17, agencies must engage in Education and Career Planning with all students.

Educator Policy Team – Application for EPT
Invitation to Join the ACLS Educator Policy Team

Family Engagement
You won’t want to miss this exciting event to be held at Devens Commons Center at Springhill Suites in
Devens, MA, sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the
Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP). The goal of the symposium is to
provide the most current information on how networks, programs and agencies can be instrumental
in increasing parents’ financial skills and behaviors and overall family financial well-being.
SYMPOSIUM ON PROMISING PRACTICES IN FINANCIAL EDUCATION
FOR PARENTS OF YOUNG CHILDREN
Connecting Early Learning Communities to Asset Building
Friday, October 24, 2014 from 8 AM to 4 PM
Stay tuned for more information on workshops and other exciting activities. There is no registration fee for
this symposium and lunch will be provided. Print out the Save the Date flyer and pass it along to your
colleagues!

Issuing High School Equivalency (HSE) Credentials and Verifications
As we move forward with a new high school equivalency test, we are also changing how we provide
examinees with their documents. Test Centers will no longer issue official score reports/transcripts and the
High School Equivalency (HSE) Office at ESE will not be issuing the high school equivalency credentials.
We have contracted with Diploma Sender to manage and provide the required documentation of all our
data information for examinees.

Orientation for New ABE Directors
ABE Directors hired recently and in the last fiscal year (FY14) are required to attend the New Directors’
Orientation which includes three working sessions. This orientation, organized by Adult and Community
Learning Services (ACLS), provides opportunities for participants to gain an overall awareness of the
Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (ESE) Adult Basic Education (ABE) system, including
the ACLS Guidelines for Community Adult Learning Centers and Adult Basic Education Programs in
Correctional Institutions , the Massachusetts Indicators of Adult Basic Education Program Quality, learn
about key ACLS initiatives, and network with other Directors.

SMARTT Update
-SMARTT System Moves to FY15 on Thursday, September 4th at 6:30PM
-Late Data Entry and Automatic Exit Schedule for FY15
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
ABE Career Readiness Initiative License Selection Criteria
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, its Department of Career Services, the
Executive Office of Education, its Departments of Higher Education and Elementary and Secondary Education, and
the consortium of 15 community colleges represented under the Transformation Agenda have jointly developed the
Career Readiness Initiative (CRI) to improve the education and career readiness services provided within the state
to help individuals obtain and retain gainful employment.
One component of the CRI program is making ACT Career Ready 101 licenses available to adult education
programs. Career Ready 101 is a self-paced, online career exploration and academic remediation system for an
unlimited number of users. For more information about ACT Career Ready 101, go to:
http://www.keytrain.com/careerready101.asp.
Programs interested in obtaining a Career Ready 101 license must meet the criteria below. In addition, once
selected, programs will be required to sign a User/License Holder Agreement and meet the criteria therein.
1. A commitment to blended learning. Programs must demonstrate a commitment to blended learning, in
which classroom instruction methods are combined with computer-mediated activities. For example, 1 hour of
a 6-hour a week program would be spent in a computer lab using Career Ready 101.
2. A designated staff person (e.g., a teacher or “learning coach” for each course). Successful blended
learning classes must have teachers or “learning coaches” to mentor, monitor, coach, and, on occasion (or as
needed), instruct students.
3. Commitment to integrating into Program Design. Programs must incorporate the Career Ready 101
level class into their weekly schedules. For example, an evening Pre-ASE class that meets Tuesday and
Thursday evenings from 5:00-8:00 will use Career Ready 101 Thursdays from 7:00-8:00.
4. Access to technology. The class must have regular access to computer labs or the use of laptop carts or
tablets during scheduled meeting times.
5. Relationship with community college and/or career center. Priority will be given to programs that have
established referral relationships with community colleges, and/or routinely have their students register with
their local One-Stop Career Center.
6. Ensure staffing to meet needs of service delivery model and that staff are properly trained.
7. Agree to attend all regional user group meetings.
8. Agree to track and report outcomes and results.
9. Appropriate system requirements. Programs must be able to meet all the system requirements, which
can be found at http://www.keytrain.com/requirements.asp.
If your program can meet all of the above criteria, and if you are interested in obtaining a Career Ready 101
license, email Derek Kalchbrenner at dkalchbrenner@doe.mass.edu by September 30, 2014. In your reply,
please describe briefly how you would like to integrate Career Ready 101 into your program.
3
Assessment Update, August 2014
Take Advantage of a 3-Graduate Credit Test Construction Course at UMass Available for ABE Instructors!
This fall, the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will offer a special section of the
course “Fundamentals of Test Construction” for ABE teachers in Massachusetts. Five scholarships are available to
cover tuition (a $1,700 value) for ABE teachers to receive three credits for this graduate course through UMass
continuing education. The course is a “blended” course, which means some classes will be held online. The inperson classes will be held on Tuesdays from 9:15 to 11:45 at UMass Amherst. There will be 8 in-person classes
and 5 online classes between September 2, 2014 and December 2, 2014. This course will cover fundamentals of
educational testing, how to develop test items, and policy and fairness issues in educational testing. As part of the
course, students will write items for the MAPT. To view a recent syllabus for this course, please visit
http://people.umass.edu/~sireci/tc.pdf.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Stephen G. Sireci, professor of the class, at
sireci@acad.umass.edu.
Questions? The Center for Educational Assessment is responding to assessment questions from the field.
Contact April Zenisky at aclstesthelp@educ.umass.edu.
4
Education and Career Planning (ECP) – August, 2014
As part of our state’s ongoing effort to prepare students for college and careers, ACLS created the following ECP
policy:



In FY15, agencies must engage in Education and Career Planning with at least 50% of students with some
representation at all levels.
In FY16, agencies must engage in Education and Career Planning with at least 75% of students with some
representation at all levels.
In FY17, agencies must engage in Education and Career Planning with all students.
What the policy will look like in programs:
Any of the following in various stages of completeness would be considered engaging in education and career
planning. The list below is not exhaustive; programs could have their own list of ECP activities:






Curricula, units, lessons that incorporate CCR and the CCR Standards for Adult Education
(http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/CCRStandardsAdultEd.pdf )
Classroom activities related to CCR (e.g., review of college application information, college or career guest
speakers, review of college websites, activities from the Integrating Career Awareness curriculum at
http://www.collegetransition.org/docs/ICAcurriculumguide.pdf, job searches on O*NET
http://www.onetonline.org)
Goal setting activities
Accuplacer work
Discussion and activities on transferrable skills
Visit to a college, career center, businesses, etc.
Since Education and Career Planning can include so many different activities, ACLS requires the use of
documented education and career plans to capture the education and career planning that occurs in programs.
To assist programs in this effort, the following resources – updated as of July 2014 – can be found on the ECP
webpage (http://www.doe.mass.edu/acls/ecp/):



Sample ECP Template: created by the 2013 ACLS Advising Task Force, the template is available for
programs to use; however, it is not required. Programs can create their own template as long as certain
key elements are incorporated.
Key Elements List: contains key components of ECP.
Guide for Completing the Student Education and Career Plan: aligned with the ECP template, the
guide provides resources to assist with the ECP process.
5
Invitation to Join the ACLS
Educator Policy Team
Overview:
In 2011, ACLS established an Educator Policy Team (EPT) charged with developing policy for educator quality and
effectiveness that
 builds teacher capacity and strengthens ABE instruction,
 informs professional development, and
 supports the capacity of teachers and directors to implement the College and Career Readiness Standards
to ensure students gain the academic skills needed to be successful in their next steps.
ACLS is seeking experienced program directors to join this team as we continue to develop and refine policies
related to educator quality and effectiveness. In FY15, the work of this team will focus on refining the proposed
Massachusetts ABE Teacher Evaluation System and developing a Pathways Credential Model that supports
teacher growth and advancement. As a member of this team you will be expected to
1. actively participate in one face to face meeting in Malden and one conference call per month (a total of 19
in FY15),
2. stay in communication with the Team as needed by responding to emails and/or phone calls,
3. read a few research articles, Teacher Task Force Report and review ACLS Professional Standards prior to
the first meeting in September,
4. regularly review meeting minutes posted on Wiggio,
5. make policy and procedure recommendations through group consensus to the ABE State Director,
6. abide by the meeting norms, including confidentiality.
Time Commitment:
Ten months: September 2014 – June 2015
19 meetings: 2.5 hours per meeting, 5 hours per month (schedule attached)
Eligibility Requirements:
1. Programs in Tiers 1, 2 or 3
2. At least 5 years experience as a program director
3. At least 3 years experience developing policy (e.g. attendance, curriculum, staff evaluation)
4. Willing and able to maintain a statewide view of the ABE system
5. Commitment to attend all meetings
6. Ability to collaborate and work to consensus
Compensation:
Selected program directors will receive $50/hr for each meeting/conference call in which they participate for a total
of $2,375 (47.5 hours). This payment is inclusive of travel and incidentals; materials and/or equipment needed to
execute the duties outlined above. Payments will be distributed to each participating director as a stipend.
Application Deadline:
Educator Policy Team Application for Membership
Questions may be submitted in writing to sspeciale@doe.mass.edu by August 29, 2014.
Completed applications must be submitted by Friday, September 5, 2014 to
Suzanne Speciale
Adult and Community Learning Services
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA 02148
6
Educator Policy Team
2014-2015 Meeting Schedule
Month
2014
Date
Room
Format
25
304
Face to Face
9
23
304
304
F2F
Conference Call
6
20
303
303
F2F
Conf Call
4
18
303
303
F2F
Conf Call
8
22
301
303
F2F
Conf Call
5
19
303
303
F2F
Conf Call
5
19
303
304
F2F
Conf Call
2
16
303
304
F2F
Conf Call
7
21
303
304
F2F
Conf Call
4
18
303
304
F2F
F2F
September
October
November
December
2015
January
February
March
April
May
June
* All dates are Thursdays
* All meetings are 10:00am - 12:30pm
* Meetings may be rescheduled as the need arises
* Face to face meetings are held at 75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA
* Google docs, join.me and other online tools are used for conference calls
7
$AVE THE DATE!!
Friday, October 24, 2014
8 AM to 4 PM
Symposium on Promising Practices in Financial Education
for Parents of Young Children
Connecting Early Learning Communities to Asset Building
to be held at Devens Common Center, Devens, MA.
Who should attend? Networks, programs and agencies that provide, or are interested in providing, financial
education for parents of young children (birth to third grade).
Stay tuned for more information on speakers, workshops and other exciting activities. There is no registration fee
for this symposium. Lunch will be provided. Space is limited and registrations will be on a first-come-first-serve
basis.
Registration information coming soon!
For further information contact: Patricia Pelletier, MASSCAP, 508-982-8535, patricia@pelletier-consulting.com or
for question related to EEC's Financial Education Literacy Project contact
Jennifer Amaya-Thompson, HSSCO Director (EEC), 617-988-6634, jennifer.amaya-thompson@state.ma.us
Symposium Advisory Committee: Administration for Children and Families-Office of Head Start-Region 1; Community Teamwork, Inc.;
Head Start State Collaboration Office; MA Association for Community Action; MA Department of Early Education and Care; MA
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; MA Department of Housing and Community Development; MA Department of Public
Health; MA Head Start Association; MA State Treasurer’s Office
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
8
Issuing High School Equivalency (HSE)
Credentials and Verifications
As we move forward with a new high school equivalency test, we are also changing how we provide examinees
with their documents. Test Centers will no longer issue official score reports/transcripts and the High School
Equivalency (HSE) Office at ESE will not be issuing the high school equivalency credentials. We have contracted
with Diploma Sender to manage and provide the required documentation of all our data information for examinees.
As has been our practice the examinees will receive a free original high school equivalency credential as well as
the official high school equivalency transcript. After that, individuals will have to pay for any additional copies of
these documents they may need for verification purposes for employers, post secondary institution, and others.
The companion document to this announcement, MA Training Document, provides you with an overview of what
Diploma Sender will be providing starting August 18, 2014. Prior to that, we will have a process in place to make
sure all individuals who have successfully completed the HSE testing will get their initial free documents.
If you have any questions, please contact the HSE Office.
Diploma Sender
9
Announcing an Orientation for New ABE Directors
ABE Directors hired recently and in the last fiscal year (FY14) are required to attend the New Directors’ Orientation
which includes three working sessions. This orientation, organized by Adult and Community Learning Services
(ACLS), provides opportunities for participants to gain an overall awareness of the Department of Elementary &
Secondary Education (ESE) Adult Basic Education (ABE) system, including the ACLS Guidelines for Community
Adult Learning Centers and Adult Basic Education Programs in Correctional Institutions , the Massachusetts
Indicators of Adult Basic Education Program Quality, learn about key ACLS initiatives, and network with other
Directors.
New Director’s Orientation will be held on the following dates:
Date
Session 1
Monday, November 17, 2014
10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Session 2
Friday, February 27, 2015
10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Snow Date: Friday, March 6, 2015
Session 3
Friday, April 3, 2015
10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Snow Date: Friday, April 17, 2015
Location
ESE75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA
ESE75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA
ESE75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA
ABE Directors may register for these sessions by sending an e-mail no later than Friday, October 31, 2014 to
sspeciale@doe.mass.edu. Please include your full name, the full name of the program and your telephone
number. These sessions build on one another so plan to attend all three sessions in their entirety. We look forward
to hearing from all new ABE Directors!
10