| SAN DIEGO, February 7, 2018 – CASAS announces that its new Reading GOALS test series has received a full seven-year approval from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE), for use in the federal National Reporting System (NRS) at all levels of Adult Basic Education and Adult Secondary Education. This seven-year approval period began February 5, 2018, and continues through February 5, 2025. The NRS is an outcome-based reporting system for the state-administered, federally funded adult education program. Agencies receiving funding through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) can use the Reading GOALS series to meet federal reporting requirements for ABE and ASE programs. TOPSpro Enterprise, a CASAS-developed software program, meets federal reporting requirements to collect and report all required data for NRS reporting. The U.S. Department of Education approval recognizes the Reading GOALS test series as a standardized assessment instrument that has undergone extensive field-testing and statistical analysis procedures to ensure reliable and valid test results. The series is fully aligned to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards for Adult Education and measures rigorous academic reading skills. The Reading GOALS series covers the full range of reading abilities from Beginning Literacy through High Adult Secondary, ensuring that programs can use the new CASAS Reading GOALS series with adult learners making the transition to post-secondary education and training. The Reading GOALS series is available for online testing through CASAS eTests Online. The online testing system provides immediate results for students, instructors, and administrators. Paper-based tests will be available in late May. Agencies using the existing Life and Work Reading 80 series, the Life and Work Listening 980 series, or the Life Skills Math 30 series may continue to do so for NRS reporting purposes through June 30, 2019. CASAS will submit the new Math GOALS series to OCTAE this spring for NRS approval. For ESL programs, CASAS is developing a reading and listening series based on the recently released NRS level descriptors for ESL. Since 1980, CASAS has been the premier assessment system of choice by adult education and workforce training programs to identify the initial skill level for program entry, measure adult learners’ progress, and document successful learning outcomes. In addition to the NRS assessments, CASAS supports the National External Diploma Program, a competency- and performance-based adult high school diploma, the Workforces Skills Certification Program, and standardized assessments validated for adults who have disabilities. CASAS values its long-term relationship with all adult education and workforce training program providers and state leadership staff. Please do not hesitate to contact us at casas@casas.org or at 800-255-1036 with any questions about any CASAS test series. For more information about the Reading GOALS series, visit the CASAS website at
www.casas.org/docs/default-source/product-brochures/reading-goals-for-abe-faqs.pdf |