Narrative: f.

The Minnesota Department of Education prioritizes and measures program quality through accountability expectations and activities that focus on both compliance and best practice according to research and experience. The expectations and activities include: 1. The state ABE Management Information System (MIS) data: Minnesota’s MIS balances both program quality and program compliance with state and federal expectations. In addition to required reports, local providers can use the state MIS to analyze student persistence, program outcomes, and other measures at the consortium, site, class and student level. 2. A state AEFLA grantee report card: The report card notes actual performance and ranks providers by key program data measures, including measurable skill gain by population, cost of programming per individual served, intensity of service provided, and percentage of population served. 3. A program improvement process: Programs will be identified for review based on rankings in the state AEFLA report card and will undergo a comprehensive review and monitored implementation of a program improvement plan that requires local providers to complete site visits, workshop activities, reports, and plans to strengthen program performance and quality. (For more information on Program Improvement, see the response to (D) above.) 4. Intensive program application cycle: On a five–year basis, ABE providers are required to complete an in–depth application as a method to adhere to state statute governing local ABE programs. In this intensive application, local providers describe their: a. Consortium, b. Program accountability procedures, c. Professional development priorities and activities, d. Proposed programming, e. Local program governance, f. Program collaboration with key stakeholders and partners, g. Technology resources and integration, h. Future plans, and i. Performance. These in–depth applications are reviewed and scored by a team of state staff from the Minnesota Department of Education and local AEFLA providers. 5. Local program monitoring site visits: All grantees are subject to monitoring site visits that focus on policy compliance and program quality through multiple methods: a. Providers with low performance participate in site visits through the program improvement process; b. All AEFLA grantees receive site visits on a rotating basis, at least once every five years, when the program participates in in–depth application process to continue receiving state ABE funding to comply with state statute; c. Monitoring visits based on periodic desk review of provider data; d. Local ABE providers that participate in state initiatives and/or receive special grants through state or federal funding typically receive site visits as part of their participation; and e. Local providers request special technical assistance site visits as they face issues.

6. Assessing the quality of professional development programs: The Minnesota PD system, overseen by the ABE PD specialist and the Statewide PD Committee, uses a data-driven planning process to identify PD needs, set priorities, design PD, and evaluate PD effectiveness each year. The results of an annual statewide PD needs assessment of local providers, along with evaluation data from previous PD efforts, research regarding best practices, and federal recommendations are used to inform PD priorities and the design and delivery of PD activities. Professional development activities are aligned to the MN ABE PD standards, which emphasize research-based features of effective professional development (Improving Impact Studies of Teachers’ Professional Development by Desimone, 2009) – longer-term, job-embedded activities with opportunities for collaborative participation and the application of new knowledge and skills. The Minnesota ABE Statewide Professional Development Committee and professional development providers use the Thomas Guskey Levels of Professional Development Evaluation (2002) as a framework for their PD evaluation efforts. Evaluation of PD outcomes and quality, especially evidence of teacher change and quality of implementation of new knowledge and skills, is integrated into every PD initiative to ensure the effectiveness of PD activities. Short-term or one-time PD activities such as workshops or conferences are typically evaluated through surveys. Longer-term PD initiatives are evaluated through a variety of methods, including participant surveys, pre/post-tests, classroom observations, program site visits, evaluation of assignments, and focus groups. a. Minnesota will continue to implement Student Achievement in Reading (STAR) program. Evaluation of STAR training includes both training participant surveys, classroom observation, program site visits, as well as analysis of STAR student assessment results. b. Minnesota’s Supplemental Services system, which is funded with a combination of state and federal leadership funds, provides training and supports local programs in implementing program components needed to meet the wide range of needs of Minnesota’s adult education participants including: distance education, use of technology for instruction as well as program management; services related to serving students with disabilities; instructional methodology including evidence-based reading and numeracy instruction; content standards including CCRS, ACES and Northstar Digital Literacy Standards; IET, contextualization and career pathway programming; volunteer recruitment and training; assessment; partner collaborations including workforce, TANF and SNAP, etc. Information regarding the relevance, quality and success of each component of the supplemental services system is collected through an annual professional development survey. In addition, quarterly and annual reporting regarding participation and locally collected participant evaluations are required of all professional development providers and are monitored by state ABE staff. c. The statewide Supplemental Services noted above are available to all paid and volunteer staff. Professional development activities for volunteers are part of the supplemental services system and are also evaluated using the same methods described above. d. Dissemination of information about models and promising practices are facilitated by Minnesota’s Supplemental Services providers. Each provider maintains a website of related resources and all providers provide content for Minnesota’s weekly PD e-newsletter, which is distributed to all ABE staff in the state. Minnesota also maintains online resource libraries for key content areas of instruction, including a career pathway-related curriculum repository. Information regarding the success of the dissemination system is collected annually as part of the Professional Development Survey and via locally collected participant evaluations. It is also evaluated quarterly by the Statewide ABE PD Committee.