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Managing Development Timelines in Assessment Tool Design
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The ASAP initiative focuses on discovering and documenting assessment needs in adult education and workforce development and responding to those needs through the creation of online banks of literacy and numeracy tasks. These assessments are intended to serve adult learners, educators, employers, and researchers. Rather than functioning as a traditional academic study, ASAP is primarily a product development effort informed by a series of user experience (UX) studies. The development process has been grounded in extensive practitioner input, beginning with a…
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Leveraging Multiple Channels to Disseminate Assessment Tools
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The ASAP initiative is focused on identifying and responding to assessment needs in adult education and workforce development through the creation of online banks of literacy and numeracy tasks. Designed to support adult learners, educators, employers, and researchers, ASAP is primarily a product development effort informed by a series of user experience (UX) studies. These studies have involved adult education practitioners and learners across the United States, with needs assessment data collected in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New York.…
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Co-Designing Assessments Through Purposeful Partnerships
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The ASAP initiative was launched to address a persistent gap in adult education and workforce development: the lack of flexible, meaningful assessment tools that reflect the real skills adult learners use in educational, workplace, and everyday contexts. ASAP aims to discover and document assessment needs across adult education and workforce systems and to meet those needs by developing online banks of literacy and numeracy tasks. Rather than approaching this work as a traditional academic study, ASAP has functioned primarily as a product development effort…
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CREATE @ COABE 2026 Posters
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The PDF file below contains all of the posters for the CREATE Research Teams presenting sessions at the COABE 2026 National Conference.
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Participate in the ASAP Pilot!
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Help shape the future of assessments for adults.As part of the IES-funded Adult Skills Assessment Program (ASAP), the University of Massachusetts Amherst is piloting short math and reading assessments for adult learners. Currently, learners can take:The ASAP Math Pilot Placement AssessmentASAP Math Assessments associated with selected CALM unitsASAP Reading Assessments associated with SkillBloxASAP Math assessments for students interested in semiconductor training programsASAP assessments for workers in the strawberry harvesting industryWe are inviting…
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A Year Ahead: About the CREATE Research Teams
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Interested in learning more about the CREATE Research Teams? This document compiles one-page flyers about each team. Read more about what their project is and questions they have for the field among other ideas.
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Current Assessment Needs in Adult Education and Workforce Development
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The present report summarizes the research conducted through focus groups, literature reviews, and listening sessions to understand and document the specific assessment needs in adult education and workforce development.
(November 2023)
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Assessing the Dimensionality of O*NET Cognitive Ability Ratings Across Job Zones
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The present report analyzes the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) data, revealing social skills, reasoning skills, and verbal skills are important for success across different types of jobs.
(February 2024)
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Texas Standards 2.0 Webinar
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Webinar recorded on 11/3/2021 for the UMass ASAP project. Here, presenters Maria Elena Oliveri, Karl Haigler, and Anson Green provide an explanation of how the Texas 2.0 adult education/workforce development standards were created. These standards bridged adult education and job training programs using the O*NET job classification system. More info about the Texas Standards 2.0 project, including the Standards themselves, is available here.
(November 2021)
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Assessment Resources in Adult Education and Workforce Development
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As part of ASAP we reviewed the literature and practices in adult education and workforce development to compile information on existing assessments and related resources. We plan to periodically update this compilation, so feedback on the structure, content, and organization of the compilation is welcome, as are suggestions for resources not yet included (asap@umass.edu).
(September 2022)
