A TOPSpro Implementation Story
Sally Schroeder asked me to let people know of my CASAS/TOPSPRO experience, so here is a portion.
My intention in this message is twofold. First I want to thank John for his insight and persistence in bringing CASAS and TOPSPRO to Iowa. As you may or may not know I was neither a fan nor even a supporter of CASAS in the early years. After playing around with it last year, and fully implementing it this year I am SOLD! Secondly, I want to clearly communicate the love, joy, and admiration that I possess for the TOPSPRO and CASAS systems. I don't intend to offend those of you who are proficient and using TOPSPRO, but I do hope to persuade and encourage the non-believers. I apologize for the length; once I got revved up this morning my fingers got a bit carried away.
Since we got the scanner functioning on August 10th I have done all the TOPSPRO activities to date. Our first orientation was on Monday, August 16. Since that time we have enrolled 424 students in our ESL, Literacy, ABE, & GED program. Using the scanner is nothing short of amazing. After one orientation with 30 students, all the entry records, name records, and address records were inputted via scanner and errors corrected in less than 15 minutes. Perhaps a data entry professional could hand-key the information as quickly, but I know that I couldn't.
Rest assured that during the first two weeks I made a multitude of errors. One of my greatest sources of frustration is the errors that students make in filling out the forms. Even though we use overheads and talk them through each form, the creativity that they display is phenomenal.
I soon found that nothing can beat the over-ride scanning function. If you sort out the entry forms by class, program, entry date, and instructional level you can override whatever the students have bubbled in and eliminate those errors.
An error that could be eliminated with CAREFUL review of the forms that drives me crazy is when the student does not consistently bubble their social security number. In one case a single student managed to establish 5 different entries by making 5 different errors in his social security number on the entry form, the name record, the address record, the reading pre-test, and the math pre-test. To avoid such a problem I always checkout the "batch repair" function, student lister, entry lister, and class lister after every scan. This way I can reconcile any errors of inconsistencies right then. The above mentioned student was among my first groups and I did everything wrong that I could have possibly done. It took me the better part of an afternoon to figure out who he was and consolidate all his records under one social security number. What a joy!
Since the start of the year we have also scanned 136 pre-tests. Once again, I strongly recommend using all the override scanning functions possible.
The information that I am able to provide the instructors is incredible. They start off the class knowing more about each student than they might have collected over several weeks in the past. Also, after providing students with an overview of the Certification process at orientation, the instructors review it prior to the CASAS pre-testing (forms 11-18). Then, when the students receive their reports they have a very clear view of their strengths and what they need to work on. Although we could always do something like this with the various appraisals in the textbooks or the GED Practice tests, other methods fall short of the official computer report that is generated via TOPSPRO.
What I really look forward to is their reaction at the end of the semester when we post-test and award certificates. We awarded approximately 140 certificates last year. I can think of little other than GED graduation that I do over the course of the year that gave me as much satisfaction.
Now, as for those of you without a scanner or at remote sites who are saying, "Well that is fine and dandy for you, but your setting is do different, I can't do CASAS or TOPSPRO in my setting." All I can say is - I think that with some creative applications it can be used almost anywhere.
Anticipating those remaining skeptics (I know that you are out there - I was a compatriot not so long ago), I have set up TOPSPRO on a second computer (computer B) that is not connected to a scanner. At this station I have been doing hand-entry of all ESL Students (n`, as of 9/23/99). As well as the onesy & twosy entry records, testing records, and corrections and clean-up. Then every couple of days I "export" these files to a disk and "import" them to the main computer (computer A) that has the scanner connected. In addition, as records have been scanned into computer A, I export them via disk back to be imported on computer B. As a result, both machines are relatively up-to-date, and I have back-up files should a machine crash.
Other than not having ANY computer access, I can't think of any reason not to be using TOPSPRO. As I skirt the fringes of blasphemy, even if you are using another assessment, and even if you don't have a scanner, TOPSPRO will enable you to compile data in a way that far exceeds anything else that I have ever had access to.
If you have any questions or comments please call or e-mail. If you are feeling frustrated with it all, I can relate. If you are contemplating a firebomb or assassination, remember that I do have young children who love and need their Daddy.
Jim Schneider, phone (319) 326-5319