April 2009

Welcome to the April 2009 NRS eNotes!

Every few months NRS eNotes highlight additions and attractions of the NRSWeb site, as well as inform you of any upcoming events. Forward this on to other adult education staff in your state and encourage others to sign up to eNotes by emailing nrs@air.org!

2009 Regional Training is Open    

As announced by Larry Condelli in an email to state directors on March 12, 2009, we are pleased to announce the following training dates and locations for The Local Connection: Building a Data use Learning Community:

Washington, DC: May 27-29

San Diego, CA: June 9-11

Madison, WI: June 23-25

State teams should plan to attend the training in their region. The NRS project will sponsor one participant per state, and an additional two staff members per state may attend with a training fee of $300.  State teams are designated by the state director to attend.

Please contact Emily Schuster at eschuster@air.org with questions.

Distance Education Course “NRS Basics: An Introduction to the NRS”  

The first NRS Basics distance education course was conducted February 17–April 6, 2009 with 20 state adult education staff. The state staff learned about the basic elements of an accountability system, the history and purpose of the NRS, the definitions of NRS measures and required methods for collecting and reporting data, how NRS data are used at the state and federal levels, the basic elements of an NRS data system, and methods of quality control to ensure valid and reliable NRS data. 

The next NRS Basics course will be held in the fall and an announcement will be emailed to state directors this summer when registration opens.

New NRS Tips Released

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued revised standards for collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data. The revisions involve new categories that separate race and ethnicity and include two categories for data on ethnicity. In response, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released guidance on how educational institutions and other ED-funded programs should collect and report data on race and ethnicity beginning July 1, 2010.

To help you better understand the new standards, a new NRS Tips was developed entitled, New Standards for Collecting and Reporting Race and Ethnicity Data for the NRS. This new NRS Tips describes the ways in which federally funded adult education programs will have to collect and report race and ethnicity data based on ED’s guidance and their implications.

If you have any questions about the new standards or how to implement them in your State, please email nrs@air.org.

New NRS Online Course Available!

The newest addition to NRS’s suite of online courses, Learning to Be an NRS Data Detective, is now available on www.NRSweb.org.  This in-depth, 7-part online training summarizes NRS requirements in five areas and presents ideas on how to use data to motivate staff and improve data quality and program performance. The online course illustrates the art of being a data detective and using data to monitor performance, understand programs, and plan and evaluate program improvement efforts. 

To complete the training, users must read materials and perform a series of related activities through the use of online worksheets and Excel workbooks and data sheets, or "Data Detective Tools."  While the training is designed to follow a sequence in which each new part builds upon the previous, users may choose to complete any part within the training at any time.  Furthermore, users can either work on the training individually or coordinate their work with colleagues or a group of peers.

The NRS Assessment Database has been Updated!

This NRS Assessment Database provides general information about assessments that may be appropriate for Adult Education and English literacy students. 

The newest assessment in the database is the Diagnostic Assessments of Reading (DAR), and is intended to help teachers identify areas in which struggling readers need help and to demonstrate to students what they already know and steps they should take to improve.  This brings the total number of assessments in the database to 13. 

Please note that inclusion of assessments in this database does not imply endorsement or approval by the NRS or the U.S. Department of Education for use in adult education programs or NRS reporting.  For a listing of NRS-approved assessments, visit the NRSWeb site and view the NRS Test benchmarks for Educational Functioning Levels.