Case Study - Using the NRS for the Literacy and Numeracy Programme

The Centrelink Customer Service Officer will contact the provider when the jobseeker has agreed to the Literacy and Numeracy Programme option as part of their mutual obligation arrangements. Ideally this call will be made in the presence of the jobseeker. Centrelink is obligated to provide the jobseeker’s contact details such as name, address and their Jobseeker ID and telephone number. Before the interview the interviewer contacts the jobseeker by phone to provide assistance in locating the centre and understanding the purpose of the interview. The provider keeps a log of these phone contacts.
Organising the initial assessment

Interviews are conducted in the small training room which offers privacy but is close to the student lounge where students congregate. Appointments for interviews are made for afternoons when the centre is being used by young people. Any referral information from Centrelink has been carefully considered prior to the interview and questions reconsidered so that duplication does not occur.

The interview schedule has been developed to enable the jobseeker to pass on information about their needs, their previous education and their goals. It provides opportunities for the interviewee to self assess and to engage in a range of language, literacy and numeracy activities contextualised within the interview. The interviewer can then gauge current competencies, identify the competencies required to meet goals and predict how the interviewee might achieve the outcomes from the programs being offered. The tasks and materials used in the interview process have been mapped against the NRS.

The interview process should provide the opportunity for the interviewer to identify, in general terms, any learning disabilities or barriers to learning. Such information might lead to referral to other services or the provision of additional support.

Conducting the assessment

The pre-training assessment takes about an hour. Assessment tasks are at hand and fit into the flow of the interview schedule. Details of the performance context, assessment context and judgement schema are explicit. Immediate feedback is to be provided during the interview to the interviewee, who should leave with a positive feeling and a greater understanding of options for learning. Performance of the tasks in the interview needs to be reported using the NRS, however the detailed analysis will occur after the interview has concluded. The content of the report is discussed with the jobseeker and a copy of the assessment and the Centrelink Summary of Pre-Training Assessment form is given to them when they commence training (or sent to them if training is not recommended).

Reporting the assessment

The assessor should prepare a report including information for a number of stake holders.
The report should include:

contact details, referral details (if appropriate) and other background information about education and employment history, personal interests and short and long term goals
special needs, including physical and psychological disabilities, child care requirements and time constraints
a description of the current literacy and numeracy skills of the interviewee in terms of the NRS Indicators of Competence
recommendations about the next steps and suitability for the Literacy and Numeracy Programme.

The report is marked CONFIDENTIAL and a copy of the report should be available to the jobseeker. The jobseeker may agree to some information being shared with funding agencies and other professionals involved in the Programme. A cover sheet on the files should indicate to whom the jobseeker has given access to the information. This report should be suitable to pass on to other staff to inform the curriculum and to set up additional support.

The required information for Centrelink and DEST can then be transcribed to the Proforma provided.

Rosie’s Story

Centrelink contact Margaret, the pre-training assessor, to make an appointment for Rosie Black. Margaret asks to speak with Rosie so they have a quick chat. Margaret gives Rosie a few tips on how to find her office at the training providers and tells her a little about what they will discuss. The Centrelink staff write the address and time in her jobseeker diary.

A few days before the interview date, Margaret rings Rosie to remind her of the appointment details.

Rosie arrives for the appointment ten minutes early but Margaret greets her at the door and takes her to the small training room. First she gets some coffees from the kitchen next door. They sit together to have a chat. Margaret tells Rosie that she needs some background information and they need to fill out a couple of forms.

This verbal exchange is enough to establish Indicators of Competence in Oral Communications. Rosie participated in the conversation answering questions about her background. Rosie performs beyond Level 3 of the Indicators of Competence for Oral Communication. At this point Margaret produces a personal information form and a self-assessment form. She gives verbal instructions about how they will complete them (confirming listening in the oral communications noted in the interview).

Margaret has prepared some other materials to confirm the self assessment. She has a folder of reading, writing and numeracy tasks that Rosie can select from. These materials including signs, chemical and medicine labels, newspaper and magazine articles, street directory, etc which have already been mapped to the NRS.

Towards the end of the interview, Margaret asks Rosie to complete a Student Information form. Margaret observes Rosie print her name and address slowly and take out her Health Card to check the spelling of the street and suburb. She crosses out some letters and makes the corrections. Rosie indicates interest in pursuing courses and work in child care. Margaret uses the Language and Literacy Features and Performance Strategies for detailed descriptions to discriminate between level 1, 2 and 3 Indicators of Competence.

After some discussion about a topic, Rosie decides to write a short piece about her pet cat. Margaret leaves her to write but keeps her in view to observe discretely how she goes about writing. After about three minutes she notices that Rosie is getting restless so she stops the exercise. They discuss the writing together before moving on to some informal numeracy tasks and to discuss Rosie’s learning options. This provides an opportunity to identify any barriers, learning style preferences and to establish the Learning Strategies Indicators of Competence.

Margaret winds up the interview by explaining what she will put in the report and making sure Rosie understands what will happen (another listening task).

Margaret takes the forms and tasks she has used and writes up her report which is reproduced below and completes the SUMMARY OF PRE-TRAINING ASSESSMENT for DEST. The first page of the report is immediately faxed to the referring Centrelink office.

Margaret writes up her own report for her files. This includes filling out the Assessment Cover Sheet and attaching the assessment tasks with her annotations. She also attached a photocopy of NRS Language, Literacy and Numeracy Features and Performance Strategies, highlighting those features which support the Indicators of Competence she has reported.

Name ……Rosie Black ……………………… Job SEeker ID ………………………				ASSESSMENT TASK COVER SHEET
Performance Outcomes NRS Indicators of Competence		Reading: Writing:, Oral Communication: Learning Strategies: Numeracy	1.1, 1.2 1.3, 1.4 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 (Perhaps even higher) 2.8 1.9, 1.10
Instructional Context: A Pre training Assessment
TASK CONSTRUCT Activity -an integrated assessment task The jobseeker participates in an interview and completes a form containing personal details and a writing sample. The interviewee provides written and verbal information
PERFORMANCE CONTEXT NRS Conditions of Performance, NRS Aspects of Communication and Workplace and Social Context	Reading Rosie needed a lot of support in attempting to read the form. She needed to be verbally cued in to establish the topic. Once in a familiar context she used her prior knowledge and experience. Struggled with content of forms which needed to be read before she could attempt answers. Writing Level 1 Rosie wrote her own name but needed to refer to Health Card to check spelling of address. Writing uneven with mixed case lettering and mix of print and cursive script. Oral Communications Rosie ably participated in the interview. Resorted to verbal clarification continuously and tried to digress from the task by continuing discussions. Numeracy Rosie’s self assessment demonstrated the need to learn or revise simple mathematical processes but her performance was limited by poor reading and writing.
ASSESSMENT CONTEXT Information about the task Formal or informal process Duration or time constraints Assessment approach Individual or group activity NRS Assessment Principles	Rosie relied almost exclusively on verbal instruction to the tasks although written instructions were available. An hour was available for the whole assessment process. Rosie completed the interview in 50 minutes. The interview process allowed for multiple opportunities to perform. The activities, simple enrolment and self assessment forms, were authentic activities for the social context.
JUDGEMENT SCHEMA Performance Criteria NRS Language Literacy and Numeracy Features and Performance Strategies	Reading and Writing Level 1 Language and Literacy Features and Performance Strategies Numeracy Level 1 Numeracy Features and Performance Strategies Oral Communication Level 3 Language and Literacy Features and Performance Strategies Other Comments: Rosie’s numeracy performance was hampered by her poor literacy skills. Time limited the ability to explore numeracy more fully. This needs to be further explored and possible NRS rating adjusted. Her Oral Communication was demonstrated to level 3 but is probably higher (native English speaker).

Margaret attaches photocopies of:

NRS LANGUAGE AND LITERACY FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES Level 1 (for Reading and Writing assessments)

NRS LANGUAGE AND LITERACY FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES Level 3 (for Oral Communication assessment)

NRS NUMERACY FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES Level 1 Numeracy

She marks relevant ‘dot points’ on the copies. Attaches copies of the assessment tasks and student response if available.

Documentation for Centrelink:

The SUMMARY OF PRE-TRAINING ASSESSMENT - Literacy and Numeracy Programme form is a very important document for the provider. It basically sets the number of hours of training that Rosie will have access to and determines the outcomes the provider has to reach in order to be fully paid for the service.

If rated overall at level 1 then the jobseeker will have access to 400 hours of training, if level 2, then 300 hours will be offered. Rosie has achieved only some of the Indicators of Competence for Reading, Writing and Numeracy at level 1. She has high Oral Communication Skills at level 3 or even higher and Learning Strategy Indicators at level 2. The Reading, Writing and Numeracy Indicators are the ones in which progress has to be demonstrated. Margaret circles NRS Level 1 indicating that on balance Rosie will need 400 hours of training.

The NRS indicators of Competence are ‘rounded down’ to the lowest level to give the optimum training to improve the jobseeker's literacy skills.

Quon’s story

Centrelink staff contact Margaret to arrange an interview for Quon Ong. Quon gets his friend to ring Margaret back to confirm the details. Quon brings his friend to the interview. Pat, the ESL teacher, whom Margaret has asked to conduct the assessment, explains the process to Quon who seeks clarification from his friend. Quon moves from halting English to Vietnamese in the course of the discussion relying on his friend to act as an interlocutor.

Pat asks Quon if he can fill out the form she produces. He understands the kind of information that is being sought but is not able to write much more than his name. He has some difficulty reading some of the words on the form. Pat proceeds by reading aloud in English allowing time for his friend to translate into Vietnamese.

Pat is able to establish that Quon is 23 years old and was born in Vietnam migrating to Australia when he was 11 years old. He attended secondary school in Australia until he was 17, except for a short interval of 9 months when he returned to Vietnam with his family. He did not do well at school in Australia. He attended a Language Centre for some time and specialist ESL classes but he felt as if he was always behind and could not catch up. His interests were not ‘academic’ anyway, and he wished his school had offered courses that were more ‘technical’ such as mechanical courses. Since leaving school, Quon has had a number of part-time jobs including stocking shelves, helping in a kitchen, helping at his uncle’s garage, and some factory work. He has not attended any courses although he realises he has to do this to ‘get on’. Pat fills in the form with the relevant details from this translated conversation.

Pat then moves to the self assessment form. She asks the questions verbally and adjusts the questions to find out about Quon’s reading and writing habits in his first language. These questions are asked through Quon’s friend. Quon reads and writes quite extensively in Vietnamese but does not use English much at all.

Before finishing the interview Pat needs to check Quon’s numeracy. His self assessment indicates that he is quite capable. He selects a task that Pat has on hand which shows performance at level 3 or beyond.

Pat decides she has enough information without getting Quon to do anything more. She explains what she will write in the report and what is likely to happen next. Quon indicates to his friend that he understands and is looking forward to starting classes to improve his English.

Pat returns to the office, and after a quick cup of coffee and chat with Margaret, prepares her report and the Summary of Pre-Training Assessment page which Margaret will sign off and fax to Centrelink before she goes home.

Pat fills out the Literacy and Numeracy Programme Assessment Task Cover Sheet and attaches the background form, the self assessment form and the numeracy task which Quon completed with her notes. She checks off the Features and Performance strategies from the relevant level of the NRS to substantiate the NRS rating she gives Quon. She writes NOT YET Achieved in the box for writing. She gives Quon an overall NRS Rating of 1. The difficulty with language also affected the extent to which she could assess his numeracy.

NAME ……Quon Ong ……………………… Job SEeker ID ……XXXXX…………………				ASSESSMENT TASK COVER SHEET
Performance Outcomes NRS Indicators of Competence		Reading: Writing:, Oral Communication: Learning Strategies: Numeracy	1.2, 1.2 1.3 Not yet achieved 1.6, 1.8 1.9 3.10, 3.11, 3.12
Instructional Context: A pre training Assessment
TASK CONSTRUCT Activity –the jobseeker participates in an interview and completes forms containing personal details and a self assessment of reading, writing, oral communication and numeracy skills. the learner provides written and verbal information.
PERFORMANCE CONTEXT NRS Conditions of Performance, NRS Aspects of Communication and Workplace and Social Context	Reading Indicates good reading skills in first language and understands the purpose of print. Recognises own and some familiar words. Writing Resisted all attempts to write in English but indicated writes extensively in Vietnamese. Oral Communication Understood purpose of the interview, needed questions to be asked slowly and to be repeated. Relied on translation to get full meaning. Replied to questions but has problems with pronunciation, predominantly used first language through interlocutor. Numeracy Self assessment indicated that he understands basic processes and mathematical functions and that he uses such skills for problem solving. The language issues prevented further exploration. Learning Strategies Again the discussion of goals and learning needs were hampered by lack of English but he indicated keen to do formal courses that will give access to work.
ASSESSMENT CONTEXT Information about the task Formal or informal process Duration or time constraints Assessment approach Individual or group activity NRS Assessment Principles	Initial placement assessment One hour formal interview schedule A single integrated task –initial interview and enrolment forms Individual performance
JUDGEMENT SCHEMA Performance Criteria NRS Language Literacy and Numeracy Features and Performance Strategies	See attached copies of: NRS LANGUAGE AND LITERACY FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES Level 1 (for Reading and Writing assessments) NRS LANGUAGE AND LITERACY FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES Level 1 (for Oral Communication assessment) NRS NUMERACY FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES Level 3 Numeracy Marks relevant ‘dot points’ on the copies where evidence shown. Attaches copies of the assessment tasks and student response