The CATESOL Journal

This paper addresses the potential for integrating standards-based and learner-centered approaches to adult ESOL instruction. This paper contains a brief scenario of classroom teaching and assessment using the Equipped for the Future (EFF) approach to standards- based, learner-centered teaching and assessment. This is followed by a discussion of qualities that assessments should have so that they can provide useful information for educational improvement within an approach that is both learner-centered and standards-based. The paper also provides a sample of standards-based performance-level descriptions (using the EFF standard Listen Actively as an example) and describes how adult ESOL instructors might use a standards-based assessment framework such as the EFF standards and performance levels as a guide for learner-centered teaching and assessment.