Changes
to Casey Life Skills: Effective January
1, 2005
A new look to Caseylifeskills.org:
Caseylifeskills.org has been redesigned to reflect Casey’s new
“brand”. With changes to the “look and feel” of the Web site,
navigation is easier than ever. Below are some key changes to
the navigation tabs:
Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Assessments is now Assessments
Life Skills Guidebook
is now Learning Plan
ACLSA & Life Skills Guidebook
Manual tab is gone. You can still find the manual under
the new Resources tab with the new title of Casey Life
Skills Reference Manual.
Ready, Set, Fly! is now
Resources
Data & Reports is now
Group Data Reports
Training remains the
same.
Upgrade to ACLSA Level 4.0:
After months of intensive data analyses led by our consulting
statistician, we have upgraded to ACLSA Level 4.0. The “new”
Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessments will:
Be substantially shorter
which will lower the reading level and reduce the time it
takes to complete the assessments. The ACLSAs were shortened
because data analyses revealed that some of the items (questions)
didn’t load on any factor.
No longer have “starred”
items (questions). These items were on previous versions
of the ACLSAs and denoted by a red asterisk on the Score Report.
They were not scored because despite having practice value,
they were not deemed statistically sound. The recent analyses
of thousands of assessments revealed that these items should
be scored; therefore all items on the ACLSAs will be scored.
Now have “extra” items that
will not be scored, but will be used to “test-drive” future
items. These will periodically change and we welcome any
suggested items to try out.
Be based on analyses of thousands
of completed youth versions of the ACLSA. We’ve always
believed that the youth is the expert on independent living,
and the 4.0 versions of the ACLSA are faithful to that concept.
When comparing youth and caregiver responses on the ACLSA,
the youth/caregiver correspondence is running around .30 to
.40; this isn’t bad for self-report data.
Now have nine domains instead
of six. Why? Our original premise was that there was substantial
developmental continuity across the ages (and ACLSA levels).
This was only partly true. The reality is that there is some
continuity and some discontinuity across the ages. For instance,
at ages 8-11, “Home Life” is important. In adulthood, one’s
“Career Planning” and “Work Life” become more important. Throughout
life, “Communication” is important. We’ve created domain structures
that better reflect the developmental nature of the four ACLSA
levels. The nine domains are: Daily Living, Self-Care, Work
and Study Skills, Social Relationships, Housing and Money
Management, Communication, Home Life, Work Life and Career
Planning.
Have more performance (multiple
choice) questions. The ACLSA I will now have 6 performance
questions (previously had none). ACLSA II will continue to
have 10 performance questions. The ACLSA III and ACLSA IV
will both have 21 performance questions as opposed to 12 previously.
The performance questions will periodically be changed to
help guard against practice effects for youth who are taking
the assessment multiple times. An announcement of these changes
will be made at the Web site well in advance. As before, the
ACLSA caregiver versions will not have performance questions.
Anticipated User Questions:
What happened to the Short
Assessment? It will be overhauled based on our statistical
analyses. The three most statistically robust items from each
of the six ACLSA III domains were included to create an 18-item
“short assessment.” We ran confirmatory factor analyses on
these items and found extraordinarily strong factors and very
high factor loadings. We are now more confident about the
Short Assessment for use in research and practice when youths
and young adults need rapid assessment.
How will the ACLSA changes
impact the Life Skills Guidebook? Some of the domain names
will change to reflect the nine domains listed above. The
goals and learning expectations will accompany the items to
which they originally belonged. All learning goals and expectations
will remain in the Guidebook, regardless of whether there
are ACLSA items specifically addressing them. This is a very
important point. In essence, we are reducing the overall lengths
of the ACLSAs based on strong psychometric evidence, while
we are increasing the overall length of the Guidebook (and
eliminating none of the expectations or learning goals) to
better serve practitioners and parents.
What makes us confident that
these changes are sound? The large number of completed
ACLSAs involved in our analyses instilled this confidence.
Over 18,000 ACLSA Youth III assessments were analyzed, and
most of these assessments were taken by youth in foster care.
Principle components analyses based on such large samplings
are very precise and trustworthy.
How will the ACLSA changes
impact aggregate data reporting? There are now two sets
of aggregate data. The first are pre-2005 data with ACLSA
3.1 versions of completed assessments. The second are post-2005
data with 4.0 versions of completed assessments. You can access
them individually, but there is no crossing of aggregate data
between pre-2005 and post-2005. If you need to combine pre-
and post-2005 data, there are two options. You can either
compare global scores on 3.0 with global scores on 4.0, or
we can provide a decoder wherein agencies may be able to translate
their 3.0 data into 4.0 formats with the new domain names
and configurations. We cannot provide technical assistance
in translating data beyond providing a written decoder in
Word format.
Upgraded Life Skills Guidebook:
Learning Goals, Expectations,
Resources, and Activities to the Guidebook were added for
youth ages 8 to 10.
Learning Goals, Expectations,
Resources, and Activities addressing legal, body image, problem
solving, goal setting, safety, and eating disorders were added
to the Guidebook.
Directions on how to create
Mastery Standards (statements which indicate that a skill
or competency is mastered and applied over time) and sample
Mastery Standards were added to the Guidebook.
Guidebook usage directions
were streamlined.
The Preparing Youth for Adulthood
(PAYA) curriculum, created by the state of Massachusetts,
was cross-walked with and integrated into the new Guidebook.
The American Indian Guidebook
Supplement was created. It can be printed as a stand alone
document with brief introduction and usage chapters, or as
Chapter 8 in the Guidebook.
Pregnancy, Parenting Infants,
and Parenting Young Children Guidebook Supplements were created.
They can be printed as stand alone documents with brief introduction
and usage chapters or as Chapters 5, 6, and 7, respectively,
of the Guidebook.
American Indian, Pregnancy,
Parenting Infants, and Parenting Young Children Guidebook
Supplements were integrated into the Guidebook (see Chapters
5-8).
Resource Additions and Replacements:
Resources are now divided into
Core (cited most frequently and most heavily used in
the Guidebook), Recommended (add value but generally
offer specific information about a domain, e.g., A Young
Person’s Guide to Getting a Job covers Career Planning,
but not other domains like Self Care), and Additional
(very specific resources, but not necessary for Guidebook
instruction, it also includes resources that were replaced
with more current resources). Additional resources are referenced
in the Appendix only and are not cross referenced with the
Learning Goals they address.
The number of web resources
was expanded.
How to Survive Teaching
Health was replaced with several website resources and
It’s Perfectly Normal.
Power Through Choices
was replaced with Preparing Youth for Adulthood and
website resources.
Our Place CD was replaced
with Apartment Hunt (available via DVD or vstreet.com).
The following resources were
added as core resources: A Future Near Me/The Path Before
Me, Preparing Youth for Adulthood, I Can Do It!, I’m Getting
Ready, Apartment Hunt, Life Skills Activities for Special
Children, Social Skills Activities for Special Children, Developing
Your Vision while Attending College, It’s Perfectly Normal,
and What Are My Rights?
The following resources were
added as recommended resources: A Young Person’s Guide
to Getting a Job, The Teenage Human Body, The Pocket Guide
to Independent Living, The Teacher’s/Leader’s Guide for A
Pocket Guide to Independent Living, Self Esteem and Life Skills
Too! (SEALS II).
With the addition of resources,
users have a greater selection to choose from to tailor the
Guidebook to their program(s).
Formatting Changes:
Activity abbreviations were
substituted with titles or portions of the activity title
(e.g., RSF became Ready, Set, Fly!). This change added clarity
to the printable versions of the Guidebook.
Expectations were re-ordered
from easiest to most difficult for each Learning Goal.
The Guidebook now covers people
ages 8 to adult to reflect the new ACLSA 4.0 assessments.
“I, II, III, IV” were removed
from the Guidebook and not included in any of the Guidebook
Supplements.
Each domain in the Guidebook,
due to item shifts to new domains on the ACLSA 4.0 and corresponding
addition of Learning Goals, experienced shifts and numbering
changes of Learning Goals. Some Learning Goals are in different
domains and some are in more than one domain. They are recorded
in the crosswalk document.
