ACC SITE VISIT R EPORT Circulo de la Hispanidad, Inc.
Location: Hempstead & Long Beach, NY Date: 6/23/03 Background information and purpose of CTC Circulo de la Hispanidad is a well-established community development organization, focused primarily on providing educational and vocational services for Long Island's Latino community. They have provided ESOL classes for Hispanic/Latino adults on a small scale for over ten years. In 2002, due to a large state grant, those services greatly expanded from 100 to nearly 2000 students served. With the CTC grant, the Circulo has added several computer technology components to their integrated curriculum, including: Computer skills training (Introduction to Computers, Office Suite) Computer-based ESOL Open computer lab Observations & Findings Progress toward meeting goals and objectives Computer Skills Training: Circulo offers a range of basic computer skills training. They began covering the Microsoft Office suite (focusing on Word and Excel) and the Internet, but added the Basic Computer Skills class after observing that students often lacked any familiarity with computers. Each class uses English textbooks, but instruction is often bilingual, since the adults taking the classes generally know little English-language technology vocabulary. Each student takes a computer technology perception survey (experience and attitudes) before beginning the classes. In addition, each class has a pre- and post-test to measure skill gains. Currently there are computer classes Monday-Wednesday, in the morning in Long Beach and in the evening in Hempstead. Computer-based ESOL: The ESOL teachers and their students work in the computer lab for two hours, Monday-Wednesday, with some technical support from the CTC staff. They use Learnscape software to supplement the traditional classroom English learning. Open Lab: The labs are open to current Circulo clients several hours each day. They have reported a decrease in the number of hours that people use the lab from when they first opened. It is attributed to a better integration of technology into daily instructional lesson plans and/or to lack of vigilance in monitoring the sign in/sign out process. Barriers to progress and recommended solutions One of Circulo's primary challenges is finding space enough to meet their demand. Only a few months after opening a second location in Long Beach, they are already at capacity again. They are currently in the midst of a capital campaign to support building a new facility, which will greatly increase their capacity. An additional challenge is finding staff members who are
qualified to teach technology, are bilingual, and have a teaching style that works for Circulo's adult, mostly low-income clients. The significant drop in reported "open lab" usage does not match staff impressions of how much traffic they are seeing, so they have committed to doing stronger monitoring of the sign in/sign out procedure. In terms of evaluation, the program still has some questions about which students to report to meet the CTC requirements for NRS reporting. They are collecting ample evaluation data: TABE, pre- and post-tests for computer applications and computer perception survey, formal and informal course evaluations, attendance, and demographics. They were referred to Carolyn Boyce, evaluation specialist on the ACC team. What works and promising practices/strategies identified Circulo's self-developed technology perception survey and set of computer application assessment tests are very thorough. Because their target audience is adults with little English proficiency the tests are given in Spanish, a lesson learned from their first few attempts to use them in English. Outcomes of partnerships Circulo's approach has been to develop a continuum of services that address the needs that their adult clients express. To support this, the CTC has created "internal" partnerships with other programs: Their PEERS HIV/AIDS education mentors have asked for Internet training so that they can access online resources. The Career Development Workshop, funded through an EL Civics grant, has developed a career directory and resume database to support career development workshops. Career Development Workshop students can take computer training, as a supplement to the standard program, both for personal use and to build their office computer skills. Youth in the afterschool (Weed and Seed) program have access to the lab for homework and project-based activities that build computer skills. In addition, Circulo has developed partnerships with local businesses in Hempstead to hold ESOL and computer instruction classes to alleviate the space crunch. Plans for sustainability after Federal funding has ended We had an extensive discussion with the senior staff about Circulo's plans for sustaining, and growing, their CTC program. They expressed great confidence that they will be able to leverage their multiple funding streams to maintain the level of service that is currently provided, since the CTC grant has been used to build equipment and staff capacity. The development team had already begun to formalize a partnership with local schools to provide services to respond to the 2003 CTC grant RFP. In addition, Circulo has been successful in finding funding for targeted purposes, like marketing materials (CitiBank) or stipends for mentoring/tutoring (NCOA).