Implications of English as a second language teacher practices for Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System Test results

English as a Second Language teacher-subjects were selected based on their students' Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) test performance, and then observed to determine what constituted effective teaching practice. Six teacher-subjects were selected from a single school in the Division of Adult and Career Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District. They included three teachers whose students had high score gains on the CASAS test, and three whose students had low score gains. Each of these six teachers was observed for the duration of three low score gains.{09}Each of these six teachers was observed for the duration of three classes and interviewed twice. The observation data collection involved taking detailed field notes and filling out a comprehensive rubric. The three teachers with high-performing students were found to be in strong and uniform contrast to the three teachers with low-performing students in all of the following practices. The teachers with high-performing students had highly creative and expansive curricula and methods that were flexibly designed to focus on their students' needs. Their lessons simultaneously accommodated multiple objectives, such as the attainment of learning skills, language structures, vocabulary, and content topics, while practicing various modes of language communication. Their students received an abundance of meaningful comprehensible input and an abundance of practice in producing English in communicative contexts. These teachers supported high expectations for all students and designed their classes to create actively involved learners. Their practices provided for a wide diversity of learning and acquisition, such that their implied underlying theoretical foundation accommodated the full range of second language acquisition, learning, and teaching theories.