THE TELEPHONE SURVEYS

College nonregistrants

Camosun College's ABE Department suggested a strategy for identifying a segment of the nonparticipant population -- those adults who had come to the college to be assessed, but who had not followed through by registering in college all ABE programs. A similar kind of survey had been undertaken by the College's Assessment Centre in the fall of 1988. At that time, the sample was drawn from those adults who wrote an English Placement Test or a Camosun College Mathematics Test between June 1, 1988 and August 31, 1988, and placed in ABE Introductory (upper Fundamental level) or ABE Intermediate level courses, but had not registered in ABE courses at the College by October 14, 1988.

For the present project the sample population consisted of those adults who had written the English Placement Test at the College between September 1, 1988 and August 31, 1989 and placed in Basic Academic Skills Development (BASD) (lower Fundamental level) or ABE Introductory level (English), but had not registered in courses at the college by January 15, 1990. This work was done by a research assistant familiar with the College Assessment Centre and its computer systems. The assistant then undertook the telephone survey for this writer. An interview schedule was designed (see Appendix D) and the assistant was given an orientation session before embarking on the telephone survey. The total number of people on the list was 90.