Assessment and Evaluation in ESOL
Domain 4, Assessment and Evaluation in ESOL, tests how to select, administer, interpret, and use assessments for multilingual learners. Expect items on validity, reliability, formative and summative purposes, accommodations versus modifications, and avoiding misclassification.
Core rules
- Validity means the test measures what it claims for the intended use. Reliability means consistency across occasions, forms, or raters. A test can be reliable but invalid for a particular purpose.
- Formative assessment guides instruction; summative assessment documents achievement. Screening and placement differ from progress monitoring and accountability.
- Norm-referenced tests compare students with a norm group; criterion-referenced tests compare performance with standards. Proficiency tests such as WIDA ACCESS and WIDA screener measure English language development; achievement tests measure content knowledge.
- Accommodations change access without changing the construct: extended time, small-group setting, bilingual word-to-word dictionary, directions read aloud in English, preferential seating. Modifications change the construct: simplifying text, reducing items, or reading a reading test aloud.
- Use multiple measures: classroom work, performance tasks, portfolios, rubrics, native-language data, and family input. Distinguish language difference from disability.
Worked example
An EL in third grade scores at the 12th percentile on a norm-referenced reading test. Reasoning: this score alone does not establish a disability. The team checks whether the student has had adequate instruction, whether the task demanded academic English beyond the student’s proficiency, and whether similar difficulty appears in the L1 and in classroom decoding tasks. They review work samples, run a criterion-referenced phonics check, and monitor progress with a targeted intervention. Only after documented appropriate instruction and multiple data sources should a special education referral proceed.
Traps
Do not use a single standardized score to place or exit a student. Do not treat a bilingual dictionary as a modification on a vocabulary test measuring English synonyms. Do not read aloud a test that measures reading comprehension. Avoid lowering content-mastery criteria when the issue is language; grade content separately from language where appropriate. Do not confuse a language proficiency level with a grade-level content level.