Alternative Assessment

Putting in place an effective program of instruction requires the kinds of authentic and meaningful instruction discussed here, along with equally authentic and meaningful assessment. Assessment that requires students to perform academic tasks similar to those originally used to teach the material, such as the oral history projects, team tasks, and role plays described earlier, provide an effective alternative to standardized, multiple-choice tests, which tend to underestimate ELLs’ knowledge of academic content. An additional advantage of using authentic assessment is that it allows teachers and students the opportunity to track academic achievement throughout the school year. When a number of activities or tasks are combined, they are typically organized in a portfolio, with teachers and students periodically discussing which samples of student work to include and how well students are progressing (Chamot, 1993).

Along with authenticity, a good assessment plan for ELL students has all or most of the following attributes:

• Tests for content knowledge geared to language proficiency
• Assesses students’ content knowledge and abilities in the native language as well as in English (if possible)
• Uses a diversity of measures, such as portfolios, observations, anecdotal records, interviews, checklists, and criterion-referenced tests to measure content knowledge and skills
• Ensures teacher awareness of the purpose of the assessment, such as whether the test is intended to measure verbal or writing skills, language proficiency, or content knowledge
• Takes into account students’ backgrounds, including their educational experiences and parents’ literacy (August & Pease-Alvarez, 1996)
• Adds context to assessment tasks with familiar visual prompts, questions for small group discussion and individual writing, and activities that mirror learning processes with which students
  are familiar

• Includes administration procedures to match classroom instructional practices, e.g., cooperative small groups, individual conferences, and assessment in the language of instruction
• Allows extra time to complete or respond to assessment tasks
• Makes other accommodations, such as permitting students to use dictionaries or word lists (Navarrete & Gustkee, 1996)

From Chapter 6 (pages 124-127)