October 1998 Booklets Look at ESL Assessment, Indian Education
A duo of new publications from NWREL’s Comprehensive Center tackle two different "hot topics" in education.
The first publication discusses the purposes of testing in bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instruction, and describes specific assessment instruments for charting students’ progress.
Limited-English-proficient (LEP) students are an increasing presence in schools in every region of the country. This fact, coupled with an increasing interest in second-language acquisition and effective alternative programs, makes Dr. Gary Hargett’s Assessment in ESL & Bilingual Education especially timely.
The booklet offers a nontechnical discussion of why, when, and how to assess LEP students and provides a foundation in the issues program planners should consider when selecting assessment approaches. "Assessment plays a key role in every aspect of programs for limited-English-proficient students," says Hargett. "It factors into identifying the students who need those programs, placing them in the right levels of service, monitoring their progress, improving the programs that serve them, and deciding when a special program is no longer needed."
Much of the booklet is devoted to describing specific assessment instruments, with an emphasis on tools for assessing English-language proficiency since that is the one constant in all ESL and bilingual programs. These instruments, which include published tests, are described for language-proficiency assessment, achievement testing, and assessment for special education.
Establishing and implementing an assessment plan for an ESL or bilingual program does not follow a sample formula. As Hargett shows, a comprehensive assessment program requires consideration of many factors and involves staff at many different levels. "Good teaching involves ongoing assessment to make sure students are progressing, whether in English proficiency, English or native-language literacy, or academic subjects," says Hargett. "When standards and expectations are clearly communicated to students, it allows students to become partners in assessing their own progress."
In A Native Perspective on the School Reform Movement, author Raymond Reyes shares his views on education reform from the perspective of a Native American, a father, a teacher, and an administrator in Indian Education for the past 20 years.
In recent years, educators have started to move past learning about Indian culture to learning from Indian cultural ways and using them to improve instructional practice, says Reyes. Federal programs such as the Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA) and the Goals 2000: Educate America Act have opened the door to these changes.
The author stresses that Title IX Indian Education programs, Title IX parent committees, American Indian tribes, and the general Indian community must seize this opportunity and advocate for the reforms that work best with Indian students. These include:
- An attitude of respect for student interests and ideas
- Teaching methods that engage children, such as applied learning and integrated curriculum
- Assessment methods that will allow students to demonstrate excellence in a variety of ways
- A classroom culture that emphasizes cooperation and builds on students’ interests and strengths
The booklet examines such reform practices as integrated curricula, applied learning, cooperative learning, and alternative assessments—terms that may be unfamiliar to many Native Americans, but practices that have been a part of their traditional culture for hundreds of years.
"Such traditional Indian skills of observing nature, making inferences, discovering relationships, and applying knowledge of natural science to life situations were invaluable to survival in the past," says Reyes. "They remain just as valuable in the educational settings of today."
Assessment in ESL & Bilingual Education and A Native Perspective on the School Reform Movement are both available on the Internet at http://www.nwrac.org/pub/hot.
Those without Internet access can obtain a copy of either publication while supplies last by calling Bracken Reed at (503) 275-9481.
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