A few years back, California was resisting a requirement under the No Child Left Behind Act to assess English-language learners as early as kindergarten on whether they could read or write in English. State officials thought that it should be sufficient that the state already tested students in the earliest grades in speaking and listening. California lost that battle and began to develop an English-proficiency test that would include reading and writing, as well as speaking and listening, for students in kindergarten and 1st grade.
I haven’t had a chance to report on how assessing ELLs in English proficiency in the earliest grades is working out across the nation.
But I see that the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition is hosting a Webinar on the topic. Called “Assessing K-2 English Language Proficiency, Principles, Purposes and Practices,” the Webinar is scheduled for June 15, 2 p.m., Eastern time. Register here.
Presenters are assessment experts Margo Gottlieb, the lead developer for the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment Consortium, and Edynn Sato, the director of research and English-Learner assessment for WestEd.
Education Week hosted Gottlieb as a guest for a chat about assessing ELLs in general in April. The transcript is available.