I will be spending this week setting standards for language
proficiency testing to be measured by WELPA (Washington English Language
Proficiency Assessment) A charge that feels dubious in light of this recent
piece. I don’t want to finish the week feeling like a cog in the assessment-for-profit
machine. So why did I even sign up for this role?
Because this year’s WELPA (it’s first role out since switching
from WLPT II) was a nightmare.
Nightmare as defined by questions and tasks that were not developmentally or
linguistically appropriate for age/time in country or in any way connected with
curricula/skills taught in the classroom. It asked kindergarten to identify syntactical
errors in sentences they were required to read independently (which part of
them being in Kindergarten did the writers miss??). It asked sixth grade to
describe science lab procedures. Which could be ok except lab-based science is
not offered until middle school in my district.
A language assessment with no sense of the stages of
language acquisition or what content is covered when is an invalid measure and
a tremendous waste of tax-payer dollars. So I am going because like Travis, I
want to take control of what I can. I would rather be a part of the process,
knowing I got my voice heard, than feel “done to”.
Maren, like you I am hoping we are hitting a tipping point that will truly capture the engagement of those on the “outside”.
Tamara, I think I agree with you here. In assessment reform, I think it is important to “be part of the process” in order to become better informed and to make your voice heard from within. However, it is crucially important to follow that up by working on the issue from the outside and engaging others by sharing the knowledge you gained from your “inside” work.
In the past few weeks student assessment issues have really come to the forefront both in our state (with large numbers of parents opting their children out of the MSP) and nationally with the Pineapple question. Ironically, all this press attention has happened after the end of our state legislative session. I am hoping the momentum on this can carry through the fall elections and into next January’s new legislative session!