WORLD LANGUAGES
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New Jersey Grade Eight Pilot Assessment Project | |
Abstract
New Jersey Department of Education Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment in World Languages
The New Jersey State Board of Education has mandated that districts provide students with world language instruction at the K-8 level since 1996. However, the implementation of this ambitious policy is threatened by the lack of a reliable and valid system of accountability that measures student achievement and the development of quality programs. This proposal seeks to utilize assessment as a tool to:
(1) Measure increasing student proficiency in a world language; (2) Drive program improvement by assisting districts in determining if their current curricular design will enable Grade 8 students to demonstrate proficiency at the Novice-High level; (3) Form the basis for professional development that focuses on the connection between assessing and teaching for language proficiency; and (4) Provide baseline data for the development of a revised statewide assessment policy in fall 2008.
The project will provide proficiency testing in Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish (Testing in Italian will become available in 2007.) for 70,000 Grade 8 students (70 percent of the Grade 8 student population). Detailed data on student performance over the three years of the grant will be available using STAMP, the Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency. The STAMP is a summative assessment that includes an oral component, based on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines. It was developed by the Center for Applied Second Language Study, (CASLS), a National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Oregon. The STAMP engages students in real-world situations challenged by culturally authentic texts and tasks, and is delivered, graded and reported online by Language Learning Solutions (LLS), an affiliate of CASLS.
Districts participating in the assessment program will receive individual student reports and aggregated test data for schools as well as an analysis of assessment data to determine if their world languages programs are proficiency/standards-based. The ultimate goal is continuous program improvement to enable increasing numbers of students to meet the goals of the world languages content standards. Teachers will receive onsite and/or online training on how to evaluate and adjust pedagogic practice on the basis of student performance data to improve student learning in the classroom. Professional development will be presented as an ongoing process of adjusting teaching according to demonstrated results in learning.
Included in the 70,000 students assessed in this project, are students from partnering LEAs: Englewood, Newark and Millville, high poverty and/or high minority districts in the northern, central and southern regions of the state. In addition to the data and professional development received by participating districts statewide (identified by various district grouping factors), partnering districts will work directly with CASLS to merge student performance data from STAMP with district student information systems. The result will be a detailed analysis relating student proficiency to various factors, including race, gender, socioeconomic status, class size, heritage status, and grades. While this research is sorely needed on the national level, the primary beneficiaries will be partner LEAs who will receive consulting services through American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) consultant Greg Duncan. He will review assessment results with them and work directly with teachers and administrators to devise strategies to magnify strengths and address weaknesses in their existing K-8 world languages programs. The result will be concrete improvement plans for individual teachers and schools in these districts.
The overarching goal of this statewide model that integrates assessment, professional learning, and policy development is to provide universal access to quality world language education for K-8 students. The efficacy of this model will be validated by quantitative data enriched by qualitative research and disseminated nationally with the aim of catalyzing systemic change in K-8 world language education throughout the U.S.
