Teacher Use of Formative Assessment Data for English Language Learners

• In Event: Developing and Using Formative Assessments for English Language Learners

Abstract

Assessment for formative purposes operates at a micro level and provides finer-grained data to inform decisions that are more proximate to immediate teaching and learning than data for summative purposes. By its nature, proximate assessment data must be instructionally tractable so that teachers can use the data to “form” learning. It is the action of forming learning that is at the heart of assessment for formative purposes.

Three questions are central to the use of data for formative purposes: (1) Where am in going? (2) How am I going? (3) Where to next? (Hattie &Timperely, 2007). To be able to answer these questions, teachers need clarity about the goals for learning, the current status of learning, and the next steps needed to for learners to progress. In particular, teachers of English learners (ELs) will need to be clear about learning goals in the areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, be able to make judgments based on assessment data about the status of learning relative to desired goals, and determine what to do next to move learning forward.

Content and pedagogical content knowledge have been identified as significant factors in teachers’ capacity to make effective use data for formative purposes (e.g., Birenbaum, Kimorn & Shilton, 2011; Timperely & Parr, 2007). In this regard, EL teachers will need sufficient knowledge of how language learning develops in the four areas identified above, as well as sufficient pedagogical content knowledge to select the right pedagogical move in response to assessment evidence so as to further learning.

In this paper, first, the author will describe how assessment can be used for formative purposes. Second, drawing from development work of reading assessments for ELLs, issues in assessment design for the use of data for formative purposes for ELL students will be considered, including the use of developmental models of language and reading. Finally, the author will discuss the specific content and pedagogical content knowledge that ELL teachers need to make effective use of assessment data to “form” learning for their students, and how assessment design might support the development of this knowledge.

Author

• Margaret Heritage, University of California - Los Angeles