What Should a Proctor Know About L2 Learners? Examining Instructions for High-Stakes Math Testing

• In Event: 66.058 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 66.058-17 - Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools

Abstract

Attention is needed to address how multimodality impacts learning in culturally diverse settings. For emergent English learners, in particular, this multimodal orientation is significant because it holds both potential benefits and obstacles. Through my multimodal analysis of Instructions that were designed for math test proctors for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC ), I found evidence that the required use of interrelated modalities may increase complexity of test items for emerging second language learners, often without necessarily revealing what learners may know about the construct being tested. I discuss implications for test proctors and raise questions that we as researchers and educators may take up to disrupt the continual disadvantaging of marginalized groups of learners.

Author

• Theresa Y. Austin, University of Massachusetts - Amherst