2-185 - Measuring School Readiness Skills of Dual Language Learners: Development and Validation of Assessment Tools

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

There is a growing need for valid and reliable measures that practitioners and researchers can use to assess the school readiness skills of young children who are learning English as a second language. As the population of dual language learners continues to increase in preschool programs, measures are needed to assess children’s language proficiency and performance and monitor children’s language learning and development to inform instruction and early intervention. Spanish-speaking children account for the majority of dual language learners enrolled in early childhood programs. The purpose of this session is to highlight the development of new measures to assess the school readiness skills of Spanish-speaking preschoolers. The first paper describes the development of a measure to identify and monitor children’s language and literacy skills in English and Spanish. The second paper addresses the importance of understanding Spanish-speaking dual language learners’ performance in Spanish and English in three domains of early language and literacy, and their language growth in Spanish and English over time. The third paper examines DLLs’ language knowledge and documents their language learning patterns in Spanish and English. The fourth paper describes the development of Spanish and English versions of an assessment of preschoolers’ science competence. The discussion will focus on the importance of developing assessment tools that address the language and learning needs of DLLs, inform our understanding of children’s language development in Spanish and English, and support learning and instruction in early childhood programs.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Caroline Ebanks, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education

Individual Presentations

• Development and Validation of the School Readiness Curriculum Based Measurement System - Presenting Author: Jason L. Anthony, University of South Florida; Non-Presenting Author: Jeffrey M. Williams, University of South Florida; Non-Presenting Author: Matthew Foster, University of South Florida; Non-Presenting Author: Janelle J. Montroy, University of Texas Health Science Center, Children's Learning Institute; Non-Presenting Author: Michael Assel, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Non-Presenting Author: Noe Erazo, University of South Florida

• Bilingual Preschoolers’ Performance on the Spanish and English Individual Growth and Development Indicators - Presenting Author: Lillian Duran, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Alisha Wackerle-Hollman, University of Minnesota

• Different Language Knowledge but Similar Language-Learning Patterns in Bilingual Children Screened on the QUILS: English-Spanish - Presenting Author: Aquiles Iglesias, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Author: Jill de Villiers, Smith College; Non-Presenting Author: Dani Levine, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Univ of DE; Non-Presenting Author: Mary Sweig Wilson, University of Vermont & Laureate Learning Systems

• Enfoque en Ciencia: Assessing Science Competence in Latino Preschoolers by Advantaging the Affordances in Technology - Presenting Author: Daryl Greenfield, University of Miami; Non-Presenting Author: Randall Penfield, University of North Carolina; Non-Presenting Author: Ximena Dominguez, Digital Promise; Non-Presenting Author: Sandra Barrueco, The Catholic University of America