[MUSIC] Hi, and welcome to assessing achievement with the ELL in mind. Today we are excited to begin our first lesson, which covers the purpose of assessment. We'll be taking a broad look at the term assessment and it's definition in the context of our course. We will also broaden our understanding of assessment to include best practices for assessing ELL students. Let's begin by taking a look at who's actually involved in, and impacted by assessment. Of course, first and foremost, our students are involved in assessment, as it is their learning and their growth as students that is directly measured, and impacted, by all formal, informal, and standardized assessment. Parents and or guardians, are also involved in assessment, on a variety of levels. Often, this is the primary source of communication, they have about their students performance in the content area. Teachers are heavily involved in assessment. Teachers consistently create formative and summative assessments, for the students in their class in the content of their specific class. They're also the primary assessors of a student's mastery of content and of ELL's development of language. Often, teachers are heavily impacted by assessment, as scores on a standardized assessment, can be appropriately or not, linked directly to the teacher of that content area. There are several stakeholders involved in and impacted by assessment as well. These can include individuals at high levels of administration, government officials, politicians, and of course researchers and standardized test creators. Assessment in the K-12 classroom, can be looked at from four main areas. The first area reflects the purpose of assessment beyond the school level. This area of assessment is used for college entrance requirements and to measure college readiness. Also, this area of assessment is used for establishing national and state standards and collection of school and student data. Finally, the purpose of this area of assessment, relates to the funding of school programs and can be a contributor to public funding of schools. The next area of assessment in the K-12 classroom, focuses on the purpose of assessment extended beyond the classroom itself. But at a more local level, this area of assessment includes teacher accountability as measured by student assessment and achievement. Evaluation of programs within the school is also impacted by assessment. Student assessment and of course, student promotion are impacted by assessment. Whether they are promoted to a specific grade, honors programs, and of course into high school and as a graduation requirement. Next we're going to look at the purpose of assessment within a K-12 classroom. Of course, assessment is used to diagnose students abilities and place them in the correct classroom. Within the classroom, assessments can be used to place students in the correct small group structures. Assessment is then used to measure the learning of students and student achievement. And finally, assessment is used within the classroom to improve and inform instruction. The content teacher is constantly and formally monitoring and assessing students, and tweaking and improving instruction to better meet the needs of the students. To subsequently achieve the goals and outcomes identified at the beginning of a course. Assessment of ELLs in the content classroom has a unique purpose for a content teacher. Through assessment, content teachers can diagnose their ELL's level of content knowledge, what they already know about the content, and what gaps there are. And they can diagnose the language level and ability of their ELL students. Assessment of the ELL in the content classroom, allows the teacher to monitor progress in content, while also monitoring the progress of cognitive learning and language skills. Assessment allows for the measurement of achievement and content mastery and the development of language. It allows teachers to identify aspects for student motivation, identifying techniques, that might help students learn best, and acquire language best while lowering their effective filter. Assessment allows the content teacher to identify support strategies needed, to best support the students as they acquire content mastery and language development. Assessment can help inform instruction for the content teacher. Specifically for their ELL students. And finally, assessment can help provide the content teacher with information to communicate with parents and guardians and other colleagues, administration, and school officials. Keeping in mind the purpose of assessment as it applies to all stakeholders within the classroom and beyond helps us make conscious choices about specific assessments and their design and the use in the class, especially with the ELL in mind.
