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Brieanna Olsen

12-14-2015
Teaching & Learning 409
Final: Option 2

The school I chose to critique an assessment from is Julius A. Wendt Elementary school

in the Wahkiakum School District. They are a small school, but it has some diversity. I talked to

a couple teachers from the school and they all said they use the same types of assessments for

English Language Learners in their classrooms. They use a similar approach to the MAP

assessment. MAP assessments are computer adaptive achievement tests in Mathematics and

Reading (NWEA). This gives the students an opportunity to take a test over the computer while

they are at school and each test is modified for their understanding. The difficulty level is

assessed by where the student is academically. They have the students take these tests every

quarter throughout the school year to monitor their progress and it ranges from high levels to low

levels of learning depending on the student or age group.

I really like this approach of assessment because it has many positive aspects to it. For

one, it provides students with audios and visuals while taking the test. This allows ELL students

to be able to use what they are most comfortable with while testing. This is great for students

who are visual learners, as well as if they prefer to listen as they learn. The computer

automatically reads the prompt or instructions to the student taking the test, which eliminates the

problems for the very early learners of the English language. Secondly, the test is to be taken

every quarter which allows them to see their progress up to about four times over the school

year. The student and teacher will be able to see the progress of the student, then adapt their

curriculum from there to fulfill their current academic needs. Teachers will use this information

to help guide instruction in the classroom and create flexible groupings to better differentiate
lessons based on content. A future goal is to share the information from the MAP reports with

students as a way to demonstrate progress and motivate further growth (NWEA). A third

reason why I like this assessments approach is because it aligns and meets the Common Core

Standards. This is important because they need to be tested as normal as possible, ELL student or

not. Schools should always follow the Common Core Standards because it is very beneficial for

all students.

Something I do not like about the MAP assessment is that it is known to not be the

correct timing as to what the student is currently learning in the classroom. The student has to

take it several times because the accuracy of this test sometimes does not match up until a couple

times after take the assessment. This may be discouraging to students and also set them back in

the classroom. They may already understand what they have been learning during the quarter,

but the teacher may not believe so because of the test scores. I believe that the test should have

more accurate scoring. MAPs uses a scaled rubric, so this can be modified if needed too, which it

should be based on the students academic learning level. I also do not really like how the test is

always taken on the computer. Sometimes students need a hands on experience, so switching it

up sometimes by having them test with a teacher or on paper may be a better outcome for some

students who are not familiar with using technology.

Another approach to assessment that this school uses for ELL student is the performance

based assessments. If I were to compare the two assessments, I would say that they both provide

a very similar scoring rubric and they both assess knowledge over a longer period of time. If I

were to contrast the two types of assessments, I believe that the performance based assessments

would be a bit simpler than the MAPs assessment. The performance based assessment allows
them to be tested through a variety of different options such as oral reports, presentations,

demonstrations, written assignments, and portfolios. MAPs simply only has one approach, but

also includes various ways of getting through this test such as the provided audio and visuals.

Both approaches fit well into ELL curriculum, but I think it all depends on the students needs to

see which type they should use. But I also think that they should be accurate, and not allow the

student to take multiple assessments because that could become confusing or mess up results in a

negative way.

Overall, I think there are more positive aspects to critique about this assessment than

there are negative. There are a few things that I believe they should modify in order to fulfill all

testing needs for English Language Learning students, but I think it provides them with a small

variety of different learning styles than most modernizes tests. This test is great for ELL students

ranging from grades second to about fifth. It has been working for the school in a positive way

thus far, so I think they should continue until there is something better that may come along. I

would use with my students someday and would love to see their results over the school year.
Works Cited

NWEA. (2015). Measure student progress with MAP. Northwest Evaluation Association.

Portland, OR. Partnering to Help Kids Learn.

OMalley, Michael., Pierce, Lorraine. Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners:

Practice Approaches for Teachers. World Language Production.

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