Learning Nothing From Student Testing
As a school administrator, I am becoming increasingly frustrated with student assessment requirements from the state Department of Education. The latest mandate from Sacramento is that all English language learners (ELLs) must annually be administered the California English language development test. The majority of this test must be given one-on-one by the student’s classroom teacher, using a tape recorder. The average time for the teacher to do this for each student is 30 to 40 minutes.
A teacher having 15 to 20 ELL students in his/her class will be using about 10 hours of instructional time to administer this test over several days. Again, this must be done annually. When you add this loss of instructional time to the eight days required to administer the Stanford 9 exam, in addition to other LAUSD-required assessments, you begin to wonder whether we are here to teach children or just measure their progress.
ELL students need the teacher’s time for instructional reasons. The LAUSD English language development portfolio, if used correctly, can adequately measure an English language learner’s progress without the great loss in instructional time. It is time for Sacramento to get back to instruction and out of the “think tank” mentality.
Steven Siry
Los Angeles
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