Resources and Guidance
Tips on EVEA
A few general tips for state officials to keep in mind if they are interested in
(or in the process of) evaluating their English language proficiency assessments:
- Involve the right people in the process. ELP assessment may cut across multiple
offices within your department. When pulling together a team, or even just in your
efforts to collect information, consider including personnel from any of the following
areas:
- Assessment and Accountability;
- Federal programs (Title III, NCLB, Title I);
- English as a second language/ English language learners/English language development;
- Involve Practitioners. As you gather information about your ELPA and identify
priorities, remember that it can be highly beneficial to hear directly from the
people who actually use and encounter it – don’t assume that you know anything without
talking to these people. Often, conversations with test administrators, scorers,
instructors, and even students can shed light on information and situations you
would never have even guessed were there!
- Start big. The best way to get down to a good interpretive argument is to
start by creating the biggest most comprehensive web possible of information about
your ELPA. Who takes it? How are they identified? Who administers it? Who scores
it? How does instruction relate to assessment? How do standards relate? As your
work progresses you will focus in more and more closely on certain aspects of your
ELPA, but the best way to identify what is most important is to start by trying
to articulate everything.
- Get philosophical. The priorities you identify for your ELPA will stem from
your state’s overall approach to learning and language acquisition. Take a moment
to discuss and articulate these things with your team. What, ultimately, is your
ELPA intended to accomplish? What does your state see as goals and obligations to
its EL students? How do you believe that learning actually works? Answering these
‘big picture’ questions can help you to narrow your focus appropriately to the most
pressing validity questions based on your state’s values.