Recently a novel instrument -- the Core Academic Language Instrument (CALS-I) -- aimed at testing a constellation of school-relevant English language skills was developed and validated for use in the United States (Uccelli, Barr, Dobbs, Galloway, Meneses and Sánchez, 2015. Core Academic Language Skills: An expanded operational construct and a…

Background and Context: Despite the increasing implementation of coding in early curricula, there are few valid and reliable assessments of coding abilities for young children. This impedes studying learning outcomes and the development and evaluation of curricula. Objective: Developing and validating a new instrument for assessing young…

Purpose: Functional language proficiency is presented as a conceptual framework that builds upon cultural--linguistic assets in bilingually developing children and bridges the theory of natural translation, translanguaging, and language brokering practices. A novel task was developed based on this framework for quantifying Spanish-English…

The ACTFL Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL, https://www.actfl.n.d.org/assessments/k-12-assessments/aappl) assesses proficiency in 11 languages for students in grades 3 to 12 and is often used to award the Seal of Biliteracy. While arguments for the valid interpretation and uses of the AAPPL have previously been…

Various stakeholders, such as policymakers and educators, require diagnostic feedback and actionable test results. One particular context in which fine-grained test results are of utmost importance is English language proficiency (ELP) assessments as they are used for critical decisions for students. Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) afford…

Using data from students in Grades 3-8 in school years 2018-2019 (N = 1,871) and 2021-2022 (N = 1,740), we examined the strength of fall math screening using Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) for predicting end-of-year state math assessment performance levels and whether this prediction varied across English language proficiency (ELP). In…

The population of young language minority (LM) students is rapidly growing worldwide due to global migration and immigration trends. The increasing representation of young LM students in school settings creates high demand for the language assessment of LM students in order to meet the needs of stakeholders, such as governments and language…

Purpose: Oral language skills provide a critical foundation for formal education and especially for the development of children's literacy (reading and spelling) skills. It is therefore important for teachers to be able to assess children's language skills, especially if they are concerned about their learning. We report the development and…

In the US K-12 public school settings, each state's annual English language proficiency (ELP) assessment, as part of an educational accountability system, has tremendous impact on English learner (EL) students' academic paths and success. It is thus critical to establish a robust validation framework and empirical evidence to ensure that states'…

Designing an effective K-12 alternate English language proficiency assessment (ELP) for English learners with significant cognitive disabilities (ELSCDs) is a substantial undertaking, particularly given the absence of design models for such an assessment and limited empirical research to guide test design teams. These challenges emphasized the…

This study reports on the conceptualization of a new construct targeting the cross-disciplinary academic language skills most relevant to school reading comprehension, targeting the validation of the Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) Instrument, a novel assessment tool which measures this construct. Participants included Grade 4-8 monolingual…

To ensure quality of education, a language framework should be the foundation on which second language curricula are developed. In 2010, the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), as suggested by Vandergrift (2006a, 2006b), recommended the use of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in the K-12 Canadian school context and…

Federal law requires states to develop systems to hold K-12 schools accountable for the outcomes of all students. This includes using data to illuminate how historically marginalized groups of students, including English Learners (ELs), are disadvantaged by systems that fail to meet their distinct needs. But for this to be useful for school…

This study represents an initial examination of the potential of word dictation (WD), a form of curriculum-based measure, to identify risk in writing for young English language learners (ELs). The sample included 73 ELs with beginning to advanced English language proficiency in the first to third grades attending schools in one U.S. Midwestern…

This case study of Al-Aqsa School attempts to show that Cambridge Young Learners English Tests (YLE) may hurt learners' motivation and teaching process. The paper aims to highlight the adoption of Cambridge YLE proficiency tests and explore learners and teachers' perception of those tests. Also, providing alternative yardstick measures learners'…