WIDA Assessment: Testing English Language Proficiency

CVIS is an amazing school. I am so lucky that I am able to do part of my student teaching here. And I would love to eventually come back here to teach for a year or two. This is truly an amazing place with amazing people. I cannot believe how fast the time is going by. Although I am excited to return to Madison to see my friends, family, and begin working with another great group of students, it is going to be really hard for me to leave CVIS and Sayulita.

I’ve said it before and I am going to say it again. I am amazed by how accepting the students are at CVIS. They comprise a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and linguistic and academic backgrounds. In spite of all of the differences and ranges, the students are so accepting of one another. I think that’s really special. I think one thing that makes that possible is that there is not one group of people that are at a huge advantage. All of the students are learning a second language at school, whether they are learning English or Spanish. This kind of evens the playing field at school because they are all “experts” in one language and they can all help one another in some way. So it is more of an exchange.

Over the past few weeks we have been working on assessing students’ language skills. A group of people in Madison developed the WIDA Test, which stands for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment. It is a series of tests schools can use to assess their English Language Learners’ (ELLs) English proficiency in all four language domains: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. CVIS purchased the test this year and decided to administer it a few weeks ago. At this point the test only exists for ELL students, so we could only administer it to students at the school whose first language is Spanish. Kathy, the director of the school, says that a version of the test is being developed for Spanish Language Learners. CVIS might actually be able to be a “guinea pig” school that gets to try out the test before they begin officially selling it. But I have no idea when that will happen. Probably not for at least another year.

I had the opportunity to administer all parts of the WIDA test to my 6^th grade students. There are only 11 6^th graders. But 10 are ELL students. Administering the reading and writing portion of the exam was fairly easy. I could give the exam to all of my students at one time. I did this over the course of two days. The reading test is leveled, so students take a short screening test and then get placed to a reading test at an appropriate level for them. Some of the questions were really difficult, as it tested their academic reading skills. This part of the test was easy to grade because it was multiple choice. The writing test was easier to administer because all students wrote about the same writing prompts. However, this part of the test is harder to grade because it is so subjective. We are still grading the writing portion!

We administered the speaking and listening the following week. I had to give the speaking and listening portions to each individual student separately, so it took a lot longer to administer. This took two days to complete, but all of my students did really well. Language learners typically develop speaking and listening skills faster than reading and writing. And all of the 6^th graders began learning English in Kindergarten or 1^st grade so they are all amazing at speaking and listening. I was so impressed with all of my students. Some of the questions on the speaking portion of the test were really easy because there was a “right” answer (example: pointing to a pencil I would ask, “what is this?”). Other questions were more abstract and hard to answer on the spot (example: “Who is your hero and why?”). However, all of my students did a great job. I was surprised that administering the test helped me get to know my students better as individuals in both an academic and non-academic way. I learned that one of my students heroes are famous scientists and engineers like Nicolas Tesla and Albert Einstein because he dreams of being an engineer and inventor one day. Another student of mine idolizes Lady Gaga because he dreams of being a performer and admires her creativity. Many of my students also see their parents and teachers as heroes because they encourage them to be the best they can be and work hard. I didn’t expect to learn such intimate details about my students when administering this test, so it was a pleasant surprise.

There are so many more things I could say about the WIDA test. There were a few things I didn’t like, but that is the case with any standardized test. There are also some limitations. Overall, it seemed like a fair test and I look forward to analyzing the results once we finish grading the writing portion.