ASSESSMENT There are many variables to consider when assessing students, including students who are not yet reading at grade level. As a heterogeneous group, they demonstrate varying levels of language and literacy development. Their development is often not linear across domains (e.g., they may have higher oral language development in some areas and written language development in others). The “funds of knowledge” (Moll, 2019 ) or multicultural resources they possess play an important role, too. From an instructional perspective, Connect to Language, Literacy, and Content uses a spiral approach, so students can revisit language and concepts throughout the curriculum. The assessment philosophy follows this approach and is supported with Connect’s Assess to Learn system. The Assess to Learn system in Connect is designed as a bridge between teaching and learning, helping teachers to effectively use assessment data to create a standardsbased individualized learning path for each student. This system helps teachers assess ongoing learning progress, identify skills gaps, and then customize instruction using standardsbased lessons and activities. The systematic approach in Connect views all activities as providing information about achievement. As such, formative assessment plays a vital role; it is an ongoing process related to student progress toward meeting the learning targets and objectives of a unit. During the instructional cycle, teachers gather information through questions embedded in the text to determine the effectiveness of instruction. Based on that information, they provide timely and relevant feedback (Gottlieb, 2016). Further, teachers use this information to tailor instruction. Connect is designed to prompt students to play an active role in their learning. Gottlieb (2016) describes the importance of students contributing to and helping to shape the assessment process. They should advocate for themselves, take responsibility for their learning, work toward becoming independent and self-regulated learners, reflect on their academic and linguistic accomplishments, monitor their personal growth and progress toward their learning goals, engage in peer assessment, and gradually become instructional resources for each other. Together, this allows students to develop metacognitive, metalinguistic, and metacultural awareness. Each unit in Connect contains a reflection opportunity that prompts students to pause and evaluate their work. Also, the formative assessments embedded throughout the Connect units allow students to demonstrate what they know in ways that relate to their current learning, as well as the knowledge that they are developing. Connect includes two types of more formal assessments: • Progress Monitoring Assessment • Proficiency Assessment The Progress Monitoring Assessment includes point-of-use quizzes and unit tests that assess a student’s developing knowledge, while the Proficiency Assessment includes summative assessments that serve as a way to check learners’ skills development and “sum” of learning at a particular point in time. This cumulative assessment includes midunit and end-of unit tests that use new reading passages and are similar to standardized tests. Students have the opportunity to use the skills they have learned and apply them in new reading situations. For Proficiency Assessment, there is also a mid-book and end-of-book test for each level. The results provide evidence of progress and can be used for accountability purposes. Current language research reinforces the approach that teachers must attend simultaneously to the students’ needs both in language learning and content skills, as well as developing the language required to express their learning (Alvarez et al, 2014). Thus, Connect aims to ensure language development in the vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills; the assessments address both language and discipline-specific content (in ELA, science, social studies, math, science). The varied assessment types in Connect flow sequentially throughout the year. Collectively, the assessment types provide a comprehensive picture of student progress and can be used to monitor progress dynamically over time. Of special consideration in high school is the relationship between assessment, rubrics, and grading. Rubrics offer explicit parameters for expectations. They are important criterion-referenced tools that enable both teachers and students to interpret work. Students need to know and demonstrate what they can do. Grading offers a way to evaluate assessment results. Some educators believe grading should be uniform; others believe in individualized approaches. No matter the policy or approach, grading should be transparent for students (Gottlieb, 2022). Txl
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