Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity: Connecting Academic Language Proficiency to Student Achievement / Edition 2

by Margo Gottlieb Ed.D.

Overview

Build the bridges for English language learners to reach success!

This thoroughly updated edition of Gottlieb’s classic delivers a complete set of tools, techniques, and ideas for planning and implementing instructional assessment of ELLs. The book includes:

• A focus on academic language use in every discipline, from mathematics to social studies, within and across language domains
• Emphasis on linguistically and culturally responsive assessment as a key driver for measuring academic achievement
• A reconceptualization of assessment “as,” “for,” and “of” learning
• Reflection questions to stimulate discussion around how students, teachers, and administrators can all have a voice in decision making

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483381060
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	03/28/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	180,075
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D., is Co-founder and Lead Developer for WIDA at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin- Madison, having also served as Director, Assessment and Evaluation, for the Illinois Resource Center. She has contributed to the crafting of language proficiency/ development standards for American Samoa, Guam, TESOL, and WIDA and has designed assessments, curricular frameworks, and instructional assessment systems for language learners. Her professional experiences span from being an inner city language teacher to working with thousands of educators across states, school districts, publishing companies, governments, universities, and educational organizations.

Highlights of Margo’s career include being a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Chile and being appointed to the U.S. Department of Education’s Inaugural National Technical Advisory Council. In 2016 Margo was honored by TESOL International Association's 50@50 “as an individual who has made a significant contribution to the TESOL profession within the past 50 years.” She has had opportunities to travel extensively and has presented in American Samoa, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Denmark, Finland, Guam, Italy, Jakarta, Mexico, Panama, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom as well as close to home across the United States.

Margo's publications include over 70 articles, technical reports, monographs, chapters, and encyclopedia entries. Additionally she has authored, co-authored, and co-edited 11 books this past decade: Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity (2^nd Ed., 2016), Academic Language in Diverse Classrooms: Definitions and Contexts (with G. Ernst-Slavit, 2014), a foundational book for the series Promoting Content and Language Learning (a compendium of three mathematics and three English language arts volumes co-edited with G. Ernst-Slavit, 2014, 2013), Common Language Assessment for English Learners (2012), Paper to Practice: Using the TESOL's English Language Proficiency Standards in Pre K-12 Classrooms (with A. Katz & G. Ernst-Slavit, 2009); and Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs: A Guide for Administrators and Teachers (with D. Nguyen, 2007).

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Dedication
About the Author
PART I: Assessment as a Context for Teaching and Learning: Bridges to Equity
1. Assessment of Language Learners: The Bridge to Educational Equity
2. Assessment of Academic Language Through Standards: The Bridge to Systemic Equity
3. Assessment of the Language of the Content Areas: The Bridge to Academic Equity
4. Assessment of Oral Language and Literacy Development: The Bridge to Linguistic Equity
PART II: Assessment from a Different Perspective: The Bridge to School-wide Equity
5. Assessment as Learning: The Bridge to Student Equity
6. Assessment for Learning: The Bridge to Teacher Equity
7. Assessment of Learning: The Bridge to Administrator Equity
8. Assessment Results: Feedback, Standards-Referenced Grading, and Reporting: The Bridge to Sustained Educational Equity
Glossary
References

Editorial Reviews

"Few writers have the chops to capture the potent links between assessment and instruction, and even fewer language-learning specialists possess such skills. Happily, Margo Gottlieb is the exception. In this exciting, practitioner-friendly volume, she shows us how assessment as, for, and of learning can provide a level playing field for today’s language learners. Educators working with English language learners will find this assessment-moxie book truly invaluable."

W. James Popham

"This practical book provides excellent background information and practical guidance for educators interested in improving the assessment of English learners (ELs) and connecting academic language proficiency to academic achievement. Its format of using reflections throughout each chapter offers opportunities for readers to think more deeply about topics and helps guarantee that they will be engaged and apply what they are learning to their own settings. Sharing the reflections with colleagues will help readers gain multiple perspectives related to the assessment of language proficiency in ELs. The practical resources at the end of each chapter will help educators apply what they learned. "

Diane August

"There are no other books available that cover the topic of fair and equitable assessment practices for English learner as comprehensively as this one Nor are there any other books with such a rich selection of tools readily available for practitioners. It must belong in every TESOL professional’s professional library!"

Andrea Honigsfeld

"Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity lays out a much needed practical process for instructional professionals to design equitable access to educational opportunity for English learners! Margo Gottlieb both responds to and promotes growing awareness of the critical importance for teachers and instructional leaders to ensure English learners’ meaningful engagement with content through academic English. This authentic evolution of appropriate assessment as, for and of learning answers the “how” part of the clarion call for English learners to participate in rigorous curricula and instruction."

Jonathan Gibson

"Framed by a lens of equity, Gottlieb makes the complex landscape of assessment accessible for classroom practitioners of English language learners. Readers will walk away with a crystal clear understanding of the instructional conditions they can create for English language learners, promoting linguistically responsive assessment practices."

Trish Morita-Mullaney

"While we know that first-hand teaching experiences cannot readily be substituted by reading about the work and practice of others, with evocative scenarios of teachers, students and schools used throughout Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity, Margo Gottlieb comes close to making this happen. This is critical in two ways: first, the book is lively and interesting—serving as a welcome, well-designed text for teacher preparation courses, and second, the scenarios with their companion reflection questions can serve as an excellent stand-alone reference and thought-provoking resource for the increasing number of classroom teachers who find themselves responsible for the instruction and assessment of students acquiring English alongside their content area learning."

Alison L. Bailey

"Assessing Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity
/ Connecting Academic Language Proficiency to Student Achievement, 2e is a great resource for teacher education programs and professional learning opportunities for schools. The book presents a new vision about assessment in the 21st century, which is influenced by new standards, accountability and technological advances in education. The new concept of Assessment as, for, and of Learning that Gottlieb presents will transform education and provide a different perspective of assessment to all stakeholders. This is definitely a book that all educators should read. "

Miguel Fernandez

"Assessing English Language Learners is an important contribution to the field for the many educators who believe that assessment for second language learners is important, but only if it is valid. This book lays out a clear and compelling argument that assessment and equity are not mutually exclusive concepts in educational programs for the nation's burgeoning population of multilingual learners. Its breadth is impressive and includes important discussions about language proficiency assessment, but also adds ideas for content area assessment practices. Important reading for practitioners and educational leaders."

Divya Zindani

"High quality and relevant - perfect for our assessment course. "

Valerie Shinas