Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs: A Guide for Administrators and Teachers

Administrators and teachers need defensible evidence of English language learners’ growth and achievement to drive their decision making!

This groundbreaking book provides a field-tested approach to accountability for ELLs. Gottlieb and Nguyen propose the BASIC (Balanced Assessment and Accountability System, Inclusive and Comprehensive) model. This model is research based and grounded in practice. It relies on multiple forms of assessment data from multiple stakeholders that yield a body of evidence on language learners’ learning and academic achievement.

This user-friendly guide exemplifies how to plan, collect, analyze, and use evidence of students’ language development and academic achievement to

• Respond to external accountability requirements
• Guide classroom instruction
• Improve programs for language learners
• Inform school and district level policymaking
• Strengthen advocacy efforts on behalf of language learners

Gottlieb and Nguyen document how teachers and administrators in a linguistically and culturally diverse school district collaborate in the design of an assessment system for their language education programs, and they show us how educators use evidence of student performance to inform their decisions. Central to their work is the pivotal portfolio, something new in the assessment literature. The pivotal portfolio is different from the traditional portfolio in that it follows the student for the length of the student’s participation in the language education program and it contains evidence gathered by collaborating teachers of essential student learning and achievement. The text is brought to life through the voices of teachers, samples from student portfolios, and longitudinal data on program effectiveness.

The book includes worksheets that guide administrators and teachers’ efforts to develop and implement a research-based assessment and accountability system that is appropriate for language education programs (dual language, transitional bilingual, and English as a second language) in their districts and schools.

This guide is ideal for study and implementation by professional learning communities (PLCs) and teacher/administrator leadership teams!

Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D., is the co-founder and lead developer for WIDA at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also the former director of assessment and evaluation at the Illinois Resource Center. Starting her career as an ESL and bilingual teacher, Gottlieb has worked with governments, states, school districts, international schools, publishers, universities, and organizations. Over the last decade she has focused on designing English language development standards, assessment systems, and curricular frameworks. She has extensive publications, including close to 100 articles, monographs, chapters, and books. Her books address language proficiency standards, academic language use, assessment and accountability, common language assessment, and assessment of English language learners.

Dr. Diep Nguyen is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Teacher Education at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Prior to coming to NEIU, she served as the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in two Illinois school districts. Dr. Nguyen was also the director for bilingual/multicultural programs in Schaumburg School District 54, where she instituted dual language programs in Spanish/English and Japanese/English.

Dr. Nguyen received her Ph.D. in educational studies from the Ohio State University. She has an M.A. in French literature and a B.S. in foreign language education. Her areas of interest include second language development and programming, assessment and curriculum development, and multilingual/multicultural education.

She serves on the Illinois State Advisory Council on Bilingual Education. She is also the co-author, with Dr. Margo Gottlieb, of Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs.