| REEP's
ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
Assessment is essential to the instructional process.
Effective implementation of the REEP Curriculum Assessment
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assures teachers and learners as well as administrators
and program monitors that necessary lifeskills and language skills have
been identified, practiced, and mastered,
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allows teachers to determine the effectiveness
of their instruction and to make adjustments to ensure that the needs of
students are met,
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provides a means of charting learner progress
within a level and readiness for promotion,
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provides learners with feedback on their progress,
and
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increases learners' confidence and motivation
as they see their inventory of skills grow.
Crucial to all stages of the assessment
process are the REEP
Level Descriptions which describe the speaking, listening, reading,
and writing skills that a learners needs in order to succeed in a given
level. These descriptions provide
the standards against which to measure learner proficiency and progress.
The chart below illustrates REEP's assessment
framework, describing when and why we assess our learners as well as the
assessment measures currently used. See sidebar listings for further detail.
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PURPOSE/DESCRIPTION
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ASSESSMENT MEASURES
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| Initial Assessment of New
Students
Placement into REEP instructional levels:
New students are tested prior to enrollment to determine placement
into one of the nine instructional levels. In addition to the scores on
the two tests, the following criteria are also considered in placement:
education level, age, time in the US, and previous study at REEP and/or
other English programs. |
BEST Oral Test: A one-on-one oral
interview developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL).
The test is correlated to REEP levels and MELT SPLs (Mainstream English
Language Training Student Performance Levels.)
REEP Written Placement Tests: Developed
in-house and correlated to REEP levels; consist of a locator test (lifeskills,
reading, writing), a literacy test (for those unable to complete locator),
and an essay test (for intermediate + on the locator and oral test). Scoring
rubric and prompt developed in-house and used for scoring placement tests. |
| Initial Assessment of New and Continuing
Students
Validation of Initial Placement: At
the beginning of the instructional cycle, classroom teachers assess students'
language abilities in a classroom setting to determine whether the student
has been placed appropriately - either through intake testing or by the
previous classroom teacher. |
Performance-based assessments
conducted
in class by teachers to assess students' language skills against the
REEP Level Descriptions,
which describe the abilities that
a learner should exhibit upon entry into a certain level. |
| Progress Assessment
Throughout the cycle of instruction, teachers
use performance based assessments to monitor their students' learning and
progress.
At the end of the instructional cycle,
teachers make promotion and retention decisions based on the following
critical measures:
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How well a student's language performance
matches the level description for the next appropriate level,
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Mastery of performance objectives,
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Ability to use language appropriate to the
performance objectives,
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Mastery of reading and writing development
objectives, and
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Attendance, participation, motivation, years
of education, age, length of time in the US, and student self-assessment
information.
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Assessment of Lifeskills Objectives:
Performance
Based Assessments that focus on specific tasks or objectives. Also see
Lifeskills Performance Objectives for assessment procedures, Competency
Checklists, and Reporting Progress.
Culminating Assessments: Performance
Based Assessments that assess students' mastery of language and lifeskills
within a particular lifeskill topic unit. These require learners to use
a variety of sources of information and allow learners to apply a variety
of language and communication skills. See Culminating Assessment
for assessment procedures. See Resources for sample assessment tasks.
REEP Writing Assessment: Scoring
rubric developed in-house and teacher-developed prompts used for assessing
classroom writing.
Learner Goals: A process framework
developed by REEP staff for short-term goal work, including instructional
objectives as well as instructional and assessment tools. See Needs
Assessment. |
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