ASSESSMENT SYSTEM DESIGN Introduction The purpo

The school for which the assessment program is designed is a relatively small elementary school with 423 students located in a rural area with a changing ethnic composition. Specifically, in the last few years, the area has shifted from primary African-American and Caucasians (mostly poor) to a majority of Mexican-American families, necessitating that the school increasingly make adjustments for ESL students. Students range in age from six to ten years of age. Currently, the ethnic composition of the school is: African-American 13 percent; Mexican American 56 Percent; Caucasian and Other 31 percent. There are 15 classroom teachers and five administrative staff members. All teachers have their degrees and they are teaching in the areas in which th

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he designed program will include the following informal assessments: (1) Performance-based assessments of language and content skills using rating scales, rubrics, matrices or checklists--e.g., structured interview, questionnaire, oral presentation, story retelling, writing samples, functional dictation, reading/writing inventories, cloze tests; (2) Portfolio assessments of student work including: (pieces of work chosen by the student, essays, research papers, journals), creative projects, course-subject quizzes and tests, lab reports, group work, and student self-evaluations of work; (3) ESL teacher observations based on formal checklist or performance-criteria for fluent English proficiency; (4) Anecdotal records and criteria-based observations of student progress by teachers in whose classes the student is partially mainstreamed; and (5) Student interviews to assess student knowledge. Formal Assessments As noted by Hopkins (1997) whether they be for ESL or other educational purposes, formal assessments (standardized tests) have some clear advantages. These advantages first and foremost include: reliability (consistency, predictability, dependability, stability, and repeatability of the measurement made) and validity (the as
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Approximate Word count = 2122
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)