This blog captures the experiences of an instructor in a pre-service ELL course carrying out a collaborative project with her university students and a small school district around questions and answers.
Are there area resources to help us administer the WLPT-II (the Washington State English language proficiency test)? What specifics are there in having a staff person gain training? Is it worth it? What would the WLPT-II tell us to better inform our instruction?
I think these questions are pretty straight forward. The most important question that I see is the one asking "Is it worth it?" This leads me to think that Great Northern (GN) is not currently using the WLPT-II.
My thought is that we should focus on answering their questions, which as I said are pretty straight forward; but then, also consider some alternatives for the school. A few thoughts that I have are:
1) Will the students be placed in an age-appropriate classroom regardless of their test scores? If so, then:
2) Maybe it would be more beneficial for them to create their own form of assessing proficiency and/or
3) Maybe training in something like the SIOP method would be more beneficial than time spent testing?
I did a little bit of research today and found out the following:
The test is only to establish a student’s elegibility for English Language Services and for Native American students in Title III.
Students must be tested within the first ten days of attendance.
There is a cost for the Test: (not sure what, yet).
It is a placement test, not a proficiency test, determining placement into one of four levels:
• Level 1 is Beginning/Advanced Beginning • Level 2 is Intermediate • Level 3 is Advanced • Level 4 is Transitional (no longer eligible for ELL services)
I sent an email to the contact person at the OSPI office for the WLPT-II asking the following questions:
1) Is every school district required to 1- give the Home Language Survey? and 2- administer the WLPT-II?
2) Are there area resources in Spokane, WA, to help administer the WLPT-II?
3) What are the specifics involved in having a staff person trained to proctor the test?
I will update this post once I've heard back from the OSPI office.
My initial thought is that, since the school district is so small (aprox. 45 students), and since they only teach K-6, they probably won't benefit much from the WLPT-II. This test is only for determining ELL services. I suspect the teachers and students would benefit more from focusing on how to teach to their specific population. This is supported by the Cairney & Ruge (1998) article. I think a good starting place for this would be training in the SIOP method (or something similar). I know there is professional training available for the SIOP method. I will research this further and report my findings here.
Jeromy, the OSPI website makes it clear that the WLPT-II is a placement test and NOT a proficiency test. Would you mind further defining the difference between these two types of tests? Also, would you use the information I provided above, coupled by your own research to tackle aspects of the question, "What would the WLPT-II tell us to better inform our instruction?"
Are there area resources to help us administer the WLPT-II (the Washington State English language proficiency test)? What specifics are there in having a staff person gain training? Is it worth it? What would the WLPT-II tell us to better inform our instruction?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/wlptii/default.aspx
ReplyDeleteI think these questions are pretty straight forward. The most important question that I see is the one asking "Is it worth it?" This leads me to think that Great Northern (GN) is not currently using the WLPT-II.
ReplyDeleteMy thought is that we should focus on answering their questions, which as I said are pretty straight forward; but then, also consider some alternatives for the school. A few thoughts that I have are:
1) Will the students be placed in an age-appropriate classroom regardless of their test scores? If so, then:
2) Maybe it would be more beneficial for them to create their own form of assessing proficiency and/or
3) Maybe training in something like the SIOP method would be more beneficial than time spent testing?
Posting Test...
ReplyDeleteI did a little bit of research today and found out the following:
ReplyDeleteThe test is only to establish a student’s elegibility for English Language Services and for Native American students in Title III.
Students must be tested within the first ten days of attendance.
There is a cost for the Test: (not sure what, yet).
It is a placement test, not a proficiency test, determining placement into one of four levels:
• Level 1 is Beginning/Advanced Beginning
• Level 2 is Intermediate
• Level 3 is Advanced
• Level 4 is Transitional (no longer eligible for ELL services)
I sent an email to the contact person at the OSPI office for the WLPT-II asking the following questions:
1) Is every school district required to 1- give the Home Language Survey? and 2- administer the WLPT-II?
2) Are there area resources in Spokane, WA, to help administer the WLPT-II?
3) What are the specifics involved in having a staff person trained to proctor the test?
I will update this post once I've heard back from the OSPI office.
My initial thought is that, since the school district is so small (aprox. 45 students), and since they only teach K-6, they probably won't benefit much from the WLPT-II. This test is only for determining ELL services. I suspect the teachers and students would benefit more from focusing on how to teach to their specific population. This is supported by the Cairney & Ruge (1998) article. I think a good starting place for this would be training in the SIOP method (or something similar). I know there is professional training available for the SIOP method. I will research this further and report my findings here.
Jeromy, the OSPI website makes it clear that the WLPT-II is a placement test and NOT a proficiency test. Would you mind further defining the difference between these two types of tests? Also, would you use the information I provided above, coupled by your own research to tackle aspects of the question, "What would the WLPT-II tell us to better inform our instruction?"
Thanks-a-bunch! :0)
I think I lost everything I tried posting.
ReplyDelete