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Designing Accessible Formative Assessment Tasks to Measure Argumentation Skills for English Learners ELL ELA

Author(s):
Guzman-Orth, Danielle; Song, Yi; Sparks, Jesse R.
Publication Year:
2019
Report Number:
RR-19-15
Source:
ETS Research Report
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
15
Subject/Key Words:
English Language Learners (ELL), Formative Assessment, Accessibility, Argumentation Skills, Scenario Based Tasks, Scenario-Based Assessments, Task Design, Computer Delivered Assessment, English Language Arts (ELA), English Language Proficiency, Interviews, Middle School Students, Elementary Education

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the challenges and opportunities in developing a computer‐delivered English language arts (ELA) task intended to improve the accessibility of the task for middle school English learners (ELs). Data from cognitive labs with 8 ELs with varying language proficiency levels provided rich insight to student–task interaction and how the accessibility of the task could be improved to enhance student understanding and to support valid integration of the task as a part of students' formative assessment process. In this paper, we share the results from our research and discuss our iterative approach to improving ELA task accessibility for ELs' formative assessment process.

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