John Jay High School PilotSan Antonio, TX Jay Sumpter, Principal, Jay Science and Engineering Academy

Transient population, including school age immigrants with little or no English language.

Required to assess language acquisition in ELs.

Current assessment model provides vague

sense of language acquisition in individual students, and is time consuming.

Because of this, we looked for an assessment that was quick, authentic, engaging, and objective.

Increased student engagement-- students become hooked on technology based “work”

Reduced labor intensive assessment process for teachers

Reduced student “test anxiety” by assessing students in a game-like environment

Immediately screened out non-EL students, as well as students with basic, or less than basic, English language skills

Engaging! The simulations and scenarios in the tool engage EL students and provide them with an opportunity to demonstrate their language abilities, yielding more meaningful results than traditional assessments.               

Authentic! Assessment tasks measure integrated language skills using a combination of listening, speaking, reading, and writing as students would use in real-life situations in a way that cannot be done with a paper assessment.

               Academic! The scenarios include grade-level appropriate content in authentic academic and social contexts within school settings.

Tablet platform: Wifi connectivity fluctuates over the

course of the day, when the network is strained by increased number of users

Group administration adds to the strain on district network

Anticipate 1:1 or small group administration would ease strain