Assessment in Multiple Languages
A Handbook for School and District Leaders
Foreword by Patricia Morita-Mullaney
Assessing the full capabilities of your multilingual learners
Assessment as, for, and of learning complement effective curricular and instructional practices, however, the complexities of assessment for multilingual students are too-often overlooked and misunderstood. What if multilingual learners, teachers, and educational leaders all had opportunities to plan for and use assessment data in multiple languages? Imagine the linguistic, academic, and cultural reservoirs we could tap to highlight what our multilingual learners know and can do.
Assessment in Multiple Languages: A Handbook for School and District Leaders shows how superintendents, principals, directors, coaches, and other educational leaders can more accurately portray the academic, language, and social-emotional development of multilingual students. As a companion to Classroom Assessment in Multiple Languages, this book illustrates how the assessment cycle unfolds at school and district levels. Together the two books provide comprehensive guidance for enacting linguistically and culturally sustainable assessment in multiple languages in K-12 settings. Grounded in leading-edge research, with an emphasis on instilling equity and social justice in assessment practices, this book:
- justifies the legitimacy of assessment in multiple languages
- showcases examples from federal to classroom levels
- provides practical guidance and tools for schoolwide and district level assessment
- applies to any and all programs with multilingual learners whether in dual-language immersion, bilingual, or monolingual settings.
"Margo Gottlieb provides resolutions and resources to tackle the most important dilemma in educating multilingual learners equitably—their assessment. By presenting cases that highlight the different issues that school and district leaders face when gauging the learning of multilingual learners, Gottlieb shows her encyclopedic understandings of the condition of their education today and the role that monolingual assessments have played in unfairly judging them. But in addition, Gottlieb demonstrates her common-sense and imaginative approach to ensure that multilingual learners are assessed fairly. Every assessment dilemma is given resolutions, as Gottlieb gently guides school and district leaders to perceive assessment from the students’ multilingual perspective, and then provides them with the resources they would need to act differently.
"Not only is assessment for multilingual learners reframed here; the multilingual students are reimagined as able and gifted users of their language repertoire. Gottlieb presents herself as a warrior for social justice—one armed with information about what is, the gift of imagining what could be, and the generosity of leading gently with simple steps that could be followed. This book is unique in its vision and guidance. It is focused on assessments for multilingual learners, and yet it is much more than that. It is about policy, curriculum, pedagogy; it is also about social justice and advocacy, especially when learning during a pandemic and a period of racial and social unrest. It is just what school and district leaders need today."
"This book is a must for any school leader who wants to turn students’ and teachers’ multilingualism into an educational advantage. The discussion is packed with practicable ideas and resources for language assessment that are informed by research and professional experience."
"Assessment in Multiple Languages: A Handbook For School And District Leaders is a must read for all students in education administration programs in higher education, for policy makers, and for current school administrators. A foremost expert in multilingual education and assessment, Dr. Margo Gottlieb uses a combination of research-based assessment principles combined with useful 'can do' examples that will be of great use for administrators and other educators serving multilingual learners. In dismantling inequity and evoking educational change, Dr. Gottlieb invites us to balance assessment approaches with strategies that are inclusive of '…assessment as, for, and of learning …from the classroom to the boardroom.' I recommend her book highly."
"This book approaches the issue of assessment from the multilingual learners’ perspective. Excellent approach! Reframing language education models and understanding the basics of assessment of learning are topics all school and district leaders will find most helpful for supporting multilingual learners in difficult times. The book contains key resources for planning, gathering, and conducting assessments: planning curriculum, interpreting information, providing feedback in multiple languages, and taking action based on assessment results."
"This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about equitable and meaningful assessment for multilingual learners. Margo Gottlieb makes a compelling case for assessing these students in multiple languages. Through insightful case studies presented as dilemmas, and a rich, comprehensive collection of tools and resources, the book offers everything the reader needs to get started with or to transform existing assessment practices."
"Assessment in Multiple Languages: A Handbook For School And District Leaders is a true deep dive into the importance of assessment in multiple languages – a moral imperative to ensure appropriate assessments are created for and serve culturally and linguistically divers students. Our educational leadership and policy makers must utilize this the important work for ensuring accountability and commitment to supporting effective instructional practice.
"Assessment in Multiple Languages: A Handbook For School And District Leaders is an answer to prayer. It is a moral imperative for tackling social justice issues that currently exist with assessments developed and produced for Native Monolingual English speakers and forced upon our culturally and linguistically diverse student populations.
"It we are truly interested in knowing our students’ academic, linguistic and socio-cultural competence then we must capture and understand their proficiencies through all of their languages.
"Who knew that there could be a common assessment for multiple languages? This new resource is timely, as there is a growing voice to strengthen and expand K-12 Dual Language Immersion Education. Developing a large-scale testing system on the tenants and guidance of this resource that works for DLI, is now within reach!"
