Common core drives revision of English learner assessments too
By Tom Chorneau
Monday, May 06, 2013
Monday, May 06, 2013
The Legislature begins debate in earnest this month on plans for a major revision of the state’s academic student assessment program – the STAR system. But just down the street from the Capitol, officials at the California Department of Education are developing similar plans to upgrade testing of English learners.
Just as adoption of the common core standards in 2010 prompted lawmakers to undertake the revision of the Standardized Testing and Reporting program, new standards for English learners aligned to the common core were approved last fall. That also makes obsolete the state’s current assessment program – the California English Language Development Test –for identifying students whose home language is not English and need help improving their language skills – a group in that typically numbers close to 1.5 million students.
State officials hope to have a new test online by the 2015-16 school year but a number of challenges must be met in order to get there – including additional funding, legislation to authorize the update and federal approval.
“This is a big project,” said Eric Zilbert, who helps oversee development of new tests at the CDE. “[The CELDT