From Grading To Growth: Improving Language Assessment

A fundamental and common goal of all educators, across all teaching levels and settings, is to be “successful” in their teaching practices. This success essentially involves knowing how well students have learned what they’ve been taught and how well they can carry out expected activities in English. Assessing students’ work is an integral part of teaching, and effective teaching cannot be achieved without effective assessment.

As educators, we play a key role in language assessment by planning, developing, implementing, and interpreting assessments. We assess our students using formal and informal methods for a variety of purposes throughout a teaching term. This assessment has several goals or uses in addition to measuring how much our students learned during or at the end of the teaching process. The outcome of this assessment may become part of official records and can have a lasting impact on students and the wider society. Consider the following questions:

• • What is effective assessment?
  • How can educators be confident about the accuracy or precision of assessment outcomes?
  • What can educators do to assess students effectively?

These questions arise when, rather than conducting assessment as a procedural activity, we focus on effectiveness in assessment as the objective: Instead of just getting it “done,” we’re getting it “done effectively.” 

What Are Assessment Competencies?

Effective assessment practices require a range of competencies known as language assessment literacy (LAL); these competencies are relevant to everyone involved in assessing and processing assessment. LAL for educators is a key skill area, and an adequate level of LAL is essential for effective assessment that leads to teaching effectiveness or excellence. In short, to be assessment literate, educators need to have foundational knowledge and practical skills for assessing students based on current approaches, methods, and research.

LAL for educators refers to the ability to plan, design, develop, revise, critique, and implement assessments, including scoring, interpreting scores, and, especially, understanding impacts. For example, assessment affects more than just what happens in the classroom — this is called the washback effect. Washback can be positive or negative. For example, if learners are tested on their English speaking skills, they might spend more time practicing real conversations, which is positive washback. Alternatively, if the test measures only grammar and vocabulary, students might focus on memorizing rules and words rather than on developing important skills like speaking or writing; this would be negative washback.

How Language Assessment Literacy Functions

Educator LAL has a big influence on teaching and learning, especially when aiming for teaching excellence. One key reason is that language tests often play a gatekeeping role — for example, deciding who moves to the next level or has access to certain opportunities. Language assessment practices are also closely related to fairness, inclusion, and accessibility. This means that educators should:

• • treat test takers equitably,
  • make efforts to maximise positive impact of assessment (i.e., washback effect), and
  • provide appropriate accommodations for test takers with disabilities (both visible and invisible).

When educators have adequate levels of LAL, they can help make assessments more fair and socially responsible by aligning assessment to students’ needs and their sociocultural contexts. Despite the importance of LAL, numerous research studies have shown that many educators do not have sufficient LAL.

Right now, there are no widely accepted benchmarks that define levels of LAL or what counts as “assessment literate.” To help with this, we’ve outlined three levels of LAL and provided brief descriptions (as a self-assessment checklist — download the PDF). These can help you determine your own level of LAL and what you might want to work on for professional growth.

Language Assessment Literacy Self-Assessment

Action Plan: How to Develop Language Assessment Literacy

LAL is not just relevant to educators but to all stakeholders, including students, parents, administrators, and public policy makers. Though stakeholder LAL, or a lack of it, has varying influences on language assessment approaches and practices, here we focus only on educators.

LAL acquisition and development comes from a wide range of resources. Using the LAL Self-Assessment Checklist, you can utilize both long-term and short-term strategies. In this age of generative AI and given the online availability of quality resources, there are many easily accessible practical resources for language educators. But, to reach desirable LAL development, you’ll need to approach your development systematically and assess your individual needs to chart a realistic, targeted action plan. We propose the following five LAL development resources, both individual and collaborative, for practicing educators.

• 1. Community of Practice: Educators at all levels are part of a professional community of practice (CoP) at their educational institution. Your CoP provides you with many opportunities to learn about assessment practices with your peers. Proactively engaging with this CoP to plan, discuss, share, and question assessments can be a remarkable and personalized LAL resource.
  2. Self-assessment: LAL needs vary according to teaching context as well as individual needs. It is helpful to conduct a self-directed needs analysis by using the LAL Self-Assessment Checklist. Make a list of areas of challenges and specific skills related to language assessment needing improvement. Use this needs analysis for continued professional development in LAL.
  3. Self-access resources: A wide range of published volumes on language assessment is available from well-known publishers, and numerous web-based resources are easily accessible. Selection of a source from this range should be based on individualized LAL need or a specific area for development. Through regular use, these self-access resources can offer practical support for LAL.
  4. Biweekly journal: LAL development is incremental and could be a long-term continued professional development project. As you develop your LAL, it’s important to consider how to inform and develop your assessment practices. To understand assessment challenges in real-life situations, try creating an open-ended or focussed journal. In each entry, briefly note critical questions related to the accuracy, validity, and impact of the assessments you used, and from there identify key topics for your LAL development.   
  5. In-tandem development: Another long-term continued professional development project can involve collaborating with a peer (from your CoP or beyond). Both of you can learn and develop your LAL together; we have found that a partner project (rather than a larger group) is often more effective for this type of project. This plan requires setting realistic LAL development goals and expectations in a written agreement. Additionally, assessment mentoring with an assessment professional, if possible, could be another useful resource.

The Way Forward

We believe that effective assessment should be based on current professional standards and be based on research — not just on personal preferences or habits. For example, classical test theory tells us that a student’s real ability is best measured when there are as few errors as possible in the testing process. When teachers use assessments that follow these principles, while ensuring results are accurate and fair, it’s a strong sign of LAL. Reaching this level of LAL is an important goal for all educators.

To get started, we suggest a book chapter for some foundational concepts, explanations, and an LAL case related to useful practices: “Assessment and Good Language Teachers” by Abrar-ul-Hassan and Douglas (2020) in Lessons from Good Language Teachers. LAL development is an ongoing journey, but it doesn’t have to be daunting. Start small, reflect, and grow!