Initial Assessment of Newly Arrived Students. Narrowing the Gap between Aspirations and 0utcomes?

Initital Assessment of Newly Arrivedstudents. Narrowing the Gap betweenAspirations and Outcomes?

Judith ChrystalDepartment of Swedish Language and MultilingualismStockholm University

Evaluation of practices in Swedish schools

● Insufficient attention paid to newly arrivedstudents´ background and prior knowledge

● Wide variation in initial assessment (profiling) routines and content and the results not alwaysused to inform placement decisions and teaching

● Lack of co-operation between teachers● Students report ”losing time and knowledge” in

other subjects while learning basic Swedish(cf. Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2009, 2014, National Agency for

Education 2014, Nilsson & Axelsson 2013, Bouakaz & Bunar 2015, Sharif

2016, Avery 2015)

Education Act Amendment January 2016

● Newly arrived students´prior knowledge must be assessed within two months of admissionto compulsary school (7-16 years)

● Assessment results should be used to informdecisions about year placement and to plan teaching

● Material prescribed by National Agency for Education must be used for assessment.

National Initial Assessment Material

Step 1 Languages & Experience

Step 2 Literacy

Step 2 Numeracy

+ Age and

Personal circumstances

for placement/teaching

Step 3 School Subjects (15)

for teachingOverview Assessment Process

https://bp.skolverket.se/web/kartlaggningsmaterial/start

Step 1 Step 2 L

● Mandatory assessments: 70 minutes per assessment

● To be conducted in student´s strongestlanguage whenever possible

● To be carried out by most suitable memberof staff (with interpreter if necessary)

Step 2 N

Step 2 Literacy

Oral interview combined with reading tasks Strongest language – student´s choice● Literacy experiences● Reading comprehension tasks

translated into 14 (27) languagesØ Documentation: Interview protocol + task

protocol summarized in assessment profile(strengths and development areas + recommendations for placement and teaching)

Results

Headteacher

Mothertonguetuitionteacher

MT StudyGuidance

tutor

SSL-teacher +

othersubject

teachers

Potential recipients - Literacy Assessment

Everyone in school, not

onlyteachers

The study

Effects of new initial assessment on practices in schools. Ø Experiences and reflections of teachers engaged in

the new assessment processØ Organisational aspects● Data: surveys, interviews, focus group discussions

- 11 municipalities

Transformation and transfer of assessment information to those not involved in the process

● Assessment documentation - Artefacts acting as boundary objects?

● Roles in assessment process and beyond – language and knowledge brokers?

Location – Roles

Central unit In school

Full-time assessor SSL-teacher

SSL-teacher Mother tongue tuitionteacher/MTST (school-based or unit based)

Mother Tongue tuitionteacher/MTST

Centralisation > < DecentralisationSpecialisation > < Diversification

Experiences – Assessment situation It´s fantastic if you have them in your class. You know where to

begin and what to focus on, otherwise it´s trial and error but the

assessment takes time I don´t have. (SSL-teacher in school)

This is the way to go, it feels professional and we get better and

better. A teacher in school maybe only has a few assessments a

term, we do this all the time. (SSL-teacher in central unit)

It´s better when it´s someone who speaks their language.

Other teachers get to know what we otherwise find out about

students in our own classes. I hope it will lead to more co-

operation. I think it´s an advantage too that I know what it´s

like to be newly arrived. (MTT-teacher)

Conceptions of students´literacy

● They can read and discuss texts in theirlanguage in ways I didn´t expect. How can theyknow so much, how have they learned? Youdon´t have time to find this out in class. (SSL)

● Even though I´m from the same culture they cansurprise me. School has changed and they all have different lives outside school. You can´ttake anything for granted. (MTT)

Transformation of information

Student´s response to interviewquestions and tasks

(Interpretation)

Interview & task protocols

Profile

Reification – oral interaction > written artefactsfor distrubition to potential recipients.

Interpretation ● Professional or Mother tongue staff interpreters

● Resources (cost, effective use of staff)

● Brokering potential (co-operation in assessment, future teaching/tutoring)

Problematic issues raised: interpreter´s competence

Ø ”Over-helpful” interpreters

Ø Language problems (Swedish, subject knowledge, language variety)

- difficult to distinguish student´s strengths and development areas when responses are mediated by an interpreter

Transfer of information

Assessor

Unit principal

SchoolHead

Teacher

Teachers

Assessor

School headteacher

Teachers

Transfer modes: written, oral & written

Boundaries?

● I fill in the forms and pass them on to my boss (unit principal). She sends them to the school.

● It´s them and us with no bridge in between.

● I usually give the contact teacher an oral summarystraight away and send the profile later.

● We have a meeting and go through all the documents with the contact teacher. We pass on everything and assume that they pass the information on to others in the school.

I do it but do the others know how to use the information? Is it just a papper to read, not follow? We put a lot of time into it but it´s what happensafterwards that´s important.

All of us doing this have the same impression – thatthey often become shelfwarmers.

None of the teachers have ever commented on my assessments even though I work in the same school. I use the information in my own teachingand study tutoring.

Preliminary Results

● Teachers involved in assessment believe the new material has led to improved assessment practice

● Transfer of assessment information to otherteachers

”The Achilles´heel of initial assessment”

Role of mother-tongue tuition teachers/studyguidance tutors becoming more central?