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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?