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Good assessment is one of the keys to achieving better teaching and learning for all students.
Furthermore, it is one of the ten characteristics of quality teaching for the diverse student groups identified in Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis (Ministry of Education, 2003a).
This BES recommends that assessment for learning should focus on how students learn and on learner motivation.
In addition, assessment for learning should be:
It should recognise the full range of achievements for all learners, provide learners with constructive guidance about how to improve and foster their capacity for self-assessment so they can become reflective and self-managing.
According to BES, assessment for learning should show commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of what is required to meet the goals.
(adapted from Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis, pages 51-52.)
To know their bilingual Pasifika students as learners, teachers and schools need to:
Set up times for students to work with a group of bilingual peers. Doing so can help you find out more about each student’s understanding of the curriculum and their ability to apply their understandings.
Bilingual Pasifika who children have entered the New Zealand schooling system with limited knowledge of English – in comparison with their English first language (L1) peers – may need assessment of their English proficiency from an ESOL point of view. Some may need this for seven or more years.
ESOL assessments are an important component of schools’ usual English-language assessments because they pinpoint specific gaps that distinguish (set apart) learning English as a second language from learning it as a first or only language.
For ESOL funding purposes, mainstream teachers are often needed to assess ESOL students' English in mainstream contexts
Find out if your school has a teacher who is responsible for ESOL funding applications. See if there are any teachers who have expertise in helping mainstream teachers assess their EAL (English as an Additional Language) students’ English proficiency.
See the Ministry of Education website for more information on:
See if some of your colleagues would like to work with you on this investigation.
Assessment online – website that helps school leaders and teachers to gather, analyse, interpret, and use information about students' progress and achievement.
National Education Monitoring Project – has examples of assessment tasks in its published reports and makes previous assessment tasks available in packs for teachers to use.