John Jay High School Pilot San Antonio TX

John Jay High School Pilot San Antonio, TX Jay Sumpter, Principal, Jay Science and Engineering Academy K 12 EL Identification Tool

John Jay High School Profile v Transient population, including school age immigrants with little or no English language. v Required to assess language acquisition in ELs. v Current assessment model provides vague sense of language acquisition in individual students, and is time consuming. v Because of this, we looked for an assessment that was quick, authentic, engaging, and objective.

What We Like About The Identification Tool: v Increased student engagement-- students become hooked on technology based “work” v Reduced labor intensive assessment process for teachers v Reduced student “test anxiety” by assessing students in a game-like environment v Immediately screened out non-EL students, as well as students with basic, or less than basic, English language skills

Teacher Feedback on Development of Tool: Engaging! The simulations and scenarios in the tool engage EL students and provide them with an opportunity to demonstrate their language abilities, yielding more meaningful results than traditional assessments. Authentic! Assessment tasks measure integrated language skills using a combination of listening, speaking, reading, and writing as students would use in real-life situations in a way that cannot be done with a paper assessment. Academic! The scenarios include grade-level appropriate content in authentic academic and social contexts within school settings.

Implementation Challenges During Prototype Tablet platform: v Wifi connectivity fluctuates over the course of the day, when the network is strained by increased number of users v Group administration adds to the strain on district network v Anticipate 1: 1 or small group administration would ease strain