Oral Native Language Assessment in Native American Tribes

Oral Native Language Assessment in Native American Tribes CCSSO National Conference on Student Assessment June 27, 2012

Organizations Involved • Bureau of Indian Education – The Bureau of Indian Education serves over 42, 000 First American students, in Bureau-funded elementary and secondary schools located in 23 states across America. There are 184 BIE schools, 125 of which are tribally operated under BIE contracts or grants service • Measured Progress – Measured Progress served as the primary point of contact for the BIE and for Tribes, provided overall management of the program and budget, and delivered professional development workshops • Second Language Testing, Inc. – SLTI collaborated as sub-contractor, provided expertise on the development of oral language test design and item development, delivered professional development workshops • Native American Tribes – Eight Tribes actively participated in this project, and an additional eight Tribes participated in professional development workshops.

Scope of Work • Timeline: September, 2009 - March, 2012 • Provide technical assistance to Tribes wishing to waive part or all of the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) definition found within the Accountability Workbook of the state in which the school is located, per provisions written into NCLB. • Specifically, our task was to provide technical assistance to Tribes in the development of oral native language assessments as an alternative definition of AYP.

Refinement of Scope A task list was developed to specify the types of activities that MP/SLTI could undertake within the scope of the contract. The tasks were divided into three categories: • Technical Assistance: Evaluation of Program, Alignment/Bias Review of Standards, Development of Formative/Summative Assessments, Scale Development & Scoring, Psychometric analysis • Professional Development: Assessment 101, Training Test Administrators and Raters, Best Practices for Instruction and Assessment • Dissemination of Information: Provide Research on the Assessment of Indigenous Languages Around the World, Research and Arrange for Tribal Members to Attend Relevant Conferences, Meetings and Presentations.

Working with Tribes • We began work by holding committee meetings with the Navajo, OSEC, and Miccosukee Tribes to learn about each of their language revitalization and assessment programs, to share information about our contract with the BIE, and to discuss ways in which we could provide assistance to them • At project start, focus was primarily on addressing the needs of these three groups • To expand the project, the BIE offered our services to all interested Tribes and Tribal schools, leading to the inclusion of the Choctaw, Cherokee, Laguna Pueblo, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and Yakima Tribes.

All Participating Tribes • • • • Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Laguna Pueblo Tribe Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Mescalero Apache Tribe Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Navajo Nation Northern Arapaho Tribe Oceti Sakowin Education Consortium (OSEC) Member Schools Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Wahelut School Yakima Indian Nation

Process • Visit Tribe: Meet assessment program administrators, policy makers, committee members, teachers, and other stakeholders. • Perform Needs Assessment: Discuss status of Tribe’s native language program, review standards, curriculum, and supporting materials, conduct classroom observations. • Execute Activities: Identify goals of language program, schedule tasks and resources to support tribe. Conduct ongoing meetings to discuss work being performed. Disseminate relevant program information and deliverables.

WORK PERFORMED Navajo OSEC Miccosukee Choctaw X X X Cherokee Ojibwe Yakama Laguna Pueblo X X X Assessment 101 Workshops: Test Dev & Design, Standards, Alignment/DOK, Student Data Management, Administration, Psychometrics, Reporting X Professional Development: BIE Language Institute, Lesson Planning, Communication-Based Instruction, Immersion Instruction, Rubric Creation, Classroom Mgmt/Best Practices, Oral Language Assmt Models, Project-Based Learning Curriculum/Standards/Item Development Workshops X X X Standards Alignment Workshops X Test Administration Workshops X Benchmarking/Scoring Training Workshops X X X Develop Tests/Materials: Items, Graphics, Sample Assessment Tasks, Oral Language Dialogues, Trad. Storytelling Media X Literature Review: Assessment X of Indigenous Languages, Int’l X X X

Next Steps • BIE: – Delivered Alternative AYP/Common Core Workshops at Summer Institute in Denver, CO, June 2012 • Navajo: – The DODE is interested in discussing assessment development for Oral Native Language program. • OSEC: – Possible Psychometric activities related to Oral Native Language Assessment for OSEC member schools for 6111 Alternative AYP grant offered by BIE. • Choctaw: – Will assist Tribe with completing the alignment of Choctaw Language Learning Standards for pre K through 3 rd grade and provide additional training opportunities for teachers. • Miccosukee – Currently developing content for an Oral Native Language Assessment.

Locations of Tribes

• Phil Robakiewicz, Ph. D Measured Progress Director, Client Services robakiewicz. phil@measuredprogress. org • John Farias Measured Progress Program Manager farias. john@measuredprogress. org • Leslie Harper Niigaane School Director, Niigaane Ojibwemowin Immersion Le. Harper@bugschool. k 12. mn. us • Charles Stansfield , Ph. D Second Language Testing, Inc. President cstansfield@2 lti. com • Maureen Lesky, Ph. D Bureau of Indian Education Research Analyst maureen. lesky@bie. edu