The Assessment of Multilingual Learners: Supporting English Language Learners

The Assessment of Multilingual Learners: Supporting English Language Learners

Updated edition of key textbook exploring multilingual assessment. This book is a comprehensive introduction to the topic of assessing students who use two or more languages in their daily life. The book provides foundational information for assessing multilingual learners (MLs) in schools, with an emphasis on school language and content. Major assessment ideas are viewed through a framework called PUMI (Purpose, Use, Method and Instrument) to help readers focus on important assessment principles, leading to better quality assessments for MLs. This is a substantially revised and updated second edition of  The Assessment of Emergent Bilinguals . Updates in this edition include a greater focus on multilingual assessment and assessment in language contexts in addition to English/Spanish. This edition addresses both the current politics of multilingual assessment and recent theoretical developments, including an expanded exploration of translanguaging in assessment contexts. This edition aims to be more practical than the first edition, with more examples of assessments and rubrics, and a greater emphasis on using assessment results in formative ways.  I wish I had this outstanding book when I was a bilingual teacher! Mahoney demystifies psychometric principles and practices with real-world classroom examples and provides a useful tool for teachers to make appropriate informed decisions about the development, use, and interpretation of formative and summative assessments with multilingual learners. ― Wayne E. Wright, Purdue University, USA This is one of the most important and influential textbooks about the assessment of children learning English as a second language in K-12 public schools to date. It is engaging, grounded in a useful analytical framework, and takes a critical stance on standardized testing with English learners. Kate Mahoney provides a student-friendly overview of psychometrics through an equity and social justice lens. In short, this book is stellar. ― Mary Carol Combs, University of Arizona, USA Kate Mahoney’s invaluable and much-loved textbook has been widely adopted in teacher education programs because it offers a thorough, practical, and accessible introduction to the assessment of multilingual learners. Its expertly crafted guidance and innovative framework is essential for educators, as it provides the tools needed to make informed assessment decisions, while taking up a critical, timely approach and embracing students’ bilingual language practices. ― Kate Menken, City University of New York (CUNY), USA Kate Mahoney is Professor in TESOL at the State University of New York at Fredonia, USA. She has taught bilingual learners in the US and Belize. Her research has focused on the assessment of Emergent Bilinguals and multilingual learners. The PUMI framework she presents in this book has been adopted and studied in courses across the US.