How does FastBridge support assessment of English Learners (ELs)?

To assist ELs in gaining English proficiency, teachers must have appropriate data around student performance. Although it may seem counterintuitive to assess students who are acquiring English with measures written for native English speakers, it isn’t. Students who are acquiring English need to be evaluated regularly with English assessments to track their progress toward proficiency in the target language.

Specifically, teachers of ELs benefit from administering assessments that focus on measuring students’ acquisition of foundational reading skills in English. When these assessments are used in tandem with student progress data in content area learning, teachers who work with ELs are better able to differentiate the effects of English acquisition on overall learning.

Both earlyReading (K-10) and CBMreading (1–8) are effective assessments for determining student progress in acquiring foundational reading skills in English. earlyReading Spanish and CBMreading Spanish also are available to compare language skills for students whose first language is Spanish. All four of these assessment measures can be used for universal screening and progress monitoring to track students’ language development. A Spanish version of aReading is currently in development and will provide an additional screening tool for those who work with native Spanish-speaking students.