Initital Assessment of Newly Arrivedstudents. Narrowing the Gap betweenAspirations and Outcomes?

Judith ChrystalDepartment of Swedish Language and MultilingualismStockholm University

Evaluation of practices in Swedish schools

● Insufficient attention paid to newly arrivedstudents´ background and prior knowledge

● Wide variation in initial assessment (profiling) routines and content and the results not alwaysused to inform placement decisions and teaching

● Lack of co-operation between teachers● Students report ”losing time and knowledge” in

other subjects while learning basic Swedish(cf. Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2009, 2014, National Agency for

Education 2014, Nilsson & Axelsson 2013, Bouakaz & Bunar 2015, Sharif

2016, Avery 2015)

Education Act Amendment January 2016

● Newly arrived students´prior knowledge must be assessed within two months of admissionto compulsary school (7-16 years)

● Assessment results should be used to informdecisions about year placement and to plan teaching

● Material prescribed by National Agency for Education must be used for assessment.

National Initial Assessment Material

Step 1 Languages & Experience

Step 2 Literacy

Step 2 Numeracy

+ Age and

Personal circumstances

for placement/teaching

Step 3 School Subjects (15)

for teachingOverview Assessment Process

https://bp.skolverket.se/web/kartlaggningsmaterial/start

Step 1 Step 2 L

● Mandatory assessments: 70 minutes per assessment

● To be conducted in student´s strongestlanguage whenever possible

● To be carried out by most suitable memberof staff (with interpreter if necessary)

Step 2 N

Step 2 Literacy

Oral interview combined with reading tasks Strongest language – student´s choice● Literacy experiences● Reading comprehension tasks

translated into 14 (27) languagesØ Documentation: Interview protocol + task

protocol summarized in assessment profile(strengths and development areas + recommendations for placement and teaching)

Results

Headteacher

Mothertonguetuitionteacher

MT StudyGuidance

tutor

SSL-teacher +

othersubject

teachers

Potential recipients - Literacy Assessment

Everyone in school, not

onlyteachers

The study

Effects of new initial assessment on practices in schools. Ø Experiences and reflections of teachers engaged in

the new assessment processØ Organisational aspects● Data: surveys, interviews, focus group discussions

- 11 municipalities

Transformation and transfer of assessment information to those not involved in the process

● Assessment documentation - Artefacts acting as boundary objects?

● Roles in assessment process and beyond – language and knowledge brokers?

Location – Roles

Central unit In school

Full-time assessor SSL-teacher

SSL-teacher Mother tongue tuitionteacher/MTST (school-based or unit based)

Mother Tongue tuitionteacher/MTST

Centralisation > < DecentralisationSpecialisation > < Diversification

Experiences – Assessment situation It´s fantastic if you have them in your class. You know where to

begin and what to focus on, otherwise it´s trial and error but the

assessment takes time I don´t have. (SSL-teacher in school)

This is the way to go, it feels professional and we get better and

better. A teacher in school maybe only has a few assessments a

term, we do this all the time. (SSL-teacher in central unit)

It´s better when it´s someone who speaks their language.

Other teachers get to know what we otherwise find out about

students in our own classes. I hope it will lead to more co-

operation. I think it´s an advantage too that I know what it´s

like to be newly arrived. (MTT-teacher)

Conceptions of students´literacy

● They can read and discuss texts in theirlanguage in ways I didn´t expect. How can theyknow so much, how have they learned? Youdon´t have time to find this out in class. (SSL)

● Even though I´m from the same culture they cansurprise me. School has changed and they all have different lives outside school. You can´ttake anything for granted. (MTT)

Transformation of information

Student´s response to interviewquestions and tasks

(Interpretation)

Interview & task protocols

Profile

Reification – oral interaction > written artefactsfor distrubition to potential recipients.

Interpretation ● Professional or Mother tongue staff interpreters

● Resources (cost, effective use of staff)

● Brokering potential (co-operation in assessment, future teaching/tutoring)

Problematic issues raised: interpreter´s competence

Ø ”Over-helpful” interpreters

Ø Language problems (Swedish, subject knowledge, language variety)

- difficult to distinguish student´s strengths and development areas when responses are mediated by an interpreter

Transfer of information

Assessor

Unit principal

SchoolHead

Teacher

Teachers

Assessor

School headteacher

Teachers

Transfer modes: written, oral & written

Boundaries?

● I fill in the forms and pass them on to my boss (unit principal). She sends them to the school.

● It´s them and us with no bridge in between.

● I usually give the contact teacher an oral summarystraight away and send the profile later.

● We have a meeting and go through all the documents with the contact teacher. We pass on everything and assume that they pass the information on to others in the school.

I do it but do the others know how to use the information? Is it just a papper to read, not follow? We put a lot of time into it but it´s what happensafterwards that´s important.

All of us doing this have the same impression – thatthey often become shelfwarmers.

None of the teachers have ever commented on my assessments even though I work in the same school. I use the information in my own teachingand study tutoring.

Preliminary Results

● Teachers involved in assessment believe the new material has led to improved assessment practice

● Transfer of assessment information to otherteachers

”The Achilles´heel of initial assessment”

Role of mother-tongue tuition teachers/studyguidance tutors becoming more central?