Students nation-wide are assessed at the beginning of the school year according to the Home Language Survey (HLS), which is the first step to identify a student that speaks a language other than English at home sometimes or all of the time. In California, the student is identified as an English Language Learner (ELL) and will take the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), which is an initial standardized assessment that measures the student’s ability to speak, read, write, and listen in the English language. The state has also developed the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC), which is also a standardized test that measures a student’s ability to speak, read, write and listen in the English language, but it is given as a summative assessment to measure a students’ progress in these areas. …show more content…
Assessments are given by teachers to assess students day to day (formative) and again annually to monitor student progression (summative). These assessments are both necessary and vital to teacher and student success and they are also true of ELL’s. Benchmarks are given at various times in the year to assess the student’s progression. The California standardized tests for EL students are a way to determine if a student is an EL and also to measure progression in the English Language, knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to be