Evaluating the Quality of ELA Performance Assessments for Developing Students’ Academic Language Proficiency

Abidi, Ali Ahmad

Evaluating the Quality of ELA Performance Assessments for Developing Students’ Academic Language Proficiency

dc.contributor.advisor	Koh, Kim
dc.contributor.author	Abidi, Ali Ahmad
dc.contributor.committeemember	Chapman, Olive
dc.contributor.committeemember	Chu, Man-Wai
dc.date	2024-05
dc.date.accessioned	2024-05-02T17:28:33Z
dc.date.available	2024-05-02T17:28:33Z
dc.date.issued	2024-04-11
dc.description.abstract	According to Wiggins (1989), authentic assessment can help foster students’ deep understanding, higher-order thinking, and complex problem solving through the performance of exemplary tasks. In academic language, authentic assessment consisting of rich and open-ended tasks is deemed to provide students with the opportunity to apply their language skills in real-world contexts. In the context of English language teaching and learning, it is important to ensure that performance assessments replicate the real-world challenges and performance standards as outlined in the intended curriculum to promote students’ learning and mastery of academic language. The authenticity of performance assessments can be determined by well-established criteria. This quantitative study investigated the quality of English Language Arts (ELA) performance assessments, assembled by an external assessment agency to develop elementary (Grades 1–6) students’ academic language proficiency (ALP) with a particular focus on: the authentic intellectual quality of the performance assessments and the alignment between the performance assessments and the learning outcomes as stipulated in the ELA programs of study (i.e., the ELA curriculum). My quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics of 27 ELA performance assessments assembled by an external assessment agency in the Canadian province. The quality of the performance assessments was analyzed using the Koh Authentic Intellectual Quality (AIQ) criteria (2011a). The criteria provided a basis to determine the authenticity and intellectual demands of the ELA performance assessments for engaging student learning and development of ALP. Results indicated that although there was a close alignment between the performance assessments and the intended curriculum in most grade levels, the AIQ of all performance assessments was low. These findings underscore the importance of designing high quality ELA performance assessments for elementary ELA students. High quality performance assessments should place greater emphasis on the intellectual or cognitive demands of the tasks in addition to the authenticity of the tasks. Recommendations are offered on future lines of research that would pave way for a better understanding of the design and use of ELA performance assessments that promote elementary school students’ ALP.
dc.identifier.citation	Abidi, A. A. (2024). Evaluating the quality of ELA performance assessments for developing students’ academic language proficiency (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/118401
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Werklund School of Education
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	Authentic Assessment
dc.subject	Authentic Intellectual Quality
dc.subject	Performance Assessment
dc.subject	ELA
dc.subject	Canada
dc.subject	Learning Outcomes Alignment
dc.subject	Evaluation Study
dc.subject	Professional Learning
dc.subject	Academic Language Proficiency
dc.subject.classification	Education--Tests and Measurements
dc.subject.classification	Education--Teacher Training
dc.title	Evaluating the Quality of ELA Performance Assessments for Developing Students’ Academic Language Proficiency
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Education Graduate Program – Educational Research
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I require a thesis withhold – I need to delay the release of my thesis due to a patent application, and other reasons outlined in the link above. I have/will need to submit a thesis withhold application.