top of page

Understanding Spanish Proficiency Level Reports

  • Jun 15, 2018
  • 3 min read

Updated: May 6, 2020

Did you get your child's end of year Spanish proficiency level results? The first time you see this report can be overwhelmin. Just like Smarter Balance, world language immersion programs are using a Spanish language arts proficiency report to inform of a child's language proficiency level for students participating in Spanish language immersion programs. As a parent, I once wondered how Spanish proficiency level would be reported for my daughter when she began attending our local dual language immersion school. It was nice to receive my daughter's first World Language Immersion Program report containing important information related to my child's listening, speaking, reading, and writing Spanish language proficiency levels. I remember pausing what I was doing to take a closer look at the report. I sat down to carefully review my daughter's language proficiency level and got an idea of her strengths and weaknesses, as shown by the report. As a parent, I was unaware that this particular report existed or that eventually, a copy would be sent home at the end of the school year. The report itself was consistent with what I saw in my daughter's Spanish language development. I knew that her spoken ability was not as strong as her reading ability in Spanish.


The below illustration is from the Utah State Office of Education. Click the arrow to see more pages. The below example is a similar copy of some of the grade-level reports used in multiple school districts offering Spanish immersion programs across the US.

As you can see, each report contains valuable information that can help us as parents see strengths or weaknesses in Spanish language proficiency for listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Note that the above information was rarely covered during parent-teacher conferences for my kids. As a parent, I saved each report to compare their Spanish language proficiency growth over the years.

Listening

The listening test measures whether or not a student understands when spoken to in Spanish. Each scoring category represents a level of language that the child understands using simple words, sentences, or short/long conversations. The student's ability to answer and follow a conversation is measured.

Speaking

The speaking test measures a student’s ability to answer to or maintain a simple or paragraph-leveled speech using memorized and appropriate expressions. A student's speech considers appropriate when he/she uses appropriate tense language in asking and responding to questions and/or during a conversation.

Reading

The reading test measures a student’s ability to read and understand letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. A higher level reader in Spanish can read and understand short, non-complex text that conveys basic information.

Writing

The writing test measures a student's ability to write words and sentences using appropriate tense to communicate basic information in writing.

Please note that when reviewing the report, you should be cautious and assess each domain individually. Do not make comparisons from one domain to others because each domain is assessed and uses it's own scoring criteria. As you review, you might notice that sometimes a child might show to be "novice high" for Speaking and "intermediate mid" for listening. Using the 1st-grade example shown above, you'll see that this means that the child's speaking abilities are not as developed as much as listening. This does not mean that your child is unable to speak at all in Spanish, it's just noting that his/her ability to speak may not be developing as fast as his/her listening skills. The last scoring category for each domain is what a student should aim for within each domain. Each category uses different language development definitions appropriate to each domain.

Commentaires


  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

©2020 Educating Bilinguals

bottom of page