Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs: A Guide for Administrators and Teachers

Gottlieb and Nguyen have created an excellent guide to developing a comprehensive assessment framework that can be used across a wide variety of language education programs. They begin by describing how they developed what they refer to as the Balanced Assessment and Accountability System, Inclusive and Comprehensive (BASIC) and successfully implemented it in a large suburban school district in Illinois. Their goal was to design an assessment model that would meet external demands, such as those imposed by No Child Left Behind, while at the same time meeting classroom teachers' need for ongoing, curriculum-based assessment. The book includes worksheets to guide teachers and administrators through the process of developing an assessment framework, as well as chapters on how to use assessment data to inform decision making in dual language and bilingual classrooms.