Literacy & Languages Coming soon
English Language Learners Path
A diagnostic that will find where each student is on the path to English proficiency, across listening, speaking, reading and writing, and build the path forward.
The problem
Where English language development stalls
Students learning English are building a new language while learning grade-level content in it. Where each student’s language development stands, and what is holding it back, is hard to see from a yearly score.
- A yearly proficiency score arrives too late to guide this year’s instruction.
- Speaking and writing can develop at very different rates.
- Content teachers need to know which language skills a student is still building.
Inside the Path
What the English Language Learners Path covers
The English Language Learners Path will be built on the WIDA English Language Development Standards, which describe how students use English across listening, speaking, reading and writing, and how they use it to learn in language arts, math, science and social studies.
Where students get stuck
Language development is rarely even. A student may read well but speak with less confidence, or follow social conversation easily while the academic language of science or math is still developing. Telling a language gap from a content gap matters, because each needs different support.
What it does for you
What this Path will do
For teachers
Will trace each student’s responses to the language skills they’re still building, so practice will meet them there.
More for teachersFor school leaders
Will give multilingual learners practice that starts where their language development is, between yearly assessments.
More for school leadersFor districts
Will bring the SubjectPath method to multilingual learners, built on WIDA.
More for districtsHow it works
How the Path will work
Diagnose
An adaptive diagnostic will move across the language domains, choosing each task from the answers so far.
Trace
Results will be traced through a map of how language skills build on each other to the point where development stalls.
Rebuild
Students will get a path of practice that starts where their language development is.
Standards
Will be built on published standards
WIDA English Language Development Standards, aligned with Common Core ELA
The English Language Learners Path will be built on the WIDA English Language Development Standards, aligned with Common Core English Language Arts.
The science
The method behind every Path
Item Response Theory
Each student’s ability is estimated from their answers, and each next question is the one expected to tell the most.
Prerequisite maps
Standards are mapped as a graph of which skills build on which, so a gap can be traced to where it starts.
Misconception tagging
Wrong answer choices are written to reveal specific misconceptions, from a controlled catalog.
Research
The research behind this Path
These published studies are about how students learn, not about SubjectPath itself.
Cummins distinguished everyday conversational skills, such as fluency and accent, from the academic language proficiency that school learning draws on, and proposed that this academic proficiency is shared across a learner’s first and second languages.
Cummins (1979)A national panel review edited by August and Shanahan found that teaching the key components of reading is necessary but not enough for students learning English: oral proficiency in English is critical too.
August & Shanahan (2006)
Help shape the English Language Learners Path
Tell us about your courses and students, and which of your classes the English Language Learners Path would serve. We’d like to hear what it should do first.
Tell us you’re interestedFrequently asked questions
- Will it replace our annual English proficiency test?
- No. It will be designed to guide instruction during the year, alongside the assessments your state requires.
- When will it be available?
- We don’t publish dates. Tell us about your timeline and we’ll talk it through.
- Can we help shape it?
- Yes. Tell us about your courses and students. We’d like to hear what you need from it.
Talk to us about the English Language Learners Path
See Algebra Readiness in a demo today, and tell us what you need from this Path.