Beth F. World Language Curriculum Facilitator“This has been the best customer service and experience I’ve ever had. Thank you so much for all the help and how you are not charging for the two girls’ recordings that did not work. From top to bottom our experience with the STAMP test has been top-notch. Thank you for such an incredible experience!”
Carolina Prestinary CEO, INNOVA Learning Hub, Costa RicaAt INNOVA we have been working with Avant for two years. Their customer service and product quality has been extraordinary. In Costa Rica we are the only ones with Avant now, which has made our students feel more exclusive with obtaining the certificates and results. Additionally our team of teachers are 100% trained to use the Avant platforms and consider them friendly and easy to use, and their reports are very complete. The STAMP 4S tests are excellent and now we are very excited to work with CEFR, which will give us more opportunity to expand our company in other areas.
The technical and academic service are excellent, and they always attend to us very quickly and in an agile way to solve our current issues. We are very happy to be part of the Avant family, we have witnessed their growth and we feel very honored to be part of them. We continue adding and helping to promote bilingualism together!
Valerie Shull Teacher, Rogers Park Montessori School, Chicago, ILI recently administered the STAMP assessment for the first time, to my 8th graders. It’s the best money I’ve ever spent on my program—the data I’m getting holds a mirror up to my program and is making me look hard at what I do, and celebrate the successes.
Alysha Timmons Director, Multimedia Language Center, California State University San BernardinoThe accuracy, consistency, and efficiency of Avant’s Placement assessment has helped students, instructors, and staff at California State University at San Bernardino develop a more successful world language program. Statistics from Cal State show that Avant’s Placement assessment has a high level of accuracy in determining the language course level for a student. The tests are simple to administer, easy for students to use, and are completely online.
Alma Reyes K-12 Supervisor of World Languages & ESL, Montgomery Township School District, Skillman, NJThe professional development training that Avant Assessment provided was extremely helpful. Avant showed teachers how to effectively administer the test. Our teachers also learned how to interpret data from test results. The Avant trainer demonstrated how to use data to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses. This training helped us adjust instruction to better meet students’ needs.
Madelyn RossWe have used the Avant STAMP for several years to test the Chinese proficiency levels of students applying to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Avant STAMP is a rigorous and accurate test that is easy to administer. It measures the real-world Chinese proficiency skills that we need to evaluate. I would encourage any international exchange program to consider using Avant STAMP in their programs to measure student language growth, evaluate program effectiveness or for program admission.
Anna Megyesi Lead Teacher, SpanishAvant STAMP Assessment provides real-world tasks for students to gauge their proficiency. The reports include excellent feedback which can be used in lessons with students and in talking with parents and administrators to show measurable progress towards proficiency goals. The adaptive nature of the assessment allows students to feel successful and gain insight into how well they are able to communicate in and understand a different language.
Lanting Xu K-12 World Languages Department Head, The American School in London, London, UKWe started implementing the Avant STAMP test in all of our language classes in 2011. The results that we learned from the data have been extremely helpful in terms of reshaping, modifying and changing our curriculum from middle school all the way to high school.
I fully understand that sometimes teachers feel that their curriculum time is extremely tight, why should I allocate two class periods for this test that is administered externally and how my students are going to perform is out of our control. I think that is precisely the reason that schools need to consider taking Avant’s assessments. Because they are external tests, they don’t have those kinds of teacher bias, because as teachers we tend to design test questions that will confirm our impression about students ability. We tend to design the questions that we know students are going to perform well on. So those kinds of teacher generated questions although very good may not be very accurately reflective of our students actual proficiency level.
Michele Aoki Seattle Public Schools
Peg Bobber World Languages Department Chair, Lincoln-Way Community High School District #210, ILThe STAMP test is extremely student friendly. Once students signed on to the testing site, they took themselves through the exam with little or no assistance. The topics, pictures, prompts and language used in the STAMP 4s was perfectly appropriate for high school students and correlated with the type of proficiency testing we do in our curriculum.
The STAMP test is a great tool for assessing student proficiency for the Seal of Biliteracy. We plan to use it in the future to assess our curriculum and for student placements as needed.
Ryan Theodoriches Manager of World Languages, Evergreen Public Schools, Vancouver, WAIn fall, 2015 my district for the first time administered the Avant STAMP 4S Assessment to high school students in Levels 1-3 to determine their language proficiency in Spanish, Chinese, French or German. Our first round of testing went very smoothly. The effective training and excellent sales support helped teachers be successful in implementing Avant STAMP 4S.
The way the Avant STAMP reports collected data and individual scores helps inform teacher practice. The ability to implement STAMP at different times during the school year allowed students to see their growth which was motivating for them.
Avant STAMP 4S is used to give students who know a language other than English the opportunity to earn up to four high school credits by demonstrating their proficiency on a nationally recognized assessment. We also use STAMP 4s to determine which graduating students qualify for the Seal of Biliteracy on their diploma and transcript.
Arlington Public Schools Arlington, VirginiaAvant STAMP 4S and Avant STAMP 4Se have been used by Arlington Public Schools for over 8 years to help fulfill APS’ mission of having their more than 18,000 students being proficient in at least two languages upon high school graduation. Utilizing Avant STAMP data allows informed decision-making in curriculum and instruction. STAMP plays a significant role at APS in shaping the discussion on world languages and world language proficiency in all of their schools.
California State University, San Bernardino San Bernardino, CaliforniaAccuracy, consistency, and efficiency of Avant PLACE has helped students, instructors, and staff at California State University at San Bernardino develop a more successful world language program. Statistics from Cal State show that Avant PLACE has a high level of accuracy in determining the language course level for a student. Because Avant evaluates student assessments using highly trained raters, Cal State provides relief to teachers having to be involved in student placement. However, when test evaluation indicates a student is between levels, teachers are able to step in and determine where the student belongs. Lastly, Cal State values the efficiency of Avant PLACE; the tests are simple to administer, easy for students to use, and are completely online.
Stephanie Yorba & Morgan Lindberg Portland Community College