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Student Avant STAMP Language Proficiency Test Scores Skyrocket Simply letting students talk more during a class led to dramatic improvements in students’ language proficiency skills at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. Listening Is Good, Speaking Is Better When Daniella Friedman began working as the Language Coordinator for Kindergarten – 5th grade at the …

Student Avant STAMP Language Proficiency Test Scores Skyrocket Read More

Language Placement Testing: Tulane’s Success Story Tulane University started using online assessment for student placement a few years ago, discovering that student performance data — like duct tape — can solve all sorts of problems. Language Placement Testing: The Duct Tape For Student Success Water leaking into boxes of explosives during World War II was …

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Welcoming Bonnie Flint to the Avant Family David Bong Welcoming Bonnie Flint to the Avant Family I would like to introduce myself as the newest team member at Avant Assessment.  I am thrilled to be here, and I am excited about many of the things we will be working on soon. Over the past 12 years, …

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Using STAMP Data To Improve Your Small Language Program: Carl Robertson’s Story  Carl Robertson is a scientist at heart. This is why he is always experimenting with his Chinese language program at Southwestern University in Texas.  How Carl Sets His Objectives “Every year, I have at least one pedagogic objective I focus on,” he says. …

Using STAMP Data To Improve Your Small Language Program: Carl Robertson’s Story Read More

Recognizing All Heritage Language Learners in Texas Stephany Sipes Heritage Language Learners In Texas Stephany Sipes is the World Language Coordinator in Plano, Texas, and a language educator for 13 years. As World Language Coordinator in Plano, Texas, I oversee the curriculum and instruction of more than 12,000 students. Our team of outstanding teachers believe …

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4 Fun Ways to Help Students Maintain Their Language Skills This Summer Your kids worked hard all school year learning and improving their world language skills. Don’t let the summer or holiday slide set them back! It’s finally that time of year- school is out! You’ve finished the spring testing season, final report cards are …

4 Fun Ways to Help Students Maintain Their Language Skills This Summer Read More

Don’t Wait Until High School For Seal Of Biliteracy Chicago Public Schools isn’t waiting until high school to give world language students an opportunity to earn a Seal of Biliteracy.   When the school year comes to an end and high school graduates celebrate their awards and achievements, many will receive a Seal of Biliteracy …

Why Wait Until High School for Seal Of Biliteracy? Read More

5 Expert Language Testing Tips for Teachers & Students By following these tips from some of Avant’s expert raters, students can feel more confident going into their language proficiency tests this spring. Nobody knows what success looks like on a language proficiency test better than Avant’s team of expert raters – those who have experienced …

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Seals of Biliteracy for Polish Speakers: Increasing Access with Help From The Polish Mission Polish Speakers & The Seal Of Biliteracy The number of states and school districts offering the Seal of Biliteracy continues to increase rapidly across the country. This growth is providing a tremendous opportunity for students who have mastered a second language …

Expanding Opportunities For Polish Speakers: As Seal Of Biliteracy Testing Increases, So Should Access Read More

ADVANCE: Making Proficiency Real for Preservice Teachers   Tell me and I forget Teach me and I remember Involve me and I learn                   -Benjamin Franklin The publication of the ACTFL Proficiency guidelines in 1986 was a watershed moment for the field. At last, we had a common …

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As More States Adopt the Seal Of Biliteracy, Language Assessment Company Launches Program To Increase Testing Access For Schools And Students For Immediate Release February 15, 2018 Contact: Katie Ward (603-689-8170) EUGENE, OR (February 15, 2018) – As the number of states and school districts adopting the “Seal of Biliteracy” has increased dramatically across the …

As More States Adopt the Seal Of Biliteracy, Language Assessment Company Launches Program To Increase Testing Access For Schools And Students Read More

Data Literacy: It Doesn’t Take an Einstein Why Do People Hate Standardized Tests These Days? Here are just a few of their reasons: Only 14% of parents think standardized testing is very important in evaluating schools, making it slightly less popular than used car salesmen and the U.S. Congress, but two points more popular than …

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Avant ADVANCE: Bringing the Standards to Life   Art Fry was so frustrated, he almost said a bad word in church.  Every time he opened his hymnal, his bookmarks fluttered to the floor. Then he remembered that one of his colleagues at 3M had recently concocted a strange glue that wasn’t very sticky. He applied …

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How Training Raters Transforms Classrooms “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle Teachers As Raters=Success We gets calls from schools around the country every day. But this one was different. “What have you done to Marie-Pierre?” asked the principal. “She is a totally different teacher. …

Training Raters, Transforming Classrooms Read More

Interview with Marzanna Owinski of The Polish Mission Marzanna Owinski spoke with Avant Cofounder Dr. Carl Falsgraf about Polish language education in the United States and the goals of The Polish Mission Polish as a Heritage Language “My kids are in Poland now, using their Polish to communicate with family, make friends, really connect with …

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Avant STAMP and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines STAMP was originally developed by the Center for Applied Second Language Studies(CASLS) at the University of Oregon to meet the need for an online proficiency assessment that was based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. The “STA” in STAMP stands for the “Standards” in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. Why …

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Why Language Proficiency Assessment Matters Learning another language is far different than being able to use another language in a real-world setting proficiently. Language Proficiency is the Goal Proficiency is a much-discussed and frequently used word in the language education field. Our company and others deliver “proficiency” assessments. But which proficiency is most important to assess? Is …

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Rating Written And Speaking Language Test Responses Who Rates The STAMP Tests? The human-rated responses in the Avant STAMP, PLACE, Arabic Proficiency Test(APT), and the Spanish Heritage Language tests are rated by Certified Avant Raters who are language educators/speakers who meet the following minimum requirements: LANGUAGE SKILL: Raters must maintain an advanced or higher level …

How Does Avant Rate Speaking And Writing Responses? Read More

Why Avant Recommends STAMP 4Se For Grades 2 And Above Avant STAMP 4Se was developed especially to assess the language proficiency of elementary students. Why The STAMP 4Se For Grade 2 Through 6 Language Learners Is Important In the past several years of administering Avant STAMP 4Se, we have gathered substantial data from language immersion …

Why Avant Now Recommends Avant STAMP 4Se Beginning With Grades 2 Students Read More

Why Heritage Language Learning Matters The United States is a country of immigrants, but historically the second generation of these immigrants(heritage language learners) has lost their parents’ language – making our country poorer for it; economically, linguistically, and culturally. Why has this happened repeatedly throughout our history? One reason could be the pressures of acculturation …

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The “Coding is Equivalent to World Language” Myth – Should We Look in the Mirror? Coding ≠ World Language Some state legislatures have proposed that students who learn to code should earn world language credits. Is learning to code equivalent to learning a world language? The very idea of this seems absurd to a language …

The Coding is Equivalent to World Language Myth – Should We Look In The Mirror? Read More

Why Test Reliability and Validity are Important “Test reliability” and “validity” are two of the most misunderstood terms in language testing. Both are very important in determining whether a particular test is appropriate in a given situation. Test Reliability Defined Simply stated, reliability means that if you give the same test to the same student …

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Fixed-Form vs. Adaptive Test Design For Language Proficiency Testing What Are The Differences Between Fixed-Form And Adaptive Test Design? There are two fundamental test designs in language proficiency assessment: Fixed-Form Testing and Adaptive Testing. In a fixed form test, every test taker receives the same items (aka questions) that are delivered on paper or computer. …

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How Standards Are Used In Language Proficiency Language proficiency assessment can seem complex or even mysterious – a black box that just spits out a score. However, it isn’t that complicated once you get familiarized with a few basic concepts. We describe some of these basic concepts in the next few blog entries.  Standards-Based (or …

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What Is Language Proficiency? What Language Proficiency Isn’t Proficiency is definitely NOT what I learned in my college Japanese courses.  What proficiency is a much-discussed word in the language field. But what proficiency are we assessing? Proficiency at conjugating verbs or reproducing dialogues memorized in the classroom? After all, someone who does these well is probably …

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Proficiency vs. Performance vs. Achievement Simply stated, Proficiency is the ability to use language in a real-world situation, Performance is the ability to use language in a limited and controlled situation such as a classroom or controlled situation-based exchange, and Achievement is the ability to repeat language elements that have been taught and mastered at …

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