Avant Newsletter: November 2016

Please enjoy the first edition of the Avant Assessment monthly newsletter. If you’d like to continue receiving the newsletter please sign up here.

ACTFL 2016!

We hope you will be attending The 2016 ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo in Boston, November 18-20. Avant Assessment would like to invite you to stop by our booth, located not far from ACTFL Central, in booth #1615.

If you’re looking for a new way to improve your language program through powerful assessment, we would love to speak with you! If you’re already using our assessments, we want to hear your Avant story!

A MESSAGE FROM DAVID BONG,
CEO OF AVANT ASSESSMENT

Sheila and I founded Avant because we believe that learning a language can change lives and bring our world together. When we started in 2001, one thing the field said that it needed was a standards-based assessment of language proficiency that could shift language education from a grammar-based, rote-learning approach to a focus on developing real-world proficiency. The assessment needed to be accessible, affordable and scalable. So in partnership with the University of Oregon, we launched Avant STAMP, the world’s first online language proficiency assessment. 

Recently we have seen the rapid growth of immersion and heritage language programs, both bolstered by the spread of the Seal of Biliteracy.  At Avant we believe that it is critical for these movements to succeed and continue to grow. We are supporting these exciting movements in three ways:

1. Expanding the number of language offerings of Avant STAMP Assessments

   • STAMP 4S: Russian and Hindi (Spring 2017)

   • STAMP 4Se: Cantonese, German, Korean, and Russian (2016)

2. Delivering the first large-scale online Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) Test under license from the University of Houston

3. Developing the online Avant WorldSpeak assessments of Writing and Speaking for Less Commonly Tested Languages

   • 2016: Alaskan Yup’ik, Somali MaayMaay, Somali Maxaa, Tagalog and Vietnamese

   • 2017: Haitian-Creole, Samoan and three additional languages to be determined 

Avant continues to support excellence in language learning and teaching. I thank you for your support, and, as always, welcome your feedback, advice and guidance.

CATCH UP ON AVANT’S LATEST BLOG POSTS

WHAT IS PROFICIENCY?

PROFICIENCY vs. PERFORMANCE vs. ACHIEVEMENT

HOW STANDARDS ARE USED IN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT

FIXED FORM vs. ADAPTIVE TEST DESIGN IN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TESTING

You can find all of our blog posts here – Avant’s Blog Page!

NEWS AND EVENTS

NEWS 

Avant Assessment is proud to announce that the Bilingual Multicultural Education Bureau of New Mexico has accepted Avant STAMP 4Se (grades 3-6) and Avant STAMP 4S (grade 7-Adult) as state-approved assessments for testing students for Spanish language proficiency in Bilingual programs!

WHERE YOU’LL FIND US!

November is an exciting month in the World Language community. Avant will be exhibiting at the following conferences:

 ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo in Boston, MA November 18-20. You’ll find us in booth #1615, we hope to see you there! More information about the conference can be found here.