WHAT IS THE ELPAC?
1. The ELPAC is California’s new assessment that is used to determine the English language proficiency (ELP) of students whose primary language is other than English. The ELPAC assesses four domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.
WHY IS THE ELPAC GIVEN?
1. The purpose of the ELPAC is to identify students who are limited in English, which is important so these students can receive the supports they need to do well in school and have access to the full curriculum. The ELPAC consists of two Separate Assessments, The Initial Assessment and the Summative Assessment.
a. To decide their ELP status, the Initial Assessment is offered to students in grades K–12 whose primary language is not English. To classify students as either an English learner or fluent in English, the Initial Assessment is used. Based on the outcomes of the home language survey, it is conducted only once during a student's time in the California public school system. Once operational, the locally scored Initial Assessment will be the official score.
b. The Summative Assessment is given only to students in grades K–12 who have been identified as an English learner. ELs will take the assessment every year until they are reclassified as fluent English proficient. The Summative Assessment is given only to students who have previously been identified as an EL based upon the Initial Assessment results, in order to measure how well they are progressing with English development in each of the four domains. The results are used as one of four criteria to determine if the student is ready to be reclassified as fluent English proficient, to help inform proper educational placement, and to report progress.
c. For more information on the ELPAC please click here
How Can We Prepare Our Students?
1. Now that we have an understanding of what the ELPAC is and the importance of this exam what can we do to better help our students? Well, the Department of Education released practice tests so that anyone can easily have access. For 9-10 you can click here and for 11-12 you can click here .
2. Since the exam is broken down to 4 domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing, I wanted to share some practice tests that can be used. For now, we will focus on Writing:
a. In an actual test environment, the purpose of the Writing domain is to provide information on the capacity of an English learner to write literary and descriptive texts to present, illustrate and explain facts and thoughts in a variety of social and academic contexts. Stand-alone questions as well as sets that including an image, graphic organizer, and/or a written text accompanied by two to four questions are included in the Writing task group. These sets provide authentic contexts for learners to communicate and write literary and insightful texts through written English. There are four sections in this specific domain: Describe a picture, Write About an Experience, Write About Academic Information, and Justify and Opinion. Down below are a few examples for each section.
ii. Write About an Experience
iii. Write About Academic Information
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