Assessment and Grading in Lexington One's
World Language Program
In Lexington One our goal is for our learners to be able to truly use language as a means of communication with the world around us here in Lexington and beyond our borders. This means a lot of practice and use of the language by the teacher and the student. The successful acquisition of a second language requires students to follow a long, sequential course of study that focuses on student use of the language, as will be required of them in the "real world."
Important things to know about our language assessments and how they are rated and graded in our World Language Program:
Our language assessments at every level (3rd grade through 12th grade) are performance based. Performance assessments allow our learners to demonstrate their language skills through real world tasks and scenarios. Learners are able to practice targeted skills throughout each unit by completing tasks in class, as homework, collaborative activities, projects and formative assessments.
At the end of each unit of study the learners take a summative assessment that requires the learners to use each of the three modes of communication; Interpretive (listening and reading), Interpersonal (listening, speaking and writing) and Presentational (speaking and writing).
The learners performance is rated using a scale that describes the levels of proficiency used in World Languages. The descriptors in the rubric are part of national and state descriptors for all levels of language; Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior and Distinguished.
Below you can click on information and resources for further information on the targeted levels for each course and what each level means. This will help you understand what your child will be able to do in the language at each level.
Important things to know about our language assessments and how they are rated and graded in our World Language Program:
Our language assessments at every level (3rd grade through 12th grade) are performance based. Performance assessments allow our learners to demonstrate their language skills through real world tasks and scenarios. Learners are able to practice targeted skills throughout each unit by completing tasks in class, as homework, collaborative activities, projects and formative assessments.
At the end of each unit of study the learners take a summative assessment that requires the learners to use each of the three modes of communication; Interpretive (listening and reading), Interpersonal (listening, speaking and writing) and Presentational (speaking and writing).
The learners performance is rated using a scale that describes the levels of proficiency used in World Languages. The descriptors in the rubric are part of national and state descriptors for all levels of language; Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior and Distinguished.
Below you can click on information and resources for further information on the targeted levels for each course and what each level means. This will help you understand what your child will be able to do in the language at each level.
- The state course proficiency targets are aligned with the Lexington One course proficiency targets based on how much time learners have spent learning a language. SDE/Lexington One course targets alignment
- Learners in K-16, professionals and the military across the U.S. use these performance descriptors and proficiency levels to determine a person's level of proficiency in a language. They are the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Performance Descriptors.
- In Lexington One we use a proficiency rubric (each student should have their own copy) to rate our learners on a scale of 1-20. Click here: Lexington One Proficiency Outcomes Scale of 1-20.
- The proficiency outcomes rubric has abbreviated descriptors in each column for each mode. For much more detailed descriptors please refer to the link here: ACTFL Performance Descriptors.
- At the end of each grading period for all courses in grades 6-12, the learners will receive a rating that relates to a proficiency level on the rubric.
- This rating describes the level of language the learner is able to sustain consistently at least 80% of the time on skill based tasks.
- NEW! This year 6th and 7th grade students will take a Novice A or Novice B language course. The novice courses do not impact the student's GPA.
- If 7th graders demonstrated the required level of proficiency for high school courses at the end of 6th grade, they may have been placed in a high school level course. They will be eligible to take the next level course if they continue to grow in their proficiency and meet the required entry level for the next course.
- For all high school Carnegie bearing courses, the final overall rating will be converted to a final numeric grade at the end of the course, which will figure into the learner's GPA (as it does for all other Carnegie course grades).
- Parents (and students) in Carnegie bearing courses may refer to the following conversion chart to find out how well their child is doing at each grading period and what level of proficiency they must set as their goal in order to reach the next level and/or attain their desired grade at the end of the course. It is important to note that a beginning level of proficiency for each course is not the desired level for the end of the course.
- Click here for the conversion charts for Levels 1-5, high school modern languages and Latin courses
- For a complete explanation of why we focus on proficiency in our programs, how the WL classroom functions now and how ratings and grades are determined, please download our assessment and rating/grading guide for 2016-17. Click here to download: 2017-18 WL Assessment and Grading Guide. This guide will help explain the entire process and provide you will examples of what to expect and how to interpret your child's ratings and grading information.
- If you want to access one folder with ALL the documents listed above and other parent communications from 2016-17, click here: 2017-18 WL grading and Assessment Files.
