Ildiko Porter-Szucs is Professor of ESL and TESOL at Eastern Michigan University, a K-12 certified ESL and German teacher, and co-founder of the Polish Language Center of Ann Arbor. She has extensive experience teaching Polish, Hungarian, German, and English to diverse age groups in public schools, language schools, corporate settings, refugee programs, and higher education. She spent four years working for a high-stakes standardized testing organization.

Cynthia J. Macknish is Professor of ESL and TESOL at Eastern Michigan University. She has taught at a range of levels in several countries, including Canada, the Bahamas, and Singapore, where she taught pedagogy and assessment courses to pre- and in-service teachers at the National Institute of Education. Cynthia was also a certified IELTS examiner for 14 years.

Suzanne Toohey is Supervisor of Instruction and Pedagogy at Oakland Schools. She has taught ELs for seventeen years, with her passion for second language acquisition ignited during her service as a Peace Corps volunteer. She has published work in the Detroit Free Press and MITESOL Messages as well as for TESOL Press and the National Association of English Language Program Administrators.

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction ix

1 Concepts 1

2 Qualities of Test Usefulness and the Assessment Use Argument 31

3 Test Design 51

4 Crafting Assessments 79

5 Tools of the Trade 123

6 Assessing Young Learners 143

7 PK-12 in the United States and Canada: Assessment Is Not a Dirty Word 157

8 Assessing Exceptional Language Learners 177

9 Assessing Listening, Viewing, Representing, Speaking, and Pronunciation 193

10 Assessing Reading, Vocabulary, Grammar, and Writing 225

11 Grading, Evaluation, and Feedback 261

12 Ethics, Fairness, and Security 285

13 Technology for Language Assessment 295

14 Improving Assessments Through Statistics 313

15 Conclusion 331

Appendices 333

Appendix A: Diagnostic Test (Pre-Test) 333

Appendix B: Achievement Test (Post-Test) 339

Appendix C: Answer Keys 345

Glossary 347

Bibliography 355

Index 377