Whose Judgment Counts? Assessing Bilingual Children, K-3

Evangeline Harris Stefanakis

Heinemann Publishing, Portsmouth, NH: 1998

In her slim book, Stefanakis speaks to the many of us who have had bilingual children in our classrooms, children whom we know have an innate intelligence, even wisdom, but they constantly get the short end of the stick due to their limited English ability. Throughout the book, she is constantly giving evidence that shows that kids who are unable to get through standardized tests, either benchmark tests or diagnostic tests given by school pyschologists, can and do succeed in the classroom when given a chance to prove their abilities through authentic, alternative assessment. Stefanakis suggests (and supports with research evidence and case studies) three considerations when assessing a bilingual child, which prove to be her essential beliefs throughout the book:

1. Assessement should be aligned with what is taught and how it is taught.

2. Assessment should be ongoing over time.

3. Assessement should be imbedded in the instructional process.

In addition to these beliefs about assessment, Stefanakis emphasizes her essential beliefs about how teachers should treat their bilingual students:

1. Teachers should make an effort to accept and value the bilingual learner, by accepting his or her cultural and linguistic background and by recognizing the difference between home and school cultures.

2. Teachers should create environments for language learning by organizing the physical

environment for student interactions, using symbols and cues to translate classroom expectations, providing routines and consistency in daily schedules, and creating a recording system for observing and assessing.

3. Teachers must accept that teaching and learning is an interactive process, in that learning is based on building relationships and making connections, language is best learned in social interactions, and the best curriculum comes from the interests of the child.

She gives plenty of examples of methods to accomplish implementing these considerations, as well as examples of several teachers’ classrooms and methods.

Even though the title asserts the book’s applicability to grades K to 3, I believe the principles, essential beliefs, and even some of the examples, are applicable to much older kids, especially when working with diverse populations. Whose Judgment Counts? is a very versatile book; I feel that an experienced teacher could easily add in to his or her routine ideas outlined in this book, and that a new teacher could use this book as one of his or her constant references.

Stefanakis writes several golden lines throughout her book. Listed here are the most memorable to me, lines which capture the spirit in which the book was written:

"Studying teachers’ classroom interactions has taught me that their judgments do count when it comes to understanding the complexities of bilingual children". page 92

"I was aghast that we could have pronounced her ‘limited in potential’ as a result of our ‘limited’methods of educational assessment of bilingual children". page xii

"The position of the teacher – sitting beside the learner– is key to understanding how effective teachers informally assess the diverse learners in their classrooms". page 19

"As a problem solver, the first question a teacher should ask is’Who is this child as a learner?’. page 96