Charting Classroom Growth: How Often Should We Assess the English Performance of 11 and 12-year-old Children?

In this study, I investigate whether three A2 Key for Schools practice tests from Cambridge Assessment English for 6th-graders (11-12 years old) in Argentina measure growth and produce scores that are meaningful. Drawing data from three consecutive years, I analyze the scores of 80 children over a school year and consider whether the tests are beneficial for both students and teachers in terms of time and instructional impact. In this English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, the results show no significant differences among the students’ average performances across the Reading and Writing section of the practice tests and some significant differences across the Listening practice tests. I discuss the affective, pedagogical, and curricular implications and argue that because the tests are administered in tight succession, growth may be too small to measure. It is important for teachers and language program coordinators to ensure that the testing they do benefits instruction and positively impacts students in language classes. This is because testing should serve and inform instruction. In this study, I suggest how other teachers in charge of their elementary and middle school assessment programs can do similar analyses to ensure their students’ language evaluation programming is maximally beneficial.