Teachers' Assessment of ESL Students in Mainstream Classes: Challenges, Strategies, and Decision-Making

Abstract

Given the increasing numbers of ESL students in Canadian classrooms, this study investigated how teachers of mainstream classes assess the written work of ESL students and whether they use different assessment strategies for ESL versus non-ESL students. Interviews were conducted with seven mainstream teachers from a private high school in Ontario. Although within-school variation was evident in the participants' approaches to assessing the work of both ESL and non-ESL students, most participants modified their assessment strategies when marking the work of ESL students. This finding suggests a need for school-level discussions and structured professional development activities relating to assessing ESL students' work.