Connecting a standards-based curriculum with student performance and assessment

This article presents an approach to revising foreign language course and program assessment so that expectations for student performance and achievement in a standards-based curriculum reflect real-world contexts in which students learn to Perform communicative tasks likely to be encountered in the target culture. Recognizing that many students choose to learn only the material that will be tested, this approach provides rationale and techniques to link instruction,practice, and assessment so that students will be motivated to use appropriate language and relevant technology to communicate on a variety of topics applicable to the target culture. Developing assessments that reflect accurately students' ability to use the language they have been practicing reinforces student motivation to perform to the highest possible level. Following the model of the ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) by which students are assessed within a specific content area across the three modes of the Communication Standard, this article presents both discrete assessment strategies and implementation suggestions for adaptations of the holistic approach of the IPA.