Instructional Decision Making and IPAs: Assessing the Modes of Communication

Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) provide elementary, secondary, and postsecondary instructors with the opportunity to align standards-based foreign language instruction with assessment practices. While IPA guidelines make it clear that all three modes of communication are to be assessed, the limited body of research on IPAs provides few insights into the extent to which teachers emphasize and assess each of the modes or to the factors that influence teachers' decision making. Using a mixed methodology, the researchers analyzed teachers' assessments in nine introductory K-12 foreign language classes and interviewed both teachers and students about assessment beliefs and practices. The findings suggest that teachers placed greater emphasis on the assessment of interpretive reading and presentational writing than on interpretive listening and interpersonal speaking. This unbalanced emphasis on the three communicative modes contrasted with teachers' stated beliefs and appeared to be due to a variety of logistical challenges and prior experiences. Recommendations to facilitate greater balance of assessment across all three modes of communication are offered.