Justice-oriented assessment in immigrant serving schools: a critical ethnographic case study of the elements of performance assessment

Abstract

This critical ethnographic case study explores the impact of Performance-Based Assessment Tasks (PBATs) on high school dynamics and instructional practices, particularly in schools serving immigrant communities. PBATs, considered alternatives to standardized testing, have shown promise in enhancing student engagement, critical thinking, and college readiness. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork at four International High Schools, the study investigates how PBAT adoption influences day-to-day operations, teacher-student interactions, and school culture. Results reveal that PBAT implementation requires early investment in skill development and mentorship, transforming educators into facilitators and students into active learners. Moreover, the oral presentation aspect fosters multilingual proficiency. Despite challenges, PBATs offer a pathway to equitable assessment practices and educational transformation. Framed within a justice-oriented framework, this research highlights the potential of PBATs to create inclusive and empowering learning environments for immigrant and marginalized students.

Keywords:

• Performance-based assessment tasks (PBATs)
• justice-oriented assessment
• immigrant education
• English learners
• secondary education
• critical ethnographic case study

Acknowledgments

A portion of this work was funded by the William T. Grant Foundation. I acknowledge the effort and contribution of other research team members: Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, Reva Jaffe-Walter, Adriana Villavicencio, Jia-Lin Liu, Sarah Klevan, Benjamin Schwab, and Kathryn Hill.

Notes

1 I use Umansky et al. (2018) definition of recently arrived immigrant English learners (RAIELs) who they describe as “a highly diverse group,encompassing important subgroups such as students with refugee status, unaccompanied minors, and students with limited or interruptedformal education (SLIFEs). RAIELs arrive in the U.S. filtering into all grade levels, with varied initial English proficiency levels, educational backgrounds, and home language literacy levels. These students bring unique and valued strengths to the classroom, but also frequently face shared challenges. While RAIELs share with other English learners (ELs) a common need to acquire English proficiency, they also often have needs that non-recently arrived EL students do not typically have. These include mental, physical, and social needs that are shaped by dislocation and trauma exposure; academic needs that pertain to limited or interrupted prior formal schooling; and adjustment to the norms and characteristics of a new country,community, and school setting” (p. i).

2 Students who are learning English in school have been referred to in the literature and school policy documents as English Learners, English Language Learners, English as Second Language Learners, Limited English Proficient, Emergent Bilinguals, and Multilingual Learners. Non-immigrant students who still carry one of these classifications in high school are referred to as Long-Term English Learners and only half of immigrant students in the U.S. are also learning English. Each of these terms have political and ideological implications and concequences. I have chosen to use RAIELs to describe the immigrant youth in this study who have been in the country fewer than four years and are learning English.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chandler Patton Miranda

Chandler Patton Miranda is an Assistant Professor of Education at Molloy University. Her research focuses on schooling structures, institutional culture, and the politics of language learning for im/migrant students and their teachers. She is a former high school science teacher.