edCount Works with Five-State Consortium in Launching Website to Help Educators Evaluate Validity of Assessments

Washington, D.C. – A five-state consortium working with edCount, LLC, and four other education and research organizations, today launched a new website that gives educators resources necessary for Evaluating the Validity of English Language Proficiency Assessments (EVEA).

The EVEA project, funded by an Enhanced Assessment Grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, was awarded to the Washington State Office for Public Instruction in 2009 based on a proposal co-developed with edCount, who served as the project implementor. The grant brought together educators from Washington, Oregon, Montana, Indiana and Idaho with a team of researchers and a panel of experts to develop an argument-based approach for determining the validity of English language proficiency assessments.

The new website, www.eveaproject.com, houses valuable resources for other states and researchers interested in considering or evaluating validity issues related to English language proficiency, including:

  • A Common Validity Argument that can be adapted by any state for the validity evaluation of their own English Language Proficiency Asssessment (ELPA);
  • A set of instruments and research protocols to help states test claims within the common validity argument;
  • A library and links to further references about validity, language acquisition, and assessment theories to help states determine the underlying principles of validity evaluation;
  • Tips and guidance about best practices, and pitfalls to avoid, based on experience in developing the resources.

About edCount

edCount is a woman-owned professional services firm providing education consulting services to federal, state, district, and school clients centered around instructional systems and capacity building, assessment implementation and evaluation, and policy evaluation and support. For more information please visit www.edcount.com.