Language Assessment Strategies From the Perspective of a Parent of Bilingual Childen

In my humble understanding, what makes an assessment good is that it should tell the truth about learning. Not just the grades-and-scores kind of truth – but the deeper one that reveals what a learner can truly do with their knowledge.

Recently, I had the privilege of working with Russian School Erudite and a Russian-Jewish Center “Shalom”,  two cultural and educational centers in Montgomery County, Maryland, that serve preschool through high school students studying Russian. Both schools’ mission is to help both heritage and second-language learners become functionally bilingual and culturally literate.

As an art educator and native Russian speaker, I approached this problem from a slightly different angle than a linguist might. My professional background is rooted in art education and curriculum design, not in teaching languages. English is my second language, and although I’m fluent, my understanding of bilingual learning comes as much from life as from research. This combination – of professional experience, personal insight, and cultural connection – shaped my perspective on the assessment process at Erudite School, which I chose for my coursework project.

Through a needs assessment, I examined how the school’s instructional practices and evaluation tools supported its goals. What I discovered reflected a common challenge in multilingual education: students’ skills varied widely across language domains. Heritage learners often spoke and understood Russian fluently but struggled with grammar and writing, while second-language learners demonstrated stronger reading and grammatical accuracy but lacked natural spoken fluency.

These findings shaped my central question: How can we design assessments that are both valid and reliable, fairly measuring real progress for every learner?

Measuring the Real Skills

In education, validity means making sure an assessment accurately measures what it claims to assess. In language learning, that involves moving beyond isolated grammar tests to reflect real communication—how students actually use language in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Strategy 1. Formative Language Portfolios

Students collect writing samples, oral recordings, and reading reflections that show progress over time. Each artifact connects directly to the learner’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) – the space between what they can do independently and what they can achieve with guided support.

Strategy 2. Collaborative Speaking Circles

Small, in-person conversation groups where students engage in authentic discussions about cultural topics. These sessions make learning observable, allowing teachers to evaluate fluency, pronunciation, and comprehension in real-world contexts.

Both strategies enhance construct validity because they measure language use in meaningful, social situations – the essence of bilingual proficiency.

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I am not a language teacher, but I am a mother of three bilingual children, and that experience profoundly shapes my understanding of learning and assessment. One of my children was born outside the U.S. and is a native Russian speaker, while the other two are heritage learners who grew up surrounded by English. At home, I’ve witnessed the complexities of bilingual development unfold daily – the code-switching, the uneven progress across skills, and the small triumphs when a child finds exactly the right word in Russian. I’ve learned that bilingual growth is not linear; it ebbs and flows depending on context, motivation, and exposure.

These personal experiences reflect what I observed at several language schools: that each bilingual learner has a unique linguistic map. When assessments are done thoughtfully, they can help teachers interpret that map – not to rank students, but to guide them toward confidence and understanding fluency.

Although my own classroom focus is on art rather than language, I observe similarities every day. Whether a student is learning how to blend colors or conjugate verbs, assessment should highlight understanding, not restrict it. In both art and language, genuine expression is more important than perfection.

My approach is supported by research on bilingual and heritage language assessment.

• Luchkina et al. (2021) demonstrated that proficiency among bilingual and second-language learners of Russian varies greatly even among students with similar instruction, highlighting the need for differentiated, formative tools.

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• Kagan and Dillon (2008) and Llosa (2013) advocate for diagnostic, process-oriented assessments that capture the full spectrum of skills – from comprehension to production.

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By blending empirical evidence with my personal and professional experience, I strive to make assessment practices that are valid, reliable, and human-centered – designed not only to evaluate, but also to support every learner’s journey toward bilingual confidence.

Final Thoughts

Although I may not be a language teacher, as both an educator and a parent, I understand the importance of assessments being fair and meaningful. A valid assessment measures a learner’s true ability to express themselves. A reliable one makes sure that every child’s effort is recognized clearly, consistently, and without bias.