Guiding principles for language assessment reform: A model for collaboration

Traditionally, practitioners interested in language test reform have focused on the qualities within an examination which result in either positive or negative impacts on participants, institutions, and society. Recent views suggest a multifaceted interaction among factors affecting language test reform. We introduce a model for test reform that guides practitioners to examine the relationships and interactions among contexts, test development processes, stakeholder agency and the desire for change, and the agents promoting the reform. The model encourages stakeholders to examine their current assessment practices and implement needed change through collaborative processes. Using case study methodology, we focus on the implementation of aspects of the model in a local ESL test reform project at the tertiary level. This reform primarily examines teacher collaboration in developing end-of-semester exams used to make student placement decisions. The results provide guidelines for test reform and fill a gap in assessment research in that the study focuses on ESL/EFL programmatic testing needs rather than large scale proficiency tests.