The reliability and validity of the Arizona Classroom Teacher Spanish Proficiency Exam

This study investigated the psychometric characteristics of a performance-based approach to teachers' language proficiency assessment. The Arizona Classroom Teacher Spanish Proficiency Exam (ACTSPE), the test used for bilingual certification in Arizona, is comprised of tasks thought to represent a bilingual teacher's responsibilities. A sample of 349 test scores from three institutions of higher education was obtained for this descriptive study which examined the reliability and validity of the language proficiency measure.;Results from this study are fourfold. First, the performance-based approach to language testing proved a viable alternative to traditional approaches to language testing. However, a reevaluation of the forms, scoring criteria, inter-rater reliability, and the statistical techniques as they relate to such measures is needed.;Second, the analyses performed based on first language (L1) indicated that the L1 Spanish speakers significantly outperformed the L1 English speakers on the oral part of the exam, but not on the written part.;Third, the cutoff scores currently in place for the exam proved to be consistently classifying reasonable numbers of competent teachers for the whole group of examinees as well as the groups based on L1.;Fourth, results indicated that language ability was a multi-faceted construct and that oral and written proficiency are two components of that construct. Moreover, the statistical analyses indicated that oral proficiency was made up of two dimensions (one unplanned and interactive, one planned and noninteractive).;The study of the Arizona Classroom Teacher Spanish Proficiency Exam indicated that this pioneering work in language proficiency testing has many strong points. Its carefully designed content approximates the types of tasks performed by a bilingual teacher; the scoring criteria and passing standards are effective. Although revisions were suggested to improve this measure, the overall results revealed that this partially performance-based approach to language testing was a useful means to test teachers' language proficiency in Spanish.