Designing Effective Equitable Assessments for MLEs

A persistent challenge in assessing MLEs is that most assessments are built for monolingual, native English speakers. These tools often focus more on language proficiency than on content knowledge, which can misrepresent what MLEs truly understand and are capable of. While schools may collect large amounts of assessment data, that information becomes less useful when the assessments themselves are flawed. This is especially true when they fail to reflect students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds, contribute to test anxiety, or lack affective validity; that is, the extent to which students feel respected, safe, and understood during assessment. Without careful attention to these elements, educators may misread student performance and make decisions based on inaccurate or incomplete evidence. When assessments are built on assumptions that do not reflect the lived realities of MLEs, they fail to support the students they aim to measure. Addressing these limitationsbegins with rethinking how we design assessments and ensuring that they are both fair and academically rigorous.