The Bell Foundation: EAL Assessment Framework
Updated
The EAL Assessment Framework from The Bell Foundation is a set of practical, research-informed tools designed to help schools assess the English language proficiency of learners who have English as an additional language (EAL), and to support their progress in accessing the curriculum.
These freely available resources are intended for classroom practitioners and cover primary, secondary, and EYFS settings. The Bell Foundation provides a digital Excel-based EAL Assessment Tracker, and/or you can record your assessments in Insight to keep a centralised record, through our partnership. This guide explains the recommended setup in Insight.
The EAL Assessment Framework
This assessment framework can be used to assess the proficiency in English of learners who use EAL in a school setting where the predominant language of instruction is English. It was designed by leading experts in the field of EAL assessment at King’s College London and Cambridge University, using robust and evidence-informed research and systems.
The framework encourages assessment as part of an ongoing formative cycle: it can be used to make informal day-today assessments, as well as for target setting, and to carry out termly summative assessments.
There is one version of the Framework for primary, and one for secondary. Each Framework allows for assessment across four domains:
- Listening
- Speaking
- Reading and Viewing
- Writing
Within each domain, the Framework is split into 5 proficiency bands:
A – New to English
B – Early acquisition
C – Developing competence
D – Competent
E – Fluent
The original materials from The Bell Foundation detail the proficiency of learners at each band in each domain.
Setting up the framework in Insight
You can add the EAL Assessment Framework directly to Insight by following the process to add a third-party supplier's content here [LINK TO GENERAL GUIDE TBC].
Following this, you'll have access to four collections within Insight's Objectives area:
EAL Listening
EAL Reading and Viewing
EAL Speaking
EAL Writing
Subjects
Insight will add these domains to your Insight subjects list if needed. If you use subject groups, you may wish to add an "EAL Proficiency" subject group.
Assessment Name
By default, any summative assessments against these collections will be recorded under Main Assessment. You may prefer to use a specific Assessment Name, for example "EAL Proficiency in English". This allows you to tailor the settings for this Assessment Name, to ensure teachers use the correct subjects and mark scheme when entering data.
Admin users can manage Assessment Names directly. If you make a change, remember to adjust the summative assessment settings for each EAL collection at Account > Admin > Objectives. Alternatively, contact support for help amending your setup.
Mark Scheme
To make an overall assessment of each learner's proficiency for each domain, you may need a new "EAL Proficiency" mark scheme. Contact support who can set this up for you, and associate it with your EAL collections.
Overall Proficiency Assessment
You may wish to record a single assessment which reflects each learner's overall proficiency in English, across all domains. You can add another subject "EAL Overall" to record this. As this won't be associated with a particular objective collection, assessments would need to be entered at Enter Data > School Assessments. If you've set up a subject group above, you can load the assessments already made for each domain onto one marksheet, to inform your overall assessments.
Useful Information and Recommendations
- The EAL Proficiency mark scheme we recommend will, by default, evaluate the proficiency bands as follows:
A – New to English (red - well below)
B – Early acquisition (red - well below)
C – Developing competence (amber - just below)
D – Competent (green - expected)
E – Fluent (blue - above)
This allows Reports in Insight to divide up and display the data, but shouldn't be taken to imply that pupils are working above/below expectations. Every learner with EAL has a different starting point and circumstances (eg length of stay in the UK). Please note also that where colours are used in Insight, these may not match colours used in the original EAL Assessment Framework documentation.
- The Overviews - Attainment report is a good way to get a snapshot of your EAL pupils' current proficiency. You can filter to see just pupils with EAL, and use the Advanced Options to Compare by Detailed Breakdown.
- Descriptors can be assessed as Not Met, Partially Met or Met, in line with The Bell Foundation's guidelines.
- Proficiency bands are best fit. Pupils don't have to meet all descriptors to be assessed at a particular proficiency band. You can start assessing within the pupil's current proficiency level (no need to backfill descriptors in earlier bands).
- Descriptors can be used for target setting via Insight's Learning Plans, and any provisions tracked using Provision Mapping.
