ACTFL launched the IPA over twenty years ago. Why is it still so novel?
Let’s play Two Truths and a Lie. I’ll go first:
1) Many world language teachers utilize the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) in their classrooms. 2) Most, though, don’t. 3) That’s because the IPA is such a recent development in language education.
The lie? That the IPA is “recent” when, in fact, it was introduced over twenty years ago. And while many language teachers do use the IPA (to varying degrees), still more don’t and never intend to. Why?
What is the integrated performance assessment?
In 1999, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) piloted an early version of the Integrated Performance Assessment. ACTFL crafted the IPA with a dual purpose in mind.
The first was to offer a standards-based and performance-based alternative to traditional assessment. The second was to catalyze curricular and pedagogical reform. And while there has certainly been progress toward achieving both goals, there is still a long way to go.
Broadly speaking, an IPA is an assessment tool that evaluates a student’s functional proficiency in the target language. By “functional proficiency,” we mean a speaker’s ability to navigate “real-world situations in spontaneous and non-rehearsed contexts.”
Did you ever have to memorize and recite a poem for your world language class? Such an exercise is an example of what the IPA seeks to avoid.
Instead, an IPA may ask students to read a French school menu and answer simple questions about a typical lunch. Then, students might have to compare the French menu to one from the student’s school in the U.S. Finally, the student may have to create with the target language by writing about lunch menu options.
Generally speaking, IPAs engage in the “three modes” of communication: interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational.
It may not seem revolutionary to stress functional proficiency. But it’s a paradigm shift in language education that is taking time to catch on.
Challenges in Implementation
In 2022, I replaced all of the traditional assessments (both summative and formative) in my French class with IPAs. The shift caused an absolute uproar.
Students complained that they didn’t know what to study or how to prepare for my assessments—for good reason. My attempts to explain that there wasn’t anything to study (read: memorize) were not well-received. “I’m testing your ability to navigate a situation in French,” I tried to explain. “Not your ability to memorize vocabulary and conjugations.”
But the students only wanted me to test their vocabulary and conjugation memorization. And so did their parents. And—after a tense exchange with a colleague—I realized that, so, too, did my department.
By winter break, I’d thrown in the towel.
My story may be only one anecdote, but it is representative of a persisting attitude among world language educators. This way of assessing—and its ripple effects on teaching—still feels too progressive, too “new,” and too untested.
Another reason some teachers (and departments and districts) haven’t adopted the IPA is the perceived workload. Crafting IPAs is a lengthy endeavor that sometimes took up my entire 45-minute planning period. And that was just for one. Harried language teachers with lots of preps and dozens of students may think the IPA is great and still not adopt it. They simply do not have the capacity.
The state of the IPA isn’t as strong as it should be. And I think a couple of things need to happen to remedy this.
The Need for Proactive Communication and Support
First and foremost, we need to acknowledge that teachers are overextended. I think that most teachers who are familiar with the IPA and its underlying philosophy agree on its value. But for them to adopt it in their classrooms, something else must be cleared from their plate. Pinpointing the sacrificial duty, assignment, or process will vary by teacher and by school.
Teachers also need help conveying the value of proficiency-based teaching to their departments, building leaders, students, and parents. Integrated Performance Assessments look different from more traditional tests.
Proficiency-based teaching can look different from the language classes that Gen X stakeholders remember from their youth. These differences present a public relations problem for teachers, who must “sell” this methodology to parents, department chairs, building leaders, and district-level personnel.
The stakeholders who subscribe to proficiency-based instruction should, therefore, be louder about the goals of world language education and how they’re being met. Proactively communicating the value of proficiency-based tools (like World-Readiness Standards and the IPA) is one way professional organizations and education leaders can help.
Teachers left to do all of this alone are drowning in work and fighting on multiple fronts. It’s no wonder that so many have passed on the IPA.
A Reason for Optimism
While I didn’t succeed in replacing assessments with IPAs, I did manage to re-introduce them during the spring of 2023—this time as a lower-stakes in-class activity. I had much more success and buy-in with this re-brand.
Even students who didn’t immediately understand the value of their integrated performance assessment on, say, social media influencers came to appreciate the exercise.
I witnessed more than one student have aha! moments, weeks, or months after an IPA. One said, “Wait, Madame, didn’t we learn “accro” when we did that thing on cell phone use?”
Another told me, “The riots in France were on the news last night!! I told my Dad all about the retirement stuff we learned from that activity.”
“That thing” and “that activity” were both IPAs.
My students did benefit from the integrated performance activity, albeit in a different capacity than I’d anticipated. I still believe in the value of the IPA and invite other teachers to experience it for themselves.
IPA Resources
The good news for teachers interested in proficiency-based teaching and the IPA as a tool is the uptick in the availability of ready-made IPAs for different languages at different proficiency levels.
Whereas ten years ago I'd spend hours creating my own IPAs, today, it is much easier to find ready-made ones. Carnegie Learning, for example, provides leveled IPAs for each language in our ClearLanguages catalog.
These IPAs provide a built-in method to assess functional proficiency for each unit in the textbook. Teachers can utilize these while also providing more traditional vocabulary and grammar exposure. The result is a well-rounded approach to language instruction that allows students opportunities to engage in authentic communication.
Given the growing number of resources available, I am optimistic for the future of proficiency-based instruction and the IPA. Engaging students in functional proficiency exercises allows target languages to come alive and feel more relevant.
IPAs are not only good for student motivation. They’re also good for cultivating the things that language education promotes: compassion, interconnectedness, and students’ nuanced understanding of their place in the world.
Interested in finding out more about functional proficiency and the Integrated Performance Assessment?
Before joining Carnegie Learning in 2023, Kelly worked in education for ten years as a classroom teacher and an administrator. She holds both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in French and began her career writing for the press office at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. She is a certified ACTFL OPI rater, an AP French Exam reader, and taught out of Carnegie Learning's T'es Branché? curriculum for six years.
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Kelly Denzler
