Mary Clare Freeman is a bilingual special educator who talks about the effective use of formal assessments in working with English Language Learners to understand what students know/learn and how they learn, as well as monitor their individual progress.  She provides an example of a particular student, Marlon, to illustrate how she used assessment information to inform her instruction and monitor his progress.  

Q1: As a bilingual special educator, you have particular knowledge regarding the importance of differentiation for English Language Learners in your classroom. Describe why assessment is particularly important for this growing population of children and as well as some of the challenges in assessing these children?