Identifying and responding to evaluation needs in college foreign language programs

    John M. Norris

    The Foreign Language Program Evaluation Project was initiated in 2005, funded by the U.S. Department of Education through a Title VI International Research and Studies grant between 2005 and 2008, and has since been sustained by the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at the University of Hawai‘i.

    Our goal is to build the capacity of college foreign language educators to engage with a variety of evaluation, assessment, and accreditation demands in meaningful and useful ways. In order to provide capacity building resources that are relevant and meaningful to the foreign language community, we have been conducting national surveys and multiple case studies to understand the roles and functions that evaluation, assessment, and accreditation play in diverse language program settings (see the first chapter of our book for findings). With an empirical understanding of actual purposes, constraints, demands, and contexts for evaluation and assessment, we are developing and actively disseminating a range of strategies and resources that are tailored to priority needs of real language programs.