Professional Development
The Practical Program Evaluation initiative offers free webinars and an annual summer institute for language educators.
These professional development experiences are provided by the initiative co-leaders, Margaret Malone, Director of Assessment and Research at ACTFL, and Celia Chomón Zamora, Director for Professional Learning and Certification at ACTFL.
CARLA-ACTFL Webinar 2024
A Brief Introduction to Language Program Evaluation: Facts, Myths, and Resources
Program evaluation can provide insight into how to maintain, improve, and protect language programs. When undertaking program evaluation, it’s essential to consider the purpose of the program, the motivation for evaluation, and how these will be reconciled in sharing results and planning for change. Moreover, program evaluations can be developed and conducted by external or internal reviewers or a combination of both. At the same time, many administrators and instructors do not understand the nature of program evaluation and how to effectively implement it. This webinar provides a quick overview of how to use program evaluation to explore what works within a program, improve aspects that need support, and demonstrate the value of language programs.
CARLA-ACTFL Webinar 2023
Program Evaluations: What They Are and What They Aren’t
Evaluation is critical to understanding the outcomes of language programs. In conducting evaluation, it is important to take a comprehensive approach that considers the needs of learners and teachers, the requirements and capacities of administrators, parents and other stakeholders, the values of the discipline and the contributions of the program to society, locally, nationally and internationally. However, many instructors mistake evaluations as opportunities to eliminate programs or evaluate the performances of individual instructors. Join us as we provide an overview of why program evaluations are crucial to the longevity and success of language programs, and combat myths of what they are NOT.
CARLA Summer Institute
Introduction to Practical Program Evaluation for Language Programs
Asynchronous 3-week online summer institute
Evaluation is critical to understanding the outcomes of language programs. In conducting evaluation, it is important to take a comprehensive approach that considers the needs of learners and teachers, the requirements and capacities of administrators, parents and other stakeholders, the values of the discipline and the contributions of the program to the local, national and general society. This institute provides teachers, administrators, faculty in teacher preparation programs and other stakeholders an introductory approach to theory and practice to world language program evaluation, particularly in the field of heritage language, in the K-12 through postsecondary context.
This engaging institute uses both scenario-based and actual participant contexts to explore the concepts discussed and to identify areas of potential success and challenge for implementation. Participants will first define program evaluation for their own contexts and consider the opportunities and challenges of heritage language programs. Next, they will learn to design a program evaluation for their own macro or micro contexts by setting goals, determining outcomes, and defining the instruments needed to conduct the evaluation. Participants will also utilize and adapt existing instruments or develop new instruments for their context. Finally, participants will learn how to best communicate, apply, and implement evaluation results to a variety of contexts.
The CARLA-ACTFL team will offer the Practical Program Evaluation summer institute again in 2026.