CAL was awarded a three-year grant by the International Research and Studies Program of the U.S. Department of Education to develop a computer-based training program for an oral proficiency assessment of language learners in grades PK-8.

This project, named “Oral Proficiency Assessment Training for PK-8 Language Educators”, allowed CAL to update and combine our early language assessment offerings, the Student Oral Proficiency Assessment (SOPA) for grades K-8 and the Early Language Listening and Oral Proficiency Assessment (ELLOPA) for grades PK-2 into a single SOPA instrument for grades PK-8 and create a free, online training program that can train educators in any world language program in the use of this assessment.

The SOPA is a paired oral interview assessment tool that measures speaking and listening performance using a rating scale based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. It can be adapted for use with any language and PK-8 context and, once administrators/raters are trained, is free to use as an accessible, effective, and reliable way of measuring student language growth and informing classroom instruction.

The SOPA Training Program is a free, comprehensive self-access program that trains you to administer and rate the SOPA. To access the training program, please complete the following registration form: https://www.cal.org/sopa-training-program-landing-page/sopa-training-program-form/. Upon completing the form, you will receive an email containing your password for the training program and a link to the website where the training program is hosted.