Tanya Bitterman is the associate director for the test development team at CAL. Since 2013, Tanya has been a member of the team developing the ACCESS for ELLs English language proficiency assessment. She worked on the transition of ACCESS for ELLs from a paper-based test to a test delivered online and has developed test items for all domains of the test (Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing). In addition, Tanya also worked on the development of new interpretive and scoring rubrics for the Writing subtest, including the creation of rater training materials for ACCESS for ELLs and the WIDA Screener.

Tanya currently manages the development of new tasks for the Writing domain of ACCESS for ELLs. She oversees the process of developing new test tasks, beginning with the generation of specifications and raw content, through reviews by educators, refinement by test developers, and piloting with students, to the delivery of final tasks for the operational test. Tanya also oversees annual updates to scoring materials for Writing tasks as well as leading work on design enhancements for the Writing subtest and Writing scoring rubrics.

Before coming to CAL, Tanya was an ESL teacher in New York City public schools, where she provided English language and content instruction for elementary school students. She holds a master’s degree in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Cornell University.