In our effort to support the work of educators across our consortium, we offer this bulletin to share ideas, thoughts, and research about issues that directly impact the education of English language learners.� We at WIDA hope this bulletin can inspire teachers to collaborate, connect, and grow professionally by discussing its content.� We invite you to submit your feedback and to propose topics of interest that you would like highlighted in future bulletins.

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The September 2009 edition offers an overview of formative assessment of academic language. It discusses the importance of having a balanced assessment system in place for English language learners that goes beyond standardized testing. Educators are given examples of formative assessment tasks and tools, and introduced to how to use assessment feedback to guide language instruction.

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For more information about formative assessment, please visit the FLARE website at www.flareassessment.org .

Once again, we hope you will take time from your busy schedule to share with us your thoughts, experiences, and expertise.� Feel free to drop us a line or two at info@wida.us.� Please write "WIDA Focus" in the subject line.� We would love to hear from you.