Spanish Proficiency Test Level 1 | Placement, Credit, Final Exam

A complete Spanish 1 proficiency test, built for the three jobs schools actually give it: placement, evidence for credit-by-proficiency decisions, and a rigorous end-of-course exam. Sixty tiered multiple choice questions, a writing section, a speaking section, and a counselor documentation pack, all in one download.

Grades 8-11.

THE CORE (60 questions, every answer explained)

- Listening, 20 questions on 8 narrated scripts, each played twice (8 audio files included, native Spanish voices)

- Reading, 20 questions on 8 short texts

- Language use, 20 questions in context

Questions are tiered Novice Mid, Novice High, and approaching Intermediate Low, and the score report gives a band for the core plus raw Listening and Reading section scores. Cut scores are published in the guide as the design hypotheses they are, with the guessing math shown; your school sets its own passing standard.

WRITING AND SPEAKING (printable)

- Writing: 3 tasks with a 4-level rubric, model answers at every level, and unlabeled calibration sets for rater training

- Speaking: a warm-up plus 3 scored tasks (personal questions, picture description with two illustrated picture cards, a café role play with a printed menu card), examiner script with standardized branches, rubrics, and rater sheets

COUNSELOR PACK (printable, fillable)

Score report, a one-page summary of how states treat proficiency evidence, a local cut-score setting worksheet, and a student background form. Several states have frameworks that award credit for demonstrated world language proficiency, among them Georgia (credit in lieu of enrollment under Rule 160-4-2-.48), Michigan (MCL 380.1279e requires boards to grant credit for demonstrated proficiency), North Carolina (Credit by Demonstrated Mastery), Ohio, Virginia, Washington, Minnesota, and Oregon. Each framework works differently, this test is not any state's official instrument, and the guide walks through what each one requires so your school can document its own decision. Note: this test must not be used as a Texas credit by examination instrument.

EXACTLY WHAT IS TESTED

Grammar: subject pronouns; ser; estar and basic ser vs. estar; present tense of regular -ar, -er, -ir verbs; tener including age and the hambre/sed/calor/frío/sueño/prisa expressions; gustar with nouns and infinitives; ir and ir a + infinitive; hay; question words; articles, gender and number agreement, possessives mi/tu/su; contractions al and del and prepositions of place; stem-changing verbs (e to ie, o to ue, e to i); irregular yo forms hago, pongo, salgo, traigo, veo; saber vs. conocer; numbers, time and dates in context. No past tenses at Level 1; the preterite enters at Level 2.

Vocabulary themes: greetings and courtesy; introductions and personal information; numbers, time, days, months, dates and prices; family and pets; describing people; school subjects, objects and schedules; weather and seasons; free time, sports and weekend plans; food, drink and restaurants; clothing and shopping; home and places in town; location and directions; trip basics; question words.

FORMATS

Canvas QTI and Moodle XML imports, a Google Forms version (force-copy link in the Forms file), printable student test and explained key, teacher guide with transcripts and the full administration protocol, and Blooket, Kahoot, Gimkit and Wayground files carrying the 40 listening and language use questions (the reading questions stay in the full formats, where students can see the texts). Import-tested on the real platforms.

FROM THE AUTHOR

I taught Spanish for 24 years, the last 11 in Bibb County, Georgia. Every year I built the proficiency test my heritage speakers took in the first weeks of school, because a student who already speaks Spanish should not sit through a year of hola and buenos días. In my school the test did the placing: a student's score became the grade for the course they tested out of, and their schedule opened up for courses that moved them forward. This test is that instrument, rebuilt properly: tiered, documented, and honest about what a score does and does not prove. Dr. Alan Wood

ACTFL connection: This test is aligned with the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages and the Novice Mid to Novice High Can-Do statements for interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication. Students demonstrate comprehension of sentence-length Spanish on familiar topics, and produce memorized and recombined language in writing and speech.

Level 2 (Novice High to Intermediate Low, with the preterite) is also available in the EduLingo store here on TeachSimple.

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