About the Project

The English SBLA Project is the initial project by the SBLA Lab. Launched in 2014, the project was inspired by scenario-based research in mainstream education that used a scenario-based assessment approach to authenticate assessments and situate them within real-life competencies (e.g, Bennet, 2011; O'Reilly & Sabatini, 2013). Given the close alignment of scenario-based testing with the theoretical principles of LOA, Dr. Purpura organized an internship class to revamp the placement exam of the ESL program at Teachers College. A placement SBA module targeting the B1 level of proficiency in the CEFR was designed and revised and an initial pilot was conducted in 2016.

With the goal of continuing this revision effort, the SBLA Lab was formally founded in 2016, and after several stages of revision and surveying of different web-based test-delivery platforms, the new B1 SBA module was piloted in 2019. Results from the pilot were used to create a second version, which included different, but (theoretically) parallel test forms. In addition, a B2 SBA module, first developed by Dr. Purpura’s Fall 2019-Spring 2020 internship class, is currently undergoing revisions to be piloted. Similarly, an A2 SBA module is under development, and this scenario would complete the placement test suite.