By: Samantha Wright Allen
Janna Fox says she had an unlikely start in diagnostic assessment.
“I went into testing because I hate tests,” she laughs.
Though her feelings on the matter have changed, that impulse never stopped – assessment has become the Carleton linguistic professor’s life’s work. She says it’s so important because assessment is an everyday reality.
“Even when a teacher asks a question and scans the room to see how students are responding – that’s a form of assessment. It’s part and parcel of every learning and educational act. It’s also a major player in who gets to do what.”
Fox has made it her mission to ensure that a strong testing system exists so that people – whether students, job applicants or new immigrants – are observed properly by assessors and go through a testing process that is both fair and looks for skills beyond traditional reading comprehension.
Her work is well respected. She’s advised government on public service and citizenship testing, and in 2003, she was awarded the prestigious 3M National Teaching Fellowship, which acknowledges educators who excel in teaching and contribute to its development across disciplines.
Fox is currently in the midst of a project with Carleton’s engineering department, one she hopes to see adopted by other departments.
Dubbed the “Safe” project, it’s a form of assessment that’s embedded in a first-year course and looks at various vulnerabilities – from linguistic to math – to determine the strengths and weaknesses of first-time students.
That way, teachers can adjust approaches and design coursework that best serves their students’ needs.
“It attempts to identify students who may be at risk,” says Fox, adding it’s important to note the approach is not remedial. It also identifies unknown strengths. Five years in, Fox says the engineering project is a success but still has room to grow.
“I like to initiate and create a snowball, and then let the hill carry it.”
She’s been building snowballs since the beginning of her career, when Fox taught English in Mexico as a first-time instructor.
“I discovered a love of teaching language. That kindled a spark in me,” she says. Throw in Qatar, Pakistan and a four-year stint in Seychelles where she built the tri-lingual 115-island country’s curriculum.
But at Carleton she found her home. It’s also where she became the principle developer of the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) assessment, now a nation-wide program that assesses English language proficiency. At its inception in the late ‘90s, she says the “state of the art” approach was known as “the Carleton test.” It became the focus of her master’s, and then PhD research.
Fox says she feels like she has a mission to make assessment better, and that her passion has made her a better teacher, too.
“The more you know by actively engaging in research, the more effective you are as a teacher because you speak with the understanding of the practical side,” she says. “I think I’m doing what I was designed to do.”