The Cloze Test as an Alternative Measure of Language Proficiency of Children Considered for Exit from Bilingual Education Programs*

The validity of a traditional language proficiency test, Language Assessment Scales , and an integrated test, the cloze text, in measuring academic language proficiency was assessed. The Language Assessment Scales and two written cloze passages were administered to 28 Mexican‐American third graders enrolled in bilingual education classes and compared to their performance on the California Test of Basic Skills. Results indicate that correlations between the Language Assessment Scales and the California Test of Basic Skills , and the Language Assessment Scales and the cloze test are nonsignificant, whereas the cloze test correlates significantly with all subtests of the California Test of Basic Skills. An error analysis for cloze responses reveals subjects make proportionately fewer errors in using syntactic cues as their total errors decrease. Implications for the use of the cloze test in assessing academic language proficiency, the existence of an academic language threshold, exit criteria from bilingual programs, and the need for continued language development are discussed.