In the critical years of Pre-K through 5th grade, language acquisition isn’t just another subject – it’s the foundation for all future academic success. For educators working with Emergent Bilingual (EB) students, the challenge has always been finding a way to make language instruction both rigorous enough to meet state standards and engaging enough to keep young learners excited.
Little Sponges is a research-based language program specifically designed to bridge this gap. By combining high-quality authentic content with interactive technology, Little Sponges delivers measurable language proficiency gains through play-based learning in PK-5th grade.
A Solution Built for Texas Educators (TELPAS & TIA)
For schools in Texas, alignment is everything. Little Sponges is built with TELPAS and TEKS standards at its core.
- Targeted Prep: The curriculum prepares students for TELPAS by building skills across all four domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
- Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA): Because Little Sponges includes robust assessments, districts can use the platform to track student growth for TIA purposes, rewarding high-performing teachers while ensuring students reach their proficiency targets.
What are the Little Sponges® Pre-, Mid-and Post-Assessment Tools?
Little Sponges® Assessments (PK-5) offer a comprehensive, web-based solution for evaluating and monitoring multilingual learners’ language proficiency. Designed to support emergent bilinguals and multilingual students, these assessments provide educators with valuable data to track progress, guide instruction, and support Texas Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) and Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA).
Aligned with TX PK Guidelines, TEKS, TELPAS Standards, the ACTFL World-Readiness Proficiency Guidelines, and ELPS (2019), these assessments evaluate language skills (i.e. listening, reading, and writing) through contextualized learning scenarios that integrate rich audio and visual stimuli to promote engagement and authentic language application.
Little Sponges offers three levels for Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Assessments:
• Pre-Assessment: Establishes a baseline for student language proficiency.
• Mid-Assessment: Tracks growth and identifies areas needing additional support.
• Post-Assessment: Measures progress vs. pre- and mid-assessments.
Is there a Pre/Post Test?
Yes, districts can utilize Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Assessments to assess student language proficiency at multiple points throughout the academic year. These assessments provide a clear baseline, track progress, and measure student growth in alignment with district-defined benchmarks and the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) framework.
What Grades are Covered?
● PK-5 Foreign Language for Elementary Schools (FLES) and Foreign Language Experience (FLEX)
● PK-5th English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR)
● PK-5th Spanish Language Arts and Reading (SLAR)
● PK-5th grade Dual Language Immersion
What were the Little Sponges® Assessments designed to do?
Little Sponges® Summative and Formative Assessments are designed to evaluate proficiency levels across the four domains of language acquisition—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—using the TELPAS Proficiency Scale and the ACTFL World-Readiness Proficiency Guidelines as key benchmarks.
These assessments generate scores that correspond to performance ratings, allowing
educators to set meaningful student growth metrics.
For example, a student scoring 47% may strongly indicate Beginning Proficiency on the
TELPAS Proficiency Guidelines, helping educators tailor instruction and interventions
accordingly.
How can I use the Little Sponges® Assessments?
Little Sponges® Assessments align with:
• TEKS Languages Other Than English, Elementary (Adopted 2014)
• Texas English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS, 2019)
• TEKS English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR)
• TEKS Spanish Language Arts and Reading (SLAR)
These alignments ensure consistency with state language learning standards while
supporting multilingual learners’ development through engaging, context-based
assessment tools.
Do Little Sponges® Assessments provide expected growth targets for students?
No. Little Sponges® Assessments provide educators with the flexibility to establish
benchmarks and measure student growth based on prior performance and proficiency
background.
Additionally, the dynamic score reports allow teachers to set individualized learning goals,
ensuring targeted instructional planning. Little Sponges® also guides as needed to support
student success.
How can districts use Little Sponges® Assessment Instruments to determine end-of-year student growth for purposes of TIA?
For Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) purposes, districts can use a Pre-Assessment + Post-
Assessment model to track growth across district-defined proficiency targets.
• Pre-assessments establish a baseline for student proficiency and growth tracking.
• Expected growth can be determined using the TELPAS/ACTFL Proficiency Alignment
Scale.
For example, a district might define expected growth as advancing one proficiency level on
the alignment scale. If a student starts the year at Beginning Proficiency and scores
Intermediate on the Post-Assessment, they would demonstrate the expected growth as
defined by the district.
Example of a Learning Growth Objective:
“Growth of students’ interpretive listening skills in a foreign language will be demonstrated
using the Little Sponges® Pre and Post-Assessments (which align to LOTE TEKS II Interpretive
Communication – Listening).”
Expected Growth Target:
“80% of students in the 2nd grade German class will increase their overall assessment score
by 10% by the end of the school year. Students scoring 90% or higher will maintain a 90%+
performance level.”
What types of data reporting capabilities are included with the Little Sponges® Assessment Platform?
Little Sponges® accounts are structured hierarchically to ensure appropriate data access at
all levels:
• Teachers can view their own students’ assessment results.
• School administrators can see data for all classes and students in their school.
• District leaders can see data for all students in the district and analyze it by school,
class, or student.
The Little Sponges® platform includes robust reporting tools to:
• Track student progress
• Monitor growth over time
• Support data-driven instruction
Little Sponges Educator Dashboard
Additionally, assessment results can be exported via the Educator Dashboard, allowing easy
analysis of student performance trends and facilitating personalized learning plans and
school-wide language development initiatives.
For more information on this resource, please refer to the vendor website and reach out to a representative.
To learn more: https://www.little-sponges.com
Questions? Contact schools@little-sponges.com
For more information on the Teacher Incentive Allotment of Little Sponges, please visit the Teacher Incentive Allotment website.
Looking for more technical details? For a deeper dive into technical requirements, curriculum alignment, and implementation strategies, you can download the full Little Sponges Vendor FAQ PDF.