Using a case study design, this research explores how two department chairs, Jan and Tammy, in community colleges implement AB 705, an assessment policy impacting California ESL programs. AB 705 seeks to centralize previous multiple measures legislation in California by requiring the use of high school data in community college course placement. An ecological perspective was adopted to highlight how ideologies at the macro national and meso state level about placement tests and student autonomy trickle down and are interpreted at the micro institutional level, and how challenges and concerns about implementation reflect the micro level affordances or lack thereof for each participant. Through critical language policy (Tollefson as cited in Ricento, 2006), I also posit that as AB 705 changes the assessment landscape in California community colleges, they create power shifts between local actors. Data were collected from a questionnaire, interviews, policy documents and online artifacts. Findings revealed that Jan and Tammy’s different ideologies regarding the validity of placement tests lead to different interpretations and implementation of the policy, thus creating different power dynamics for their students. Both also encountered different challenges because of their varied local affordances, highlighting the need for top-down policies to consider implementation in situated contexts.

本研究采用案例研究设计，探讨了社区学院的两位系主任 Jan 和 Tammy 如何实施 AB 705，这是一项影响加州 ESL 项目的评估政策。 AB 705 旨在通过要求在社区大学课程安排中使用高中数据来集中加州之前的多项措施立法。采用生态视角来强调宏观国家和中观国家层面关于分班考试和学生自主权的意识形态如何渗透到微观机构层面并在微观机构层面进行解释，以及实施方面的挑战和担忧如何反映微观层面的可供性或缺乏。每个参与者。通过批判性语言政策（Tollefson 在 Risento，2006 年中引用），我还认为，随着 AB 705 改变了加州社区大学的评估格局，它们在当地参与者之间创造了权力转移。数据是通过问卷、访谈、政策文件和在线工件收集的。调查结果显示，Jan 和 Tammy 对于分班考试有效性的不同意识形态导致了对政策的不同解释和实施，从而为学生创造了不同的权力动态。由于当地的承受能力不同，两者也遇到了不同的挑战，这凸显了自上而下的政策需要考虑在特定环境中实施。