ELL testing: a state of Flux: districts grapple with federal mandates and assessment options for English Language Learners.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BY 2030, ALMOST HALF THE POPulation in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. will speak a language other than English, meaning the number of English Language English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. Learners (ELLs) in schools nationwide will also increase. And critics of the federal No Child Left Behind law say that federal requirements of ELLs hurt school districts. At Lawrence (Mass.) Public Schools, where 90 percent of the students are immigrants, the district has been labeled "in need of improvement" under the NCLB NCLB No Child Left Behind (US education initiative) requirements. This is in part due to the number of ELLs who haven't shown sufficient progress in mastering English and the number of ELLs who failed yearly benchmark tests in reading and math. "Let's just be honest and say the truth about what we're up against," says Lawrence Public Schools The Lawrence Public Schools, Union Free School District 15, is a comprehensive community public school district, serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, located in the southwest section of Nassau County, New York and borders the New York City borough of Queens. Superintendent Wilfredo T. Laboy. "We have a moral, ethical and professional responsibility to make sure that all kids who leave our system are proficient learners. Nothing less than that is accepted, and failure is not an option." Like many educators, Laboy applauds NCLB for casting a spotlight on ELLs, but he and many other educators question exactly how the law is applied to such students. They say the law unfairly penalizes districts like Lawrence with large numbers of ELLs. Meanwhile, states and districts are still devising ways to refine or revise tests for such students and searching for ways to help them become proficient in English as quickly as possible. NCLB Requirements Under Title III Title III Program is a U.S. Federal Grant Program to improve education History The Title III Program began as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which sought to provide support to strengthen various aspects of the schools through a formula grant program to accredited, of NCLB, states must give all ELLs a yearly English proficiency test proficiency test n → prueba de capacitación and must meet annual achievement objectives to improve the scores of ELLs in five areas: speaking, reading, writing, listening and comprehension. The goal is to meet the same challenging state academic content and student achievement standards as other, non-ELL students. In addition, all students, including the vast majority of ELLs who are in the United States longer than a year, must also take yearly achievement tests in math, reading and, beginning this school year, science from third to eighth grade and once in high school. Schools and districts must show Adequate Yearly Progress Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically. (AYP AYP Adequate Yearly Progress (National Assessment of Educational Progress) AYP Anarchist Yellow Pages AYP American Youth Philharmonic ) in students' achievement on those tests, with the ultimate goal of having all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. AYP, progress in English and attainment of English are three components of the Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives, or AMAOs, of NCLB. Meanwhile, state tests show ELLs' performance is generally 20 to 30 percent below that of non-ELL students, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX (CRESST CRESST Cryogenic Rare Event Search using Superconducting Thermometers CRESST Center for Research on Evaluation Standards and and Student Testing ). As the law comes up for reauthorization this year, legislators are already proposing giving schools more time for ELLs to achieve test standards and having schools avoid harsh penalties when they fail to meet the standards due to their large numbers of ELLs. Most educators seem to agree that a large influx of immigrants means that it's increasingly important that ELLs become proficient enough in English to receive a good education. Nationwide, 3.8 million children, or 11 percent of all school children, received ELL services in 2003, according to the latest statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), as part of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States; conducts studies . Stereotyping ELLs? Sanctions, such as giving students options to attend school in another district, for failure to meet AYP goals have meant that districts must improve performance with after-school programs, intensive sheltered English or bilingual or preschool programs to teach non-English speaking children English before they even begin school. "Basically, I think that NCLB has had a very dramatic effect on the education of English Language Learners in the U.S.," says John Segota, advocacy and communications manager for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.) is a global education association for English language teachers to speakers of others languages with individual and institutional members and extensive affiliations worldwide. (TESOL TESOL abbr. 1. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages 2. teaching English to speakers of other languages ), based in Alexandria, Va. But TESOL is among those groups that believe NCLB should be revised so that ELLs and districts with those students are treated more fairly. TESOL and other groups, for example, take issue with lumping all ELLs into one subgroup. They point out that ELLs are an extremely diverse group comprised of students from dozens of languages and educational backgrounds. They also note that such groups are constantly changing because new students are moving into the United States and entering the group and, at the same time, the most proficient ELLs are taken out of the subgroup and mainstreamed. "To expect gains isn't realistic because the subgroup is always being replenished by new English New English n. See Modern English. Language Learners," explains Margo Gottlieb, director of assessment and evaluation for the Illinois Resource Center and lead developer for the World Class Instructional Design Instructional design is the practice of arranging media (communication technology) and content to help learners and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively. The process consists broadly of determining the current state of learner understanding, defining the end goal of and Assessment (WIDA WIDA Weather Impact Division Aids WIDA Weather Impact on Decision Aids ) consortium, a group of 15 states that has developed English language proficiency standards as well as an English proficiency assessment. A national study of NCLB requirements for ELLs by Jamal Abedi and Ron Dietel of CRESST found that the "instability" of the subgroup results in "downward pressure in ELL test scores worsened by the addition of ELL students who are typically low-achieving." Expecting the same yearly gains for all students also isn't realistic because, like all students, ELLs learn at different rates. Other factors influence how well a student learns English. Studies by CRESST have found that language mastery is in part based on how well students have mastered their own language, family income level, and how educated their parents are. In Princeton (N.J.) Regional Schools, for example, many ELLs are the children of visiting professors, most of whom are from Europe. Coming from well-educated homes with good educational backgrounds, they do much better than other ELLs from Mexico and Guatemala who may miss school to work and help support their families financially. Regulations allow ELLs who are deemed proficient to be counted in the group for the following two years, but that is not enough to accurately measure improvement, critics say. New immigrants are allowed to wait one year before taking the yearly achievement tests in reading, but they must still take the math and science achievement tests and the English proficiency test during their first school year. Districts can opt not to report the achievement test scores. Most ELLs must be tested, and their scores reported, in reading, math and science in the second year after arriving in the United States, with accommodations that can range from having more time to take the test, to being allowed to take the test in Spanish, or taking a modified test. ELL Benchmark Tests Unfair? Still, testing ELLs in academic subjects is problematic since all tests, even math, involve reading or comprehending some English. But testing students in Spanish or French or any other language only makes sense if they learn the subject matter in Spanish or French or their native language through a bilingual education bilingual education, the sanctioned use of more than one language in U.S. education. The Bilingual Education Act (1968), combined with a Supreme Court decision (1974) mandating help for students with limited English proficiency, requires instruction in the native program, Gottlieb explains. "The assessments are not valid assessments of what the students know," says Raquel Sinai, coordinator for bilingual and English as a Second Language education for the New Jersey Department of Education The New Jersey Department of Education administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. . "They're basically putting them into an assessment situation where some of these kids have no opportunity to show mastery because they're very recent arrivals and it's a very difficult situation for the districts as well as for the kids." New Jersey, which has 65,000 ELLs, uses WIDA's Access for ELL's test for English language proficiency and a few different tests for its yearly achievement tests. But despite accommodations such as extra time, using a bilingual dictionary Noun 1. bilingual dictionary - a dictionary giving equivalent words in two languages dictionary, lexicon - a reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them , and having directions translated into Spanish, large numbers of ELLs fail the achievement tests. That means many schools in New Jersey's large urban districts fail to meet the state's standards under NCLB, Sinai says. "It's an unfair assessment because it's not assessing students on their knowledge of that content," says Teddi Predaris, director of the office of English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages ESOL Endless Snorts of Stupid Laughter ESOL Evaluator Series Online ) services for Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools. "It really just becomes another English language proficiency test." States Seek Best Assessments Meanwhile, many states are determining which tests are best for assessing ELLs' English language proficiency and how to handle benchmark tests for ELLs. About 20 states use off-the-shelf tests offered by national testing companies that can be customized, such as CTB/McGraw-Hill's LAS-Links and the IDEA Proficiency Test (IPT IPT - IP Telephony ) offered by Ballard-Tighe. Another 23 states use tests, or questions from tests, developed by four consortia that were funded by the U.S. Department of Education just for that purpose, according to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs. The Clearinghouse is federally funded and collects, analyzes and disseminates information about the education of ELLs. Fourteen states use their own individual tests. "I think the educational world is kind of waiting for guidance right now," says Gottlieb. When NCLB was first legislated, most states didn't have tests except at benchmark levels, she says. Districts must also assess students' language abilities when they enter the school system and over the school year. Districts use various assessments for placement and to aid ESL (1) An earlier family of client/server development tools for Windows and OS/2 from Ardent Software (formerly VMARK). It was originally developed by Easel Corporation, which was acquired by VMARK. teachers. Some assessments are computerized and can be tailored to each district or school's needs and can give immediate feedback on students' progress. In Virginia, a special committee is reviewing the English proficiency tests See aptitude tests. to find one that best aligns with its content standards, says Predaris, a committee member. Meanwhile, districts statewide can choose from approved tests such as the Stanford English Language Proficiency test (SELP SELP Stanford English Language Proficiency (Test) SELP Selectin P SELP Self-Expression and Leadership Program (Landmark Education) SELP Settlement Expense Loan Program SELP State Energy Loan Program ) or the Fairfax County district's English language proficiency assessment. LAS-Links in Nevada Other states, like Nevada, use assessments such as LAS-Links to assess English language proficiency. The oral part of the test is individually administered by trained teachers or staff. CTB CTB Council Tax Benefit (UK) CTB Coopération Technique Belge (French: Belgian Technical Cooperation) CTB Commonwealth Transportation Board (Virginia Department of Transportation) trains district leaders and provides DVDs that offer a rubric RUBRIC, civil law. The title or inscription of any law or statute, because the copyists formerly drew and painted the title of laws and statutes rubro colore, in red letters. Ayl. Pand. B. 1, t. 8; Diet. do Juris. h.t. for teachers and staff to score tests consistently, explains Steven Ross, the Title II consultant for Nevada. CTB also scores all but the oral section of the test. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nevada's goals include 100 percent proficiency for Level V, the most proficient ELLs. Achieving that goal has proven impossible, and state officials are considering modifying those standards. "If you have one kid in the whole state who fails, I don't make my AMAO AMAO annual measurable achievement objective AMAO Advanced Missions Analysis Office ," Ross explains. When districts fail to meet the standards, state officials must choose whether they should replace personnel with new administrators or modify their curriculum to improve the ELLs' performance, Ross explains. More often, replacing personnel does not make sense, so the state will likely ask districts to modify their curricula for ELLs. This could involve implementing one of the 18 elements from the state's Sheltered Instruction Sheltered instruction is an approach to teaching English language learners which integrates language and content instruction. The dual goals of sheltered instruction are:
Seeking Growth Assessment In Lawrence, Mass., ELLs must take the Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment and the statewide Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System commonly called the MCAS (pronounced [mː kǣs], is the Commonwealth's statewide standards-based assessment program developed in response to the lack of stress in test (MCAS McCune-Albright syndrome (MCAS) A genetic syndrome characterized in girls by the development of ovarian cysts and puberty before the age of 8, together with abnormalities of bone structure and skin pigmentation. Mentioned in: Ovarian Cysts ). To prepare for those tests, ELLs are evaluated three times a year--in September, February and May--using the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test developed by the Northwestern Evaluators System, one of the consortiums. MAP provides individualized in·di·vid·u·al·ize tr.v. in·di·vid·u·al·ized, in·di·vid·u·al·iz·ing, in·di·vid·u·al·iz·es 1. To give individuality to. 2. To consider or treat individually; particularize. 3. results for each student, Laboy says. The district also uses Plato software, which has individualized computer math programs in Spanish and language programs for ELLs. Laboy, who was the coordinator of bilingual education in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of about 20 years ago, says he would like to see a growth assessment that tracks students from year to year, instead of the law's mandate of keeping track of a different set of students every year. "I will put my salary on the line that if you give me a growth measure, I will tell you we will meet AYP every year." The stakes become particularly high when ELLs must pass the MCAS to graduate from high school. Some students wind up taking the test up to five times to try to pass, and many end up dropping out. Although Massachusetts, like many states, does not allow bilingual education, Lawrence offers a structured English Structured English describes procedures. The procedure may be a process in a DFD. Structure English is the marriage of English language with the syntax and structured programming. Thus structured English aims at getting the benefits of both the programming logic and natural language. immersion program with a Spanish program the first year a student arrives. Every teacher in Lawrence is being trained in ESL techniques. Lawrence also offers an extended school day to ELLs in which students stay after school for 90 minutes. Students can take part in a peer-tutoring program and attend the Summer Program for English Language Learners (SPELL). Newly arrived students receive double blocks of English, math and science in intensive English courses. Meanwhile, six out of Lawrence's 24 schools are still in "corrective action A corrective action is a change implemented to address a weakness identified in a management system. Normally corrective actions are instigated in response to a customer complaint, abnormal levels if internal nonconformity, nonconformities identified during an internal audit or ," which means those schools may have to restructure their academic programs or change leadership, such as by replacing principals. And Laboy, like many educators, complains the federal government provides no additional resources to help hire reading specialists. Preschool and Other Tests Preschool children in Maricopa, Ariz., are assessed for their English and language skills using Children's Progress, a company that provides computerized assessments for pre-K and kindergarten children. The company has similar assessments up to grade 3. And in Rogers (Ark.) Public Schools, where 3,700 ELLs speak 30 languages, from Urdu to Hindi, and comprise about 28 percent of all the students, administrators are struggling with what ELL assessment will be aligned with the statewide English Language Development Assessment (ELDA ELDA Evaluations and Language Resources Distribution Agency ) from the Council of Chief State School Officers The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a national nonprofit organization in the United States which represents public officials that head elementary and secondary education departments. . The district has been using the MAC II test from Questar Assessment Inc., (formerly TASA) to assess students, explains Tricia Todd, district ESOL/migrant director. And students may take the STAR assessment, a computerized test offered by Renaissance Learning, to assess their progress during the school year. Students who are Level I and do not speak English are placed in sheltered English immersion classes. In the upper grades, a newcomer team for new students offers five core classes with ESOL teachers. Students in grades 8-12 take elective courses and then attend an English academy in core subjects including algebra, language development and physical sciences. In the end, Congress will decide whether to revise NGLB's requirements. But most educators seem to agree that ELLs must learn English to be successful. "I think we have to do better for these kids," Laboy says. "English is the language of power and success in America." ELL Tests under NCLB Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State (ACCESS)for English Learners World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium, www, widu.us/assessment/ACCESS.aspx Incorporates the English language proficiency standards adopted by Teachers Of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) to assess English. The WIDA ACCESS Placement Test (W-APT) in part screens students for ESL programs. English Language Development Assessment (ELDA) Council of Chief State School Officers, www, ccsso.org/projects/ELDA ELDA assesses English language progress for grades K-12 and provides diagnostic assessments or inventories for each grade. IDEA Proficiency Test: IPT Testing System Ballard & Tighe, www.ballard-tighe.com Designed to meet NCLB requirements, the test assesses social and academic language and provides diagnostic information for placement. The IPT 2004 series for identification and placement is available in English and Spanish. Language Assessment System: LAS/LAS-Links CTB/McGraw-Hill, www.ctb.com Assesses language ability for grades K-12 and can be used to measure English language skills to meet NCLB requirements. LAS-Links Espafiol allows districts to compare Spanish and English language skills. Maculaitis Assessment of Competencies (MAC II) Questar Assessment Inc., www.questaraLcom Evaluates English proficiency in the five areas required by NCLB. A screening test and pre-K screening test are also available. Stanford English Language Proficiency Test (SELP) Harcourt Assessment Harcourt Assessment, previously known as "The Psychological Corporation" is a company that publishes and distributes psychological assessment tools and therapy resources. The company is currently in the process of being bought by Pearson. Inc., harcourtassessment.com Meets all NCLB requirements and can be used to identify and place students and measure program effectiveness. A Stanford Spanish Language Spanish language, member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages). The official language of Spain and 19 Latin American nations, Spanish is spoken as a first language by about 330 million persons Proficiency Test is also available. Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey, Revised Thomson Learning Inc., www.assess.nelson.com Offers four screening tests and a seven-test battery for English language proficiency. Classroom ELL Tests and Programs FAST Nath at Fairfax County School Systems www.fcps.k12.va.us/DIS/OESQL/fastmath.htm A math curriculum for ELLs in grades 6-12. Language Arts language arts pl.n. The subjects, including reading, spelling, and composition, aimed at developing reading and writing skills, usually taught in elementary and secondary school. Assessment Children's Progress, www.childrensprngress.com Has an adaptive computer assessment for children in language arts from pre-K to grade 3. Children's Progress Academic Assessment Spanish (CPAAS) is another option. Treasure Chest Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, reading.macmillanmh.com/treasurechest/teacher.html This program is a research-based language development and literacy curriculum that targets students in grades K-6. Measures of Academic Progress Northwest Evaluation Association, www.nwea.org/assessments MAP is a computerized assessment program for grades 2-10 in math, reading, language arts and science that adapts to individual students and can be given four times a year. The NWEA Mathematics with Spanish audio test offers the same content in Spanish. STAR Reading, STAR Early Literacy Renaissance Learning, www, rnnlearn.com Offers a 10-minute computerized assessment of reading and early literacy as well as computerized reading programs. Achievement Series, Performance Series Scantron Corp., www.scantrnn.com The Achievement Series tests measure students' reading and math abilities. The Performance Series is an individualized Web-based test. Vantage Learning System Vantage Learning, vvww.vantagelearning.com The Vantage Learning System includes the Texas Math Diagnostic System with math assessments in Spanish and English and the My Access! writing program that provides feedback on improving writing in 34 languages. RESOURCES Lawrence Public Schools www.lawrence.k12.ma.us Fairfax County Public Schools The Fairfax County Public Schools system (abbreviated FCPS) is a branch of the Fairfax County government which administers public schools in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax. www.fcps.edu National Center for Research, Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) www.cse.ucla.edu National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs www.ncela.gwa.edu Nevada Department of Education The Nevada Department of Education (NDOE) is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Nevada. NDOE headquarters is located in Carson City, Nevada. External links
Rogers Public Schools www.rogers.k12.ar.us Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) www.tesol.org Jeanne Jackson DeVoe is a freelance writer based in New Jersey. |
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