Language Barriers and TestingELLs, State Standards and Academic Achievement

Luke Freeman & Jesse Gray

November 9, 2011

In a beginning…

NCLB Act (2001)

Renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)

Many things states must do to get federal money

The impetus? Achievement gaps. The solution? Testing. (What does Koretz say?)

NCLB - Title III, Sec. 3102

(1) to help ensure that children who are limited English proficient, including immigrant children and youth, attain English proficiency, develop high levels of academic attainment in English, and meet the same challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet (emphasis ours)

NCLB - Title III, Sec. 3102

(8) to hold State educational agencies, local educational agencies, and schools accountable for increases in English proficiency and core academic content knowledge of limited English proficient children by requiring —(A) demonstrated improvements in the English proficiency of limited English proficient children each fiscal year; and(B) adequate yearly progress for limited English proficient children, including immigrant children and youth, as described in section 1111(b)(2)(B)...

*All NCLB data from http://www2.ed.gov/

Therefore,

...demonstrated by tests, in accordance with state standards… that don’t exist yet.

1) States are accountable for ELLs’ content achievement 2) States are accountable for ELLs’ demonstrable English proficiency development

The Working Group for ELL PolicyCenter for Applied Linguistics

Click icon to add pictureRecommendations for reauthorization of ESEA in an open letter to Senators Tom Harkin and Michael Enzi (Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions):

“… a strong federal framework is still needed to ensure that all educators are given clearer signals about and held accountable for their students’ academic performance and, in the case of ELs, their progress toward English language proficiency as well.”

The Tests

Kids, Teachers, AdminsEgads!

Wolfe, et al.“Scientific research-based uses of ELL assessments will improve the quality of assessments and assessment practices.”

Solano-Flores, “Who is given tests…?”“[C]urrent ELL testing practices are limited in their effectiveness to produce valid measures of academic achievement because they are based on categorical, deterministic views of language and erroneous assumptions about the capacity of assessment systems to effectively communicate with ELL students.”

The Kids and the StandardsHow do we identify an ELL? What standards do we hold them to?

New kid(s)Is anyone missing?Should anyone not be here?

Home Language Survey from TN ESL Program Guide

“The Home Language Survey consists of three questions that will be asked of every parent enrolling his/her child in the school district. These questions are:

1. What is the first language this child learned to speak? 2. What language does this child speak most often outside of school?

3. What language do people usually speak in this child’s home?

And we test them again

ELDA/ELSA No accommodations

Taken upon entrance into the school system

Once per year in February/March

A good test gone wrong

TCAP Some accommodations

Linguistically demanding

1-year exemption on English/Language Arts Achievement Assessment

Hard tests that don’t align with the standards

Una máquina prensa puede imprimir 42 hojas por minuto y otra más moderna 128. Determinar el tiempo que tardarán trabajando juntas en imprimir 8.200 hojas.

The dictionary will tell you that “hoja” means “leaf.” So, what’s the answer?

The problem? Not the kids, and probably not the tests.

A dictionary is not an accommodation – are we talking about leaves or pages?

Koretz: “When the impediments are relevant to what we are trying to measure… we face a logical problem, not a merely technical one, and accommodations are unlikely to solve it fully”

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

Aguirre-Munoz, et. al.“…to examine the relationship between opportunities to acquire academic language and ELL achievement.”

 “…identifying a comprehensive approach to operationalizing academic language in amanner that facilitates its presentation to teachers and students, as well as movesbeyond an exclusive emphasis on content and technical vocabulary.”

Language is the problemMore specifically, academic language as addressed (or not) by standards is the problem.

Kenji Hakuta: “[I]t’s not an altogether unrealistic goal to have standards that combine academic content and language.”

C. M. RodriguezLanguage policy, or language rights? “[P]articipation occurs across diverse spheres of activity and therefore requires different forms of accommodation;” “[L]inguistic minorities can be integrated into a political community without an assimilationist agenda;” “[L]ocalized communities defined according to cultural practices exist and often represent the sites of the most meaningful participation in public life.”