ELL testing: a state of Flux: districts grapple with federal mandates and assessment options for English Language Learners.

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 speaka 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 ofthe federal No Child Left Behind law say that federal requirements ofELLs hurt school districts. At Lawrence (Mass.) Public Schools, where 90 percent of thestudents are immigrants, the district has been labeled "in need ofimprovement" under the NCLB NCLB No Child Left Behind (US education initiative)requirements. This is in part due tothe number of ELLs who haven't shown sufficient progress inmastering English and the number of ELLs who failed yearly benchmarktests in reading and math. "Let's just be honest and say thetruth about what we're up against," says Lawrence PublicSchools 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, ethicaland professional responsibility to make sure that all kids who leave oursystem are proficient learners. Nothing less than that is accepted, andfailure is not an option." Like many educators, Laboy applauds NCLB for casting a spotlight onELLs, but he and many other educators question exactly how the law isapplied to such students. They say the law unfairly penalizes districtslike Lawrence with large numbers of ELLs. Meanwhile, states anddistricts are still devising ways to refine or revise tests for suchstudents and searching for ways to help them become proficient inEnglish as quickly as possible. NCLB Requirements Under Title III Title III Program is a U.S. Federal Grant Program to improve education HistoryThe 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 Englishproficiency test proficiency testn → prueba de capacitaci��nand must meet annual achievement objectives to improvethe scores of ELLs in five areas: speaking, reading, writing, listeningand comprehension. The goal is to meet the same challenging stateacademic content and student achievement standards as other, non-ELLstudents. In addition, all students, including the vast majority of ELLs whoare in the United States longer than a year, must also take yearlyachievement tests in math, reading and, beginning this school year,science from third to eighth grade and once in high school. Schools anddistricts 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 PagesAYP American Youth Philharmonic ) in students'achievement on those tests, with the ultimate goal of having allstudents be proficient in reading and math by 2014. AYP, progress inEnglish and attainment of English are three components of the AnnualMeasurable Achievement Objectives, or AMAOs, of NCLB. Meanwhile, state tests show ELLs' performance is generally 20to 30 percent below that of non-ELL students, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. the NationalCenter for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los AngelesUCLA 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 ThermometersCRESST Center for Research on Evaluation Standards and and Student Testing ). As the law comes up for reauthorization this year, legislatorsare already proposing giving schools more time for ELLs to achieve teststandards and having schools avoid harsh penalties when they fail tomeet the standards due to their large numbers of ELLs. Most educators seem to agree that a large influx of immigrantsmeans that it's increasingly important that ELLs become proficientenough in English to receive a good education. Nationwide, 3.8 millionchildren, or 11 percent of all school children, received ELL services in2003, according to the latest statistics from the National Center forEducation 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 inanother district, for failure to meet AYP goals have meant thatdistricts must improve performance with after-school programs, intensivesheltered English or bilingual or preschool programs to teachnon-English speaking children English before they even begin school. "Basically, I think that NCLB has had a very dramatic effecton the education of English Language Learners in the U.S.," saysJohn Segota, advocacy and communications manager for Teachers of Englishto 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 TESOLabbr.1. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages2. teaching English to speakers of other languages ), based in Alexandria, Va. But TESOL is among those groups that believe NCLB should be revisedso that ELLs and districts with those students are treated more fairly.TESOL and other groups, for example, take issue with lumping all ELLsinto one subgroup. They point out that ELLs are an extremely diversegroup comprised of students from dozens of languages and educationalbackgrounds. They also note that such groups are constantly changingbecause new students are moving into the United States and entering thegroup and, at the same time, the most proficient ELLs are taken out ofthe subgroup and mainstreamed. "To expect gains isn't realistic because the subgroup isalways being replenished by new English New Englishn.See Modern English. Language Learners,"explains Margo Gottlieb, director of assessment and evaluation for theIllinois Resource Center and lead developer for the World ClassInstructional 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 AidsWIDA Weather Impact on Decision Aids ) consortium, a group of 15states that has developed English language proficiency standards as wellas an English proficiency assessment. A national study of NCLB requirements for ELLs by Jamal Abedi andRon Dietel of CRESST found that the "instability" of thesubgroup results in "downward pressure in ELL test scores worsenedby the addition of ELL students who are typically low-achieving." Expecting the same yearly gains for all students also isn'trealistic because, like all students, ELLs learn at different rates.Other factors influence how well a student learns English. Studies byCRESST have found that language mastery is in part based on how wellstudents have mastered their own language, family income level, and howeducated their parents are. In Princeton (N.J.) Regional Schools, for example, many ELLs arethe children of visiting professors, most of whom are from Europe.Coming from well-educated homes with good educational backgrounds, theydo much better than other ELLs from Mexico and Guatemala who may missschool to work and help support their families financially. Regulations allow ELLs who are deemed proficient to be counted inthe group for the following two years, but that is not enough toaccurately measure improvement, critics say. New immigrants are allowedto wait one year before taking the yearly achievement tests in reading,but they must still take the math and science achievement tests and theEnglish proficiency test during their first school year. Districts can opt not to report the achievement test scores. MostELLs must be tested, and their scores reported, in reading, math andscience in the second year after arriving in the United States, withaccommodations that can range from having more time to take the test, tobeing 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 alltests, even math, involve reading or comprehending some English. Buttesting students in Spanish or French or any other language only makessense if they learn the subject matter in Spanish or French or theirnative 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, Gottliebexplains. "The assessments are not valid assessments of what thestudents know," says Raquel Sinai, coordinator for bilingual andEnglish as a Second Language education for the New Jersey Department ofEducation 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 assessmentsituation where some of these kids have no opportunity to show masterybecause they're very recent arrivals and it's a very difficultsituation for the districts as well as for the kids." New Jersey, which has 65,000 ELLs, uses WIDA's Access forELL's test for English language proficiency and a few differenttests for its yearly achievement tests. But despite accommodations suchas extra time, using a bilingual dictionary Noun 1. bilingual dictionary - a dictionary giving equivalent words in two languagesdictionary, lexicon - a reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them , and having directionstranslated into Spanish, large numbers of ELLs fail the achievementtests. That means many schools in New Jersey's large urbandistricts fail to meet the state's standards under NCLB, Sinaisays. "It's an unfair assessment because it's notassessing students on their knowledge of that content," says TeddiPredaris, director of the office of English Speakers of Other Languages(ESOL ESOL English for Speakers of Other LanguagesESOL Endless Snorts of Stupid LaughterESOL Evaluator Series Online ) services for Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools. "It reallyjust becomes another English language proficiency test." States Seek Best Assessments Meanwhile, many states are determining which tests are best forassessing ELLs' English language proficiency and how to handlebenchmark tests for ELLs. About 20 states use off-the-shelf testsoffered by national testing companies that can be customized, such asCTB/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 fromtests, developed by four consortia that were funded by the U.S.Department of Education just for that purpose, according to the NationalClearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language InstructionEducational Programs. The Clearinghouse is federally funded andcollects, analyzes and disseminates information about the education ofELLs. Fourteen states use their own individual tests. "I think the educational world is kind of waiting for guidanceright now," says Gottlieb. When NCLB was first legislated, moststates didn't have tests except at benchmark levels, she says. Districts must also assess students' language abilities whenthey enter the school system and over the school year. Districts usevarious 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. Someassessments are computerized and can be tailored to each district orschool's needs and can give immediate feedback on students'progress. In Virginia, a special committee is reviewing the Englishproficiency tests See aptitude tests. to find one that best aligns with its contentstandards, says Predaris, a committee member. Meanwhile, districtsstatewide can choose from approved tests such as the Stanford EnglishLanguage Proficiency test (SELP SELP Stanford English Language Proficiency (Test)SELP Selectin PSELP Self-Expression and Leadership Program (Landmark Education)SELP Settlement Expense Loan ProgramSELP State Energy Loan Program ) or the Fairfax County district'sEnglish language proficiency assessment. LAS-Links in Nevada Other states, like Nevada, use assessments such as LAS-Links toassess English language proficiency. The oral part of the test isindividually administered by trained teachers or staff. CTB CTB Council Tax Benefit (UK)CTB Coop��ration Technique Belge (French: Belgian Technical Cooperation)CTB Commonwealth Transportation Board (Virginia Department of Transportation)trainsdistrict 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 andstaff to score tests consistently, explains Steven Ross, the Title IIconsultant for Nevada. CTB also scores all but the oral section of thetest. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nevada's goals include 100 percent proficiency for Level V,the most proficient ELLs. Achieving that goal has proven impossible, andstate officials are considering modifying those standards. "If youhave one kid in the whole state who fails, I don't make myAMAO AMAO annual measurable achievement objectiveAMAO Advanced Missions Analysis Office ," Ross explains. When districts fail to meet the standards,state officials must choose whether they should replace personnel withnew administrators or modify their curriculum to improve the ELLs'performance, Ross explains. More often, replacing personnel does notmake sense, so the state will likely ask districts to modify theircurricula for ELLs. This could involve implementing one of the 18elements 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: to provide access to mainstream, grade-level content, and ObservationProtocol (SLOP (jargon) slop - 1. A one-sided fudge factor, that is, an allowance for error but in only one of two directions. For example, if you need a piece of wire 10 feet long and have to guess when you cut it, you make very sure to cut it too long, by a large amount if necessary, rather ), for example, offering specific goals or contentobjectives for class lessons that are written at children's gradelevels and posted in classrooms. Teachers could then review the goalswith each class after the lesson. Seeking Growth Assessment In Lawrence, Mass., ELLs must take the Massachusetts EnglishProficiency Assessment and the statewide Massachusetts ComprehensiveAssessment 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 areevaluated three times a year--in September, February and May--using theMeasures of Academic Progress (MAP) test developed by the NorthwesternEvaluators 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��es1. To give individuality to.2. To consider or treat individually; particularize.3. results for each student, Laboy says. The district also uses Platosoftware, which has individualized computer math programs in Spanish andlanguage programs for ELLs. Laboy, who was the coordinator of bilingual education in New York New York, state, United StatesNew 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 thattracks students from year to year, instead of the law's mandate ofkeeping track of a different set of students every year. "I willput my salary on the line that if you give me a growth measure, I willtell you we will meet AYP every year." The stakes becomeparticularly high when ELLs must pass the MCAS to graduate from highschool. Some students wind up taking the test up to five times to try topass, and many end up dropping out. Although Massachusetts, like many states, does not allow bilingualeducation, 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 aSpanish program the first year a student arrives. Every teacher inLawrence is being trained in ESL techniques. Lawrence also offers an extended school day to ELLs in whichstudents stay after school for 90 minutes. Students can take part in apeer-tutoring program and attend the Summer Program for English LanguageLearners (SPELL). Newly arrived students receive double blocks ofEnglish, math and science in intensive English courses. Meanwhile, sixout of Lawrence's 24 schools are still in "correctiveaction 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 theiracademic programs or change leadership, such as by replacing principals.And Laboy, like many educators, complains the federal governmentprovides no additional resources to help hire reading specialists. Preschool and Other Tests Preschool children in Maricopa, Ariz., are assessed for theirEnglish and language skills using Children's Progress, a companythat provides computerized assessments for pre-K and kindergartenchildren. The company has similar assessments up to grade 3. And inRogers (Ark.) Public Schools, where 3,700 ELLs speak 30 languages, fromUrdu to Hindi, and comprise about 28 percent of all the students,administrators are struggling with what ELL assessment will be alignedwith the statewide English Language Development Assessment (ELDA ELDA Evaluations and Language Resources Distribution Agency ) fromthe 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 AssessmentInc., (formerly TASA) to assess students, explains Tricia Todd, districtESOL/migrant director. And students may take the STAR assessment, acomputerized test offered by Renaissance Learning, to assess theirprogress during the school year. Students who are Level I and do not speak English are placed insheltered English immersion classes. In the upper grades, a newcomerteam for new students offers five core classes with ESOL teachers.Students in grades 8-12 take elective courses and then attend an Englishacademy in core subjects including algebra, language development andphysical sciences. In the end, Congress will decide whether to revise NGLB'srequirements. But most educators seem to agree that ELLs must learnEnglish to be successful. "I think we have to do better for thesekids," Laboy says. "English is the language of power andsuccess 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 languageproficiency standards adopted by Teachers Of English to Speakers ofOther Languages (TESOL) to assess English. The WIDA ACCESS PlacementTest (W-APT) in part screens students for ESL programs. English Language Development Assessment (ELDA) Council of ChiefState School Officers, www, ccsso.org/projects/ELDA ELDA assessesEnglish language progress for grades K-12 and provides diagnosticassessments 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 andacademic language and provides diagnostic information for placement. TheIPT 2004 series for identification and placement is available in Englishand Spanish. Language Assessment System: LAS/LAS-Links CTB/McGraw-Hill,www.ctb.com Assesses language ability for grades K-12 and can be used tomeasure English language skills to meet NCLB requirements. LAS-LinksEspafiol allows districts to compare Spanish and English languageskills. Maculaitis Assessment of Competencies (MAC II) Questar AssessmentInc., www.questaraLcom Evaluates English proficiency in the five areasrequired by NCLB. A screening test and pre-K screening test are alsoavailable. Stanford English Language Proficiency Test (SELP) HarcourtAssessment 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 andcan be used to identify and place students and measure programeffectiveness. 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 alsoavailable. Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey, Revised Thomson LearningInc., www.assess.nelson.com Offers four screening tests and a seven-testbattery 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 artspl.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 adaptivecomputer assessment for children in language arts from pre-K to grade 3.Children's Progress Academic Assessment Spanish (CPAAS) is anotheroption. Treasure Chest Macmillan/McGraw-Hill,reading.macmillanmh.com/treasurechest/teacher.html This program is aresearch-based language development and literacy curriculum that targetsstudents in grades K-6. Measures of Academic Progress Northwest Evaluation Association,www.nwea.org/assessments MAP is a computerized assessment program forgrades 2-10 in math, reading, language arts and science that adapts toindividual students and can be given four times a year. The NWEAMathematics 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 andearly literacy as well as computerized reading programs. Achievement Series, Performance Series Scantron Corp.,www.scantrnn.com The Achievement Series tests measure students' reading andmath abilities. The Performance Series is an individualized Web-basedtest. Vantage Learning System Vantage Learning, vvww.vantagelearning.com The Vantage LearningSystem includes the Texas Math Diagnostic System with math assessmentsin Spanish and English and the My Access! writing program that providesfeedback 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 StudentTesting (CRESST) www.cse.ucla.edu National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition andLanguage 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 linksNevada Department of Education www.doe.nv.gov 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.