Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education

Overview
The report sought to answer the following research
questions:
Q1. What were the enrollment patterns of ELLs
in Boston and how did they change between
SY2006 and SY2009?
Q2. What were the engagement and academic
outcomes of ELLs compared to those of other
BPS student populations in 2009? Did the
outcomes of LEP students change over the period
of observation (SY2006-2009)? How did
outcomes differ for LEP students at different
levels of English proficiency?
Q3. What were the engagement and academic
outcomes of ELLs in schools of different
characteristics?
Q4. What were the engagement and academic
outcomes of ELLs in different types of programs?
Q5. What were the individual and school-level factors
most relevant to the outcomes of ELLs?
These questions were answered through descriptive
statistics conducted in SPSS and an HLM regression
analysis of MCAS outcomes conducted in
SAS. The methodology, along with a description
of the sources of the data used and an account of
how variables were constructed, is outlined in this
appendix.
Data Sources
1. BPS Student-Level Data
The unit of analysis for this project was the student
enrolled in Boston Public Schools. The research
team obtained student-level data from the BPS
Office of Research, Assessment & Evaluation. The
database contained demographic data from SIMS 1
as well as MCAS and MEPA 2 data. The SIMS file
included data for all students enrolled in BPS for the
2006-2009 school years, as of the October 2005,
June 2006, October 2006, June 2007, October
2007, June 2008, October 2008, and June 2009
SIMS pulls. March SIMS files were not requested.
MCAS data included ELA, Math, and Science test
results from the main test administrations in spring
2006, spring 2007, spring, 2008, and spring 2009.
In addition, summer, fall, and winter MCAS administrations
and ELA and Math retests and appeals
were included for a total of 85 MCAS test administrations.
MEPA data included test results from October
2005, April 2006, October 2006, June 2007,
October 2007, June 2008, October 2008, and April
2009 test administrations.
The Office of Research, Assessment & Evaluation
assigned each student a random identification number
to ensure confidentiality and also to enable the
data from all provided sources to be linked together
in a single student-level database. In addition, for
SY2009 the research team obtained from OELL a
more detailed level of ELL program assignment than
was available via SIMS. Beginning with an OELL ELL
program spreadsheet, the research team worked
with the OELL to identify the specific programs in
which students participated school by school, based
on OELL information, ELL students’ native language,
and ELL program codes in SIMS. Because of the
time-intensive nature of this activity, these data
were entered for SY2009 only.
The data files were merged into one student-level
database. In general, data from June were used to
override any discrepancies with October data (e.g.,
if a student was listed as male in June but female
in October of a given school year, the student was
assigned a male gender). Exceptions are noted in
Table 1.
Improving Educational Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools 107