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Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education

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Table 20. MCAS ELA Pass Rates of LEP Students at Different Levels of English Proficiency. BPS, SY2009<br />

N of MEPA /<br />

MCAS Test-takers<br />

Elementary School<br />

MCAS ELA Pass Rate<br />

1<br />

All LEP MEPA & MCAS Test-takers 1,394 64.8%<br />

MEPA Level 1 20 0%<br />

MEPA Level 2 77 15.6%<br />

MEPA Level 3 311 31.2%<br />

MEPA Level 4 707 74.8%<br />

MEPA Level 5 279 95.3%<br />

English Proficient NA 84.0% 2<br />

Middle School 2<br />

All LEP MEPA & MCAS Test-takers 1,453 59.2%<br />

MEPA Level 1 58 1.7% 4<br />

MEPA Level 2 161 12.4%<br />

MEPA Level 3 483 41.4%<br />

MEPA Level 4 485 80.6%<br />

MEPA Level 5 266 93.2%<br />

English Proficient NA<br />

High School<br />

90.3%<br />

3<br />

All LEP MEPA & MCAS Test-takers 455 62.6%<br />

MEPA Level 1 12 25.0% 4<br />

MEPA Level 2 44 50.0%<br />

MEPA Level 3 201 61.2%<br />

MEPA Level 4 121 92.6%<br />

MEPA Level 5 77 98.7%<br />

English Proficient NA 95.2%<br />

Notes: 1 Includes grades 4 and 5 only. 2 Includes grades 6, 7 and 8. 3 Includes grade 10 test-takers only.<br />

4 Represents less than 10 students.<br />

IN DEPTH:<br />

A Look at the English Acquisition Trajectories of<br />

English Language Learners at Different Grade Levels<br />

The critical issue to assess is the proportion of LEP students who attain MEPA per<strong>for</strong>mance<br />

Level 5, that is, the level of English proficiency that most closely reflects the attainment of<br />

academic English (and there<strong>for</strong>e provides LEP students with the best possibility of passing<br />

MCAS ELA). Also important is to estimate how long it is taking Boston ELLs to attain that level<br />

of English proficiency. This is important to Boston ELLs in general but, most particularly, LEP<br />

students in high school because Massachusetts is a “high-stakes” testing state that requires<br />

that high school students pass MCAS ELA, Math and Science in order to graduate from high<br />

school.<br />

To examine these question, we assessed the language acquisition trajectories of three cohorts<br />

of students in Grades 3, 6, and 9 who scored at MEPA per<strong>for</strong>mance Level 1 in SY2006 and<br />

observed their MEPA test per<strong>for</strong>mances in SY2007, SY2008 and finally, in SY2009.This analysis<br />

of MEPA scores through time allowed us to see the difference in the trajectories of students at<br />

different grade levels as well as the progress that students can make in three years (the limit<br />

of the data available in this study 7 ).We then assessed the proportion of students at each level<br />

44 Improving <strong>Education</strong>al Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools

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