Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education

who attained the level of English proficiency required to score at MEPA performance Levels
4 and 5 or to be de-designated as a student of limited English proficiency (or “FLEPed”). In
the case of high school students, additional indicators are graduation from high school with
competency determination or having completed Grade 12 in a district approved program.
The Trajectory of the Grade 3 Cohort. Of the 131 LEP students who scored at Level 1 in
Grade 3 in SY2006, 9.2% had reached Level 5 and 26.7% had reached Level 4 by SY2009,
that is, in three years about 36% of the LEP students had reached levels of English proficiency
that brought them close to the possibility of a performance on the MCAS that is closer to that
of English proficient students. Nevertheless, almost 5% remained at Level 1 after four years. 8
Of the 131 students included in this cohort, 32.1% (42 students) did not take the MEPA
test in 2009 for several reasons. Most of those not tested had transferred out of the district
to schools systems in the state or out-of-state, accounting for 23.7% of the cohort. Five
students (3.7% of the cohort) had been determined to have dropped out by the time they
reached Grade 6 and 4.6% had not been tested although they were enrolled in BPS.
Figure 5. SY2009 MEPA Outcomes of a Grade 3 Cohort of 131 Students Scoring at MEPA Level 1 in SY2006.
L5 L4 L3 L2 L1 Not Tested (32.1%)
9.2% 26.7% 22.9% 4.6% 4.6%
4.6%
Enrolled,
not
tested
The Trajectory of the Grade 6 Cohort. Of the 93 LEP students who scored at Level 1
in Grade 6 in SY2006, none reached Level 5 by SY2009 but 4.8% of the students in the
cohort had been de-designated as LEP students and become FLEPs. After three years, 6.5%
remained at Level 1. 9
Close to one-third of the 93 students who composed the cohort in SY2006 were not tested
in SY2009 for several reasons. Just over 3% of these middle school students dropped out by
the time they reached Grade 9 in SY2009.Also not tested in BPS were the 14.3% of the cohort
who transferred and the 9.8% who were enrolled in BPS but were not tested for reasons
that are unknown.
The Trajectory of the Grade 9 Cohort. Of the 328 LEP students who scored at Level 1
in Grade 9 in SY2006, 5.2% attained Level 5, 9.1% had attained Level 4, 1.2% had been
de-designated as students of limited English proficiency (and become FLEPs) and 3.0% had
graduated from high school with competency determination or completed Grade 12 in a
district approved program (which assumes that they had passed the MCAS ELA exam). An
additional 2.1% were still testing at Level 1 of MEPA. 10
The most salient issue in the high school trajectory is the high proportion of ninth graders
who had dropped out of high school by SY2009. Seventy-six students out of the cohort of
23.7%
Transferred
Figure 6. SY2009 MEPA Outcomes of a Grade 6 Cohort of 93 Students Scoring at MEPA Level 1 in SY2006.
L4 L3 L2 L1 Not Tested (32.3%)
7.5% 41.9% 11.8% 6.5%
4.8%
FLEPed
14.3%
Transferred
9.8%
Enrolled,
not tested
3.7%
Dropped
out
3.4%
Dropped
out
Improving Educational Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools 45