Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education
Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education
Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
The tests of the Massachusetts Comprehensive<br />
Assessment System (MCAS), established as part of<br />
the Massachusetts <strong>Education</strong>al Re<strong>for</strong>m Act of 1993,<br />
have been the most prevalent measure of academic<br />
achievement in Massachusetts <strong>for</strong> more than a<br />
decade (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1993).<br />
The MCAS is used to meet the requirements of the<br />
state’s Chapter 386 and the federal No Child Left<br />
Behind Act <strong>for</strong> the yearly assessment of progress in<br />
academic areas on the part of all students¸ including<br />
LEP students. The state requires that this assessment<br />
of the academic achievement of students of<br />
limited English proficiency be conducted using a<br />
standardized test in English. 1 At the time of this<br />
study’s observations, MCAS tested English Learners<br />
in Reading (Grade 3), English Language Arts<br />
(Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10), Math (Grades 3, 4,<br />
5, 6, 7, 8, and 10), and Science (Grades 5 and 8<br />
in SY2006-SY2008 and 5, 8, and 9/10 in SY2009)<br />
(Massachusetts Department of <strong>Education</strong>, 2008b).<br />
During the SY2006–SY2009 period, high school LEP<br />
students were required to pass Grade 10 Math and<br />
ELA in order to graduate from high school.<br />
At the center of the debate regarding the academic<br />
achievement of English language learners in the<br />
United States is the measure used to assess it.<br />
There are concerns about the validity of the standardized<br />
tests normed only <strong>for</strong> English proficient<br />
students, particularly those measuring proficiency in<br />
content areas, since the results may be more a reflection<br />
of students’ English proficiency than of their<br />
knowledge of the content tested (August & Hakuta,<br />
1997; Menken, 2000). Others point to ELLs’ lack of<br />
cultural knowledge, knowledge that is assumed on<br />
tests standardized on an American English speaking<br />
student population (Mercer, 1989). Still others<br />
focus on the inequity of assessment practices used<br />
with ELLs: the “testing frenzy” resulting from the<br />
practice of assessing prematurely and intensely and<br />
the “violation of what we know about the relationship<br />
between academic learning proficiency and<br />
content proficiency, the validity of high-stakes tests<br />
<strong>for</strong> this population, and the matching of test to the<br />
population” (Garcia & Kleifgen, 2010). Those who<br />
favor the inclusion of ELLs in taking tests developed<br />
<strong>for</strong> English proficient students express that, in spite<br />
of the limitations, testing is a vehicle <strong>for</strong> insuring<br />
that the same accountability that keeps standards<br />
high <strong>for</strong> English proficient students applies to ELLs<br />
(Coltrane, 2002).<br />
The fact is that in spite of the understanding of<br />
the inappropriateness of using standardized tests<br />
with ELLs who are not proficient in English, they<br />
continue to be widely used. In some cases, states<br />
offer accommodations modifying test questions,<br />
allowing extra time to complete the tests, translating<br />
the tests, testing content in L1, etc. (Garcia &<br />
Kleifgen, 2010; Lindholm-Leary & Borsato, 2006).<br />
Massachusetts allows few accommodations: LEP<br />
students are not required to take the ELA exam (at<br />
the district’s discretion) in the first year in which a<br />
child is enrolled in a U.S. school, but both Math<br />
and Science are required even at this early stage of<br />
English language development. Beyond that, Spanish<br />
speaking ELLs who have been in U.S. schools <strong>for</strong><br />
less than three years may take a Math test in Spanish<br />
in Grade 10, and any LEP student is allowed to<br />
use a dictionary on all MCAS tests.<br />
In spite of the serious concerns regarding the appropriateness<br />
of the MCAS as the main (and often<br />
sole) measure of student achievement, at this point<br />
it is the measure that allows comparisons of student<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance across time, groups, and districts. The<br />
ability to conduct these analyses in Massachusetts,<br />
in other states, and nationally is relatively recent<br />
since <strong>for</strong> many years there was concern about the<br />
dearth of in<strong>for</strong>mation regarding the outcomes of<br />
LEP students in educational programs (Coltrane,<br />
2002). For example, DeJong, Gort, and Cobb<br />
(2005) in their review of 30 years of bilingual<br />
education in Massachusetts, found there was no<br />
evidence of assessments of the progress on English<br />
language acquisition on the part of ELL students,<br />
and concluded that their academic achievement<br />
was unknown (pp. 597-598). 2<br />
Today, most of the research related to the academic<br />
achievement of ELLs is embedded in the evaluation<br />
of different types of programs. Researchers<br />
have often compared the outcomes of LEP students<br />
in ELL programs with those of English proficient<br />
students (usually monolingual students in general<br />
education programs). In their detailed review of<br />
this research, Lindholm-Leary and Borsato (2006)<br />
concluded that programs designed <strong>for</strong> ELLs promote<br />
equivalent (and often higher) outcomes than<br />
mainstream programs <strong>for</strong> proficient students. In<br />
comparing various ELL programs with English proficient<br />
students in regular programs, the early lag<br />
in English and math experienced by LEP students<br />
in programs <strong>for</strong> ELLs gives way to similar outcomes<br />
by the end of elementary school. At times, LEP<br />
students surpassed English proficient students<br />
by middle school, particularly in math (Burnham-<br />
Massey and Pina, 1990 as referenced in Lindholm-<br />
Improving <strong>Education</strong>al Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools 63