Assessment & Accommodations of ELLs--Abedi

This post has been a long time coming :)

I have been very interested in our discussions about assessment accommodations. Sometimes it just gets so hard to deal with giving students tests that we know are not written with them in mind--it feels like a losing battle, like there is just nothing we can do--but if you consider all the accommodations (side note: I hate, HATE, hate typing the word accommodations, because I almost always spell it wrong) that we can make to assist students in getting past the language barrier in testing instructions and test questions we just might make a positive difference for some of our students, and allow them to at least feel some success when it comes to state testing. Anyway, with that said, the Abedi article brings up several issues we must keep in mind when considering what is reported on AYP regarding our ELL students.

The six major issues are as follows:


1. Inconsistency in LEP classification across and within states
2. Sparse LEP population
3. Lack of LEP subgroup stability
4. Measurement quality of AYP instruments of LEP students
5. LEP baseline scores
6. LEP cutoff points



Studies have shown that academic achievement tests (such as the ones that are used to calculate AYP) are constructed and normed for native English speakers, and have lower reliability and validity for LEP populations. Schools/Districts with high LEP population are more likely to fall in the category for "needs improvement." Studies show that tests that are linguistically modified for LEP students produce better test scores for the students taking them.

After reading this article (or after analyzing your own district's AYP reports (which i have now done both) you will see that there are several flaws in the way that LEP data is reported in AYP (as with problems of other subcategories), and it seems like the best we can hope for is that policy makers and other people in power will see the problems that this type of reporting is having on small rural populations with large populations (at least relatively large) of ELL students, and make changes that allow states to determine what type of assessment and reporting should be used for their schools.