The Validity of High Stakes Testing ESL Children

A Thesis

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the

Master of Teaching Degree

The Peter Sammartino School of Education

Fairleigh Dickinson University

May 200

Approved by ______

Date Approved ______Chapter 1

Introduction

In both education journals and magazines alike, the abbreviated terms ELL, LEP and ESL have been showing up more and more. All three of these terms are used when discussing the topic of child and adult learners whose native language is not English. The term ELL, or English language learner, refers to the students themselves, as does the term

LEP which stands for limited English proficient. However, the Improving America’s

Schools Act of 1994 also states that LEP students are any persons who “have sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language and whose difficulties may deny such individuals the opportunity to learn successfully in classrooms where the language of instruction is English or to participate fully in our society.” (Title

VII, Part E, Sec. 7501) which means that individuals whose native language is English but have significant difficulty with it may be classified as LEP.

ESL or English as a Second Language is a program in which LEP and ELL students receive special help in understanding the English language. In schools today specially trained teachers spend time with these children in small groups or one on one trying to get them up to speed with the other children’s English speaking, reading and writing capabilities. Additionally, in certain states these children are provided with accommodations when they are tested or assessed, and some are even allowed to be exempted from certain tests, or are given the test in their native language. One of the reasons that the terms ESL, LEP and ELL have been occurring more frequently in the news is because of the large increase in the number and percentage of

ELL and LEP students found in our schools. A late 2000 report by Applied Measurement in Education found that there were 3.5 million LEP children in the United States and the number is rising.

The specific amount of children in need of ESL services is hard to track because the definition of what qualifies a child as LEP is somewhat subjective and is interpreted differently in different states and districts. According to the National Center of

Educational Outcomes “Exact counts of the English language learning student population are difficult to obtain because the states have varying definitions of ELL and LEP, and count the student population in different ways.” (NCEO-2005)

Another reason that they are occurring more frequently in the news is because of the increasing role that high stakes testing plays in their lives. Since the passing of the No

Child Left Behind Act the sole criterion used to judge school’s progress has been high stakes test scores. And in many states and districts, LEP children are made to take the same tests in the same manner as children with much greater English proficiency. (The policies for giving high stakes tests vary from state to state, as do the accommodations available for ELL and LEP students.) Additionally, these tests do not take into consideration the amount of time that a child has spent in the ESL program, or how late he or she has been introduced into the English language. (Introducing new language skills at a certain age has been found crucial to properly developing all language skills.)

Unfortunately, many schools also face the problem of staffing themselves with bilingual educators. According to the Bilingual Research Journal “there continues to be a great disparity in the number of LEP students and the current number of bilingual education teachers.” (Flores-1997)

Focus of This Study

Every school day morning Johnny, Juanita and Erin are awoken by their parents, given a warm breakfast, and wished well before they are sent off to school. They each attend different schools, but all three are well behaved students in the fourth grade.

However, when they reach school, all three students will have very different experiences. Juanita comes from a family that speaks little to no English, and spends an hour a day with her ESL teacher. Her families’ primary language is Spanish, and her progress is slow because she only moved to the United States one year ago. Learning certain language skills during the ages of 5-8 is crucial, and she spent those years in

Mexico, speaking mostly Spanish.

Johhny’s family moved to the US before he was born, but their primary language is Italian, and they speak very little English at home. He has been in the ESL program since he enrolled in Kindergarten, but the ESL teacher is more fluent in Spanish because of the high number of LEP students whose primary language is Spanish. As a result, the

ESL teacher has trouble communicating with him, and tries to teach the English language by using it and modeling it, which can sometimes work.

Erin was raised in an English speaking household and has been red to since infancy. She currently reads at a fifth grade level, and has little trouble writing essays or doing any language arts homework. Variations of these scenarios occur throughout the United States, and despite the children’s vast differences, in some states they are given the same standardized test.

These tests may assess many different things, from where you will be placed next, to whether your school will be taken over by the state, to even if you graduate from high school. In today’s world they can affect every aspect of a child’s education, as well as the progress and stature of the schools that they attend. The No Child Left Behind Act, along with other current standards, holds schools accountable for all of their tests scores, yet policies for testing these students change from state to state and district to district.

Purpose of the Study

Many children who are LEP and are involved in the ESL program struggle with everyday tasks. There are very bright children in kindergarten who, when asked to do exercises that involve the written word in English became very frustrated. They may be the last to finish by a good ten minutes. They may cry and throw papers, even though they are otherwise very mild mannered children. It is fair to test them the same way that other, English-as-a-first-language students are tested?

In many schools one ESL teacher is staffed. These teachers are always highly qualified, but despite their education, they typically only speak one or two languages and work with children from many different bilingual backgrounds. Additionally, as in the case with the kindergarten student, the teachers only have about an hour to spend with each child or small group of children. After that, they will only have as much one on one time as their regular education teacher can afford. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether or not the current practices used to administer high stakes tests to ESL and LEP students are conducive to getting the results that the tests are designed to find.