ERIC Number: ED483400
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Jun
Pages: 30
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Issues in Assessing English Language Learners' Opportunity To Learn Mathematics. CSE Report 633
Herman, Joan L.; Abedi, Jamal
US Department of Education
The Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) underscore both the mandate and the challenge of assuring that English Language Learners (ELLs) achieve the same high standards of performance that are expected of their native English speaking peers. The intent indeed is laudable: states, districts, schools, and teachers must be accountable for the learning of their ELLs as are the students themselves. ELLs can no longer be invisible in the educational system, their learning needs must be met, and they too must make steady progress the goal of all students being judged proficient based on statewide testing by the year 2014. Already, however, NCLB results suggest a different reality: ELL subgroups are being left behind and schools and districts serving significant proportions of ELLs are less likely to meet their AYP goals and more likely to be subject to corrective action. Fairness demands that ELLs have equitable opportunity to learn (OTL) that upon which they are assessed, especially if those assessments carry significant future consequences. Moreover, if NCLB goals are to be met and achievement gaps reduced, schools must move beyond the performance only orientation of AYP to understand why results are as they are and how to improve them. OTL data can help to provide guidance in these areas and to acknowledge the reality that ELLs' learning is unlikely to improve unless and until students have more effective opportunities to attain expected performance standards. This study was conceived as a pilot, the results of which add fuel to the concern for and underscore some of the complexities of adequately measuring OTL; the full study involving a larger and more representative sample of teachers and classrooms and a more robust outcome measure is to follow.
Descriptors: Limited English Speaking, Educational Opportunities, Federal Legislation, Student Evaluation, Language Proficiency, Algebra, Mathematics Achievement, Grade 8, Grade 9, Mathematics Instruction, Teaching Methods
Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE), National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1522. Tel: 310-206-1532.
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Grade 8; Grade 9
Audience: Teachers; Administrators; Policymakers
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: California Univ., Los Angeles. Center for the Study of Evaluation.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A