While Alberta is serving a considerable number of English as a Second Language (ESL) 1 students, these students have been documented to be academically underrepresented compared to their native speaking peers. Within the framework of language policy and planning, this study examines the interplay between the macro and micro levels of the education system in relation to ESL students' educational outcomes. Through a one-year ethnographic study, the perceptions and practices of ESL students and their educators in a public school in Alberta were explored. The study explores the implications of using high-stakes standardized examinations as a key indicator of students' outcomes in Alberta. The study suggests that the provincial achievement tests are not the most appropriate assessment tools to be used for ESL students due to the linguistic and cultural components of the tests. Moreover, these tests continue to impose undesirable changes in school programming and classroom instruction as long as they are dominantly applied in the education system to determine the students' outcomes and evaluate the performance of their schools. There is a need for alternative evaluation measures that could accommodate all students with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.