Allison La Rue

In the News

Complete APA citation of the resource:

Salem, T. (2018, June 12). Are schools measuring the progress of English-language learners all
wrong? U.S. News. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2018-
06-12/are-schools-measuring-the-progress-of-english-language-learners-all-wrong

Two-three sentence summary of the issue/topic/idea:

New research has emerged that suggests that the data presented by the U.S. National Assessment
of Educational Progress regarding the progress ELL students have been making during grades 4-
8 may be too narrowly focused to give an accurate representation of the improvement of ELL
students in school. The research suggested that the multilingual students test scores improved
more than students who are monolingual in grades 4-8, but the issue is that the NAEP data does
not include the test scores of English-language learners that have successfully passed the
program. The article claims that only testing students currently in the language program would
always reveal only a little change since the students being tested are always going to have
language limitations that inhibit their performance on these tests, the article argues then to assess
the whole group of multilingual students should be looked at so schools can accurately assess the
progress that ELL students are making in school over time and inform teachers about whether or
not they are meeting the needs of these students.

Connection to ELLs:

This article is quite relevant to ELL students as it is determining the best measures to be used to
ensure that ELL students are getting the instruction and resources they need in school to be
successful. By not studying an appropriate sample of students by only including ELL students
who are currently in the program, this could potentially have schools who are adequately helping
their ELL students be viewed as incompetent, or have schools who are not meeting the standards
slide through the cracks and appear like they are doing well on paper when in reality they are not
meeting the needs of their ELL students. By having an accurate study performed on schools that
include the right sample size of students to give back accurate data, this will help schools
determine if they are meeting the needs of their students, which every school district should
know. This will directly benefit ELL students as they will know that they are being placed in
schools that have an adequate program in place so that they can learn and grow. I think an
accurate study will therefore help ELL students and their families be confident that they are
getting everything that they deserve to be provided in school in terms of their language
instruction.

Questions for you:

 Do you feel that having a test that measures the scores of students who are now proficient
in English will be beneficial or not? Why or why not?
 Are there any issues that you can see of including students who are proficient in English
in this study?
Allison La Rue

 Do you think that a test is enough to determine if a school is meeting the needs of their
ELL students?
 Have you seen any data used or studies conducted in your school district that monitors
the progress of ELL students in your school?