Colorín Colorado :: NCLB and AYP

English Language Learners with Disabilities: Identification and Other State Policies and Issues

by National Association of State Directors of Special Education

Keller-Allen, C. (2006). English Language Learners with Disabilities: Identification and Other State Policies and Issues. Project Forum, National Association of State Directors of Special Education: Alexandria, VA.

Topics Covered: Assessment and Accommodations; NCLB and AYP;

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Language Proficiency; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the current state policies and practices related to ELLs with disabilities?

Summary:

Most school districts do not have plans in place for identifying and addressing learning disabilities in ELLs. Project Forum selected and studied seven states with large or growing ELL populations. They interviewed both special education and English language learner staff to find out what policies and practices are happening at the state level and what policies they would recommend to improve the quality of education for ELLs with learning disabilities.

Findings:
State-level personnel reported that they:

Lacked qualified personnel trained in ELL or bilingual education to manage state-wide ELL needs;
Lacked appropriate assessment instruments in languages other than English;
Cultural barriers in communicating with ELL parents; and
Sustaining collaboration between bilingual education and special education personnel

Policy Recommendations:

Local accountability - Local planning areas that submit special education program plans to the state should be required to detail their process for the referral, identification, assessment and service delivery to ELLs with disabilities.
Clear policies and guidance - States should create a comprehensive policy for ELLs with exceptionalities (including gifted education) based on current research followed by extensive guidance to localities.
Teacher training and licensure - States should facilitate and/or require all teachers to be trained to some extent in ESL strategies and language acquisition. Further, policies should be in place that require any teacher who serves at least one ELL to be trained in the appropriate ESL or bilingual education strategies necessary in order to meet the language development as well as academic needs of the students.
Coordinated policies between special education and ELL professionals - States should consider developing policies that require and set parameters for communication and collaboration between ELL and special education professionals at the point of entry to and exit from special education as well as during the monitoring process while ELLs are being served in special education.

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To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Nancy Tucker at NASDSE, 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 320, Alexandria, VA 22314 Ph: 703-519-3800 ext. 326 or Email: nancy.tucker@nasdse.org

Improving Assessment and Accountability for ELLs in the No Child Left Behind Act

by National Council of La Raza (NCLR); Melissa LazarÍn

Lazarín, M. (2006). Improving Assessment and Accountability for English Language Learners in the No Child Left Behind Act. National Council of La Raza: Washington, DC.

Topics Covered: Assessment and Accommodations; NCLB and AYP;

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Comprehension; Fluency; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Placement;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: This issue brief is designed to help inform future dialogue on assessment and accountability. The brief examines the progress and manner in which states have implemented the federal law's accountability and testing provisions with respect to ELLs.

Summary:

At over 10% of the U.S. student body, English language learners in grades K-12 hold significant influence over the success of national school improvement. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has set out to insure accountability in the academic achievement of all students, but it faces political and administrative challenges.

This report from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) provides an overview of the assessment and accountability provisions of NCLB affecting ELLs, the challenges of implementation in various states and districts, and policy recommendations for improving the law's effectiveness for ELLs.

Findings:
NCLB implementation with respect to ELLs has failed to live up to the law's promise. State and district accountability systems not only must include ELLs, they must be implemented in a way that effectively closes the existing academic achievement gap for ELLs.

Policy Recommendations:

The U.S. Department of Education should increase research and investment in the development of a range of appropriate assessments and testing accommodations, including native-language and simplified English tests for ELLs.
The U.S. Department of Education should provide firm guidance to states regarding the law's directive to assess ELLs "to the extent practicable, in the language and form most likely to yield accurate data."
With enforcement by the U.S. Department of Education, states and districts must continue to assess ELLs and include them in AYP determinations.
The Administration and Congress should fine-tune the definition of AYP for ELLs.
The U.S. Department of Education and Congress should enhance accountability measures for secondary ELLs, particularly lateentrant ELLs. The U.S. Department of Education, states, and districts should improve reporting of assessment data and other AYP indicators to parents of ELLs.
The U.S. Department of Education and Congress should ensure equitable access to supplemental services for ELLs.
The President and Congress must increase the federal investment in English language learner programs (Title III).
The U.S. Department of Education should increase its investment in the development of assessments for ELLs The President and Congress should increase federal support for Parent Assistance Programs.
States should ensure fiscal equity in their education finance systems, with adequate inclusion of resources for ELLs.

Go to full report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Attention: Office of Publications
Raul Yzaguirre Building
1126 16th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel: 202.785.1670
Fax: 202.776.1794

Language Test

by National School Boards Association, Naomi Dillon

Dillon, N. (2005). Language Test. American School Board Journal, 192(8). National School Boards Association.

Topics Covered: Access, Equity, and Adequacy; NCLB and AYP;

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Content Areas: Science; Content Areas: Social Studies; Content Areas: The Arts; Curriculum; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: The report uses the example of Coachella school district's legal battle to examine if state assessments fair to English language learners.

Summary: The report examines the challenges associated with preparing a population that is 70 percent ELL to meet the demands of state and federal laws. Under California law, all ELL students must take state tests in English after only one year of instruction — a requirement that perpetually leaves districts like Coachella "in need of improvement." The report uses the Coachella district's case as a lens to examine the challenges we face in preparing ELL students to perform highly as well as the advantages and disadvantages of different types of assessment and accounting formulae to determine performance.

Findings:
n/a

Policy Recommendations:

The lawsuit asks the state to develop primary language tests for students who have recently arrived or enrolled in bilingual classrooms—an NCLB supported provision.
The suit also calls for a new standardized test that is more linguistically friendly and appropriate.

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n/a

Making Writing Instruction a Priority in America's Middle and High Schools

by Alliance for Excellent Education

Alliance for Excellent Education. (2007). Making Writing Instruction a Priority in America's Middle and High Schools. Washington, DC: Author.

Topics Covered: Best Teaching Practices / Professional Development; Data (Demographics, Facts, and Figures); Literacy and Reading / Writing Instruction; Literacy and Reading / Writing Instruction; Upper Elementary (4-6); Literacy and Reading / Writing Instruction; Adolescent (7-12); NCLB and AYP;

Tags: Curriculum; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Writing;

Target Population: Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the current writing instruction practices in American schools, and how can they be improved?

Summary: Making Writing Instruction a Priority in America's Middle and High Schools, a 2007 policy brief published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, explores current writing instruction practices in American schools and offers suggestions for improvement. The report warns that middle and high school students currently do very little writing in school, and few receive adequate writing instruction. The Alliance offers recommendations for both teachers and policymakers and provides a list of eleven effective strategies for teaching writing.

Findings:

Eleven effective strategies for teaching writing:

Writing Strategies: Teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions.
Summarization: Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts.
Collaborative Writing: Instructional arrangements in which adolescents work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions.
Specific Product Goals: Specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete.
Word Processing: Using computers and word processors as instructional supports for writing assignments.
Sentence Combining: Teaching students to construct more complex, sophisticated sentences.
Prewriting: Engaging students in activities designed to help them generate or organize ideas for their composition.
Inquiry Activities: Engaging students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help them develop ideas and content for a particular writing task.
Process Writing Approach: Interweaving a number of writing instructional activities in a workshop environment that stresses extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing.
Study of Models: Providing students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate models of good writing.
Writing for Content Learning: Using writing as a tool for learning content material.

Policy Recommendations:

Invest in a comprehensive federal adolescent literacy program.
Give schools the flexibility and resources they need to schedule more time for writing instruction.
Encourage states to incorporate writing skills into content-area standards.
Increase federal support for the National Writing Project.
Increase federal funding for enhanced assessments to help states include more student writing in No Child Left Behind accountability systems.
Support more teacher professional development in adolescent literacy.

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Who's Left Behind? Immigrant Children in High and Low LEP Schools

by The Urban Institute / Clemencia Cosentino de Cohen, Nicole Deterding, Beatriz Chu Clewell

Cosentino de Cohen, C., Deterding, N., Chu Clewell, B. (2005). Who's Left Behind?: Immigrant Children in High and Low LEP Schools. Program for Evaluation and Equity Research, Urban Institute: Washington, D.C.

Topics Covered: Access, Equity, and Adequacy; Data (Demographics, Facts, and Figures); NCLB and AYP;

Tags: Instructional Programs; Placement;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: Are immigrant children left behind academically as a result of whether they are in a high or low LEP school?

Summary:

Are elementary schools prepared to educate English language learners in the manner required by the No Child Left Behind Act? A study by The Urban Institute found that limited English proficient (LEP) students are now highly concentrated: "nearly 70 percent of the nation's LEP students are enrolled in 10 percent of its schools." But students in low-concentration areas may be at a disadvantage.

Findings:

The majority of LEP students are concentrated in a small number of schools: Nearly 70 percent of LEP students nationally enroll in only 10 percent of elementary schools. In these schools, LEP students account for almost one half of the student body (on average), a striking contrast to the 5 percent of LEP students enrolled in the average Low-LEP school.
High-LEP schools tend to have higher a higher prevalence of poverty, Title I services, native language instruction, LEP-target instructional techniques, and services like Pre-K and summer enrichment, parent outreach, and hard-to-staff school status.
Principals in High-ELL schools are more likely to be racially diverse, female, earn more money, and hold a PhD than their low-ELL school counterparts.
Teachers in high-ELL schools, on average, earn more, are more racially diverse, are newer, and, overall, have less academic preparation than their counterparts in other schools
Educators in high-ELL schools are more likely to hold ESL/bilingual certification as well as their main certification. However, ESL/bilingual educators in both High and Low ELL schools are equally likely to have that specific field qualification
Educators in high-ELL schools are more likely to have provisional, emergency, or temporary certification than those in other schools

Policy Recommendations:

Though both high- and low-ELL schools need to be properly staffed and funded, specific emphasis must be made on low-ELL schools because these have been shown to be less prepared to handle the needs of ELL students.
Policies need to be implemented that will offer educators incentive to get their certifications in teaching ELL students.