The Placement Practices of Middle School English Language Learners In Special Education

Providing appropriate instruction, conducting fair assessment, and identifying effective and valid accommodations for ELL students requires valid and reliable measures of their level of English language proficiency. However, there are major issues with the content, structure and psychometrics of existing English proficiency tests. For example, a review of some of the most commonly used language proficiency tests reveals differences in types of tasks they cover and the specific item content of the tests. The review also suggests that these tests are based on different theoretical emphases prevalent at the time of their development, suggesting that the English language proficiency domain is not operationally defined (see for example, Abedi, 2003b; Zehler, Hopstock, Fleischman, & Greniuk, 1994). Furthermore, results of analyses of data from the administration of several existing language proficiency tests reveal problems with the reliability and validity of these tests, the adequacy of the scoring directions, and the limited populations on which test norms are based (Abedi, 2003a; Abedi, 2003b; Linquanti, 2001; Zehler et al., 1994).

On the other hand, Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act requires a yearly assessment of ELL students‚ level of English proficiency using valid and reliable assessment instruments. Due to technical issues with many of the existing English language proficiency tests the U.S. Department of Education has provided support, through the Enhanced Assessment Instruments grants, to states in order to help develop valid and reliable measures of students‚ proficiency in English. Several different consortia of states have been awarded grants to develop valid and reliable English language proficiency tests.

It is imperative that the development of the new English language proficiency tests be informed by research on previous tests and by analyses of the wealth of data in this area. To be considered valid and reliable measures of English language proficiency as outlined by NCLB, the new tests must be based on clearly defined concepts of English language proficiency, must be aligned with the English language proficiency content standards, and must go through a rigorous validation process.

In this symposium, we will discuss major issues concerning English language proficiency measures, especially technical issues relating to the operational definition and psychometrics of existing English proficiency tests. We will also address federal policy with respect to the assessment of English proficiency in Title III of NCLB and will discuss current efforts in the development of new English language proficiency tests. We will also provide recommendations for providing a more valid assessment of English proficiency that may contribute to the new development of such measures.