Formative Information Using Student Growth Percentiles for the Quantification of English Language Learners’ Progress in Language Acquisition

Abstract

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing subgroup in American schools. These students, by a provision in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, are to be supported in their quest for language proficiency through the creation of systems that more effectively measure ELLs' progress across years. In the past, ELLs' progress has been based on students' prior scores measuring the same construct. To disentangle effectiveness from achievement, the reporting has generally targeted mean-group activity. In contrast, student growth percentiles (SGPs) provide a comparison of students' growth with others who have the same achievement score history. By examining the construct measured by an English language proficiency test as manifested in student scores in Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing, this article outlines the use of SGPs in providing information on how much each student needs to grow, which will allow educators to more effectively apply differential formative instructional strategies.In recent years, the study of English in K-12 settings has taken center stage in the United States because of the growing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in schools across the nation (Meyer, Madden, & McGrath, 2004; U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO], 2006;Van Roekel, 2008). However, many of these students' academic performances fall well below those of their non-ELL peers, not because of the lack of academic achievement but because of the inadequacy of their English language skills (Abedi, 2008).Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, each state is required to assess language proficiency via the four recognized English Language Proficiency (ELP) modalities (i.e., Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing). As McCarthy (1999) points out, the use of modality results is necessary because it helps educators demarcate the underlying reasons of student differential performances, look for parallels between the processes in the learning of each modality, and use the information constructively in a classroom setting.According to Abedi (2008), most states use a compensatory model for assessing students' language acquisition. Unlike conjunctive models where students must achieve "targets" in each of the modalities of ELP to be considered proficient, students assessed by the compensatory Correspondence should be addressed to

Gifted English Language Learners

“…Gifted ELLs may take less time, but no confirmatory studies exist to date and any evidence supporting this claim has been largely anecdotal (Matthews & Shaunessy, 2008). Measuring the ongoing English language proficiency of ELLs is also still problematic (Taherbhai, Seo, & O'Malley, 2014). The varying speed of English acquisition between different subpopulations of ELLs has, however, implications for multiple aspects of teaching and learning that have not been fully explored.…”