Texas Comprehensive Center @ SEDL

Austin, Texas

March 16–17, 2009

Making Consistent Decisions About Accommodations for English Language Learners

– Research Summit –

Dr. Jamal Abedi

CRESSTUniversity of California, Davis

School of Education

Language Factors in the Assessment of English

Language Learners

How Important is Assessment How Important is Assessment for ELL Students?for ELL Students?

Assessment results affect ELL students in the Assessment results affect ELL students in the following areas: following areas:

• Classification

• Instruction

• Accountability (the NCLB issues)

• Promotion

• Graduation

Are the Standardized Achievement

Tests Appropriate for ELLs?

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association, American

Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 1999) elaborated on this issue:

For all test takers, any test that employs language is, in part, a measure of their

language skills. This is of particular concern for test takers whose first language is not the

language of the test.

Performance/Reliability-Gap Between ELL and Non-ELL Students

Performance-Gap Reliability-Gap

Reading 20% - 60% 15% - 40%

Science/Social Sciences

10% - 40% 12% - 35%

Math Problem Solving

8% - 25% 10% - 30%

Math Computation

0% - 10% 10% – 15%

Are the Standardized Achievement Tests Reliable and Valid for These

Students?

• The reliability coefficients of the test scores for ELL students are substantially lower than those for non-ELL students.

• ELL students’ test outcomes show lower criterion-related validity.

• Structural relationships between test components and across measurement domains are lower for ELL students.

Site 2 Stanford 9 Sub-scale Reliabilities (Alpha), Grade 9

Non-LEP Students

Sub-scale (Items) Hi SES Low SES English Only FEP RFEP LEP

Reading, N= 205,092 35,855 181,202 37,876 21,869 52,720

-Vocabulary (30) .828 .781 .835 .814 .759 .666

-Reading Comp (54) .912 .893 .916 .903 .877 .833

Average Reliability .870 .837 .876 .859 .818 .750

Math, N= 207,155 36,588 183,262 38,329 22,152 54,815

-Total (48) .899 .853 .898 .898 .876 .802

Language, N= 204,571 35,866 180,743 37,862 21,852 52,863

-Mechanics (24) .801 .759 .803 .802 .755 .686

-Expression (24) .818 .779 .812 .804 .757 .680

Average Reliability .810 .769 .813 .803 .756 .683

Science, N= 163,960 28,377 144,821 29,946 17,570 40,255

-Total (40) .800 .723 .805 .778 .716 .597

Social Science, N= 204,965 36,132 181,078 38,052 21,967 53,925

-Total (40) .803 .702 .805 .784 .722 .530

Principle of Equity and Fairness

•Provide assistance in the form of accommodations.

• Therefore, the Principle of Equity and Fairness demands assistance to

these students.

Samples of Accommodations Used for ELL Students That May Not Be

Relevant

• Test-taker marks answers in a test booklet

• Copying assistance provided between drafts

• Test-taker indicates answers by pointing or other similar method

• Paper is secured to work area with tape/magnet

• Physical assistance is provided

Samples of Accommodations Used

for ELL Students

• Enlarged answer sheets provided

• Breaks provided

• Tests individually administered

• Tests administered in small groups

• Tests administered in a location with minimal distractions

Presenting Language-Related Accommodations for ELLs

• English Dictionary

• English Glossary

• Bilingual Dictionary/Glossary

• Customized Dictionary

• Native Language Testing

• Linguistically Modified Test

Clear Language of Instruction and Assessment Works for ELLs, SWDs, and Everyone

• What is language modification of test items?

Language of Assessment

• Clear and concise language is a requirement for reliable and valid assessments for ELL students.

• It may also be an important consideration for students with learning disabilities.

• Students with learning disabilities may have difficulty processing complex language in the assessment.

• Reducing the unnecessary linguistic complexity of test items can help students with the most challenging academic career.

• Familiarity/frequency of non-math vocabulary:Unfamiliar or infrequent words changed

A certain reference file > Mack’s company

Linguistic Modification Concerns

Original:A certain reference file contains approximately six billion facts. About how many millions is that?

A. 6,000,000B. 600,000C. 60,000D. 6,000E. 600

Modified:Mack’s company sold six billion pencils. About how many millions is that?

  A. 6,000,000 B. 600,000 C. 60,000 D. 6,000 E. 600

Linguistic Modification Concerns Cont.

• Length of nominals: long nominals shortened

Last year’s class vice president > Vice president

The pattern of puppy’s weight gain > The pattern above

• Question phrases: complex question phrases changed to simple question words

At which of the following times > When

Which is best approximation of the number > Approximately how many

• Conditional clauses: conditionals either replaced with separate sentences or order of conditional and main clause changed

If two batteries in the sample were found to be dead > He found two broken pencils in the sample

If Lee delivers x newspapers > Lee delivers x newspapers

• Voice of verb phrase: passive verb forms changed to active

The weights of 3 objects were compared > Sandra compared the weights of 3 rabbits

If a marble is taken from the bag > If you take a marble from the bag

The boy was bitten by the dog > The dog bit the boy

Linguistic Modification cont.

CRESST Studies on the Assessment and Accommodation of

ELL Students:

Impact of Language Factors On Assessment of ELLs

A Chain of Events

Fourteen studies on the assessment and three on the instruction (OTL) of ELL students

Examining Complex Linguistic Features in Content-Based Test Items

Feature Feature Description Categories Combined

1 I tem length 1, 2, 4, 45

2 Vocabulary 3, 26, 27

3 Nominal heaviness 5, 6, 29, 30, 31, 32

4 Verb voice 7, 33

5 Modal 8, 34

6 Relative clause 9, 10, 11, 35, 36, 37

7 Adverbial modification 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 38, 39, 40, 41

8 Conditional clause 18, 19

9 Complement clause 20, 44

10 Sentence structure 28, 42, 43, 46

11 Preferred argument structure 22, 23, 47, 48

12 Question form 21

13 Global difficulty 24

14 Content interest 25

Additional Complex Linguistic Features

More recent research has identified these additional features:

• Complex verbs

• Subordinate clauses (including relative clauses)

• Complex noun phrases

• Various entities as subjects

Studies on Linguistic Modifications

• Results of national studies are not conclusive.

• Most of the CRESST studies found significant gain for ELL students on the linguistically modified version.

• However, the outcome of national research on the impact of linguistic modification is mixed (Francis, et al. 2006).

• Factors that lead to such discrepancies include variation in methodology in implementing linguistic modification approach, sampling and power issues, variation in test items and the nature of linguistic complexity, etc.

Improvements in the Language of Instruction

• Unnecessary linguistic complexity may impact students’ understanding of instructional materials

• Opportunity to learn for ELLs and SLDs may be affected

• Research show ELLs and SLDs benefiting less from instructions with complex linguistic structure

Conclusions and Recommendations

Assessments and instructions for ELLs :

• Must be free of construct irrelevant factors• Must be free of unnecessary linguistic complexities• Must include a sufficient number of ELLs and SWDs in its

development process (field testing, standard setting, etc.)• Must be free of cultural biases• Must be sensitive to students’ linguistics and cultural needs

Impact of Linguistic Modification Research on

Practice

• Many test publishers have incorporated the concept of linguistic modifications in their test development process.

• Among these test publishers: Educational Testing Service (ETS), Harcourt Assessment, CTB/McGraw Hill, Measurement Incorporated, etc.

• Many states have adopted this approach into their assessments

• The U.S. Department of Education incorporated this process into the National Assessments (NAEP) and has highly recommended this approach to be incorporated into the state NCLB Title I assessments.

For more information, please contact Jamal Abedi at CRESST/UC Davis:

(530) 754-9150

or

jabedi@ucdavis.edu