Abstract
As a result of the accountability requirements established in Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Educational Act (ESEA) legislation, English Learners (ELs) are expected to make progress in both content area academic achievement and English Language Proficiency (ELP). In Tennessee ELs progress is measured by administering WIDA-Access to assess English language proficiency, and Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) standardized assessments to measure content academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the performance levels of ELs who achieved the exit criteria on WIDA-Access state mandated English proficiency assessment and their subsequent performance on English Language Arts and Math TCAP assessments. Specifically, a comparison of EL’s achievement on TCAP was compared to the achievement on TCAP of non-ELs. Independent samples t-tests were performed on data from 302 elementary and middle school ELs and non-ELs that participated in WIDA-Access and TCAP assessments in 2015. Data analyses concluded that English Language Arts and Math TCAP scale scores were significantly different between ELs and non-ELs. Achievement levels in both English Language Arts TCAP and Math TCAP for ELs, who achieved the exit criteria on WIDA-Access, were lower than the achievement levels of non-ELs. Discussions of the findings in this study along with implications of using these assessments to measure ELs growth is provided in relation to the increased demands on measuring both the academic achievement and English language progress for ELs.
Highlights
The student population of English learners is increasing in the United States, and as a result the demands of educational agencies to meet their needs have increased. Cellante and Donne (2013) noted that presently 9.4% of the student population, or 4.6 million students, are identified as English learners (ELs)
Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements, as reported by Estrada and Wang (2013), ELs are held to the same level of accountability on state mandated content assessments as their English speaking peers (TDOE, 2013)
Is there a statistically significant difference in the English Language Arts Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) proficiency levels of non-English learners and English learners who achieved a proficient level on WIDA Access?
Summary
The student population of English learners is increasing in the United States, and as a result the demands of educational agencies to meet their needs have increased. Cellante and Donne (2013) noted that presently 9.4% of the student population, or 4.6 million students, are identified as English learners (ELs). The student population of English learners is increasing in the United States, and as a result the demands of educational agencies to meet their needs have increased. Cellante and Donne (2013) noted that presently 9.4% of the student population, or 4.6 million students, are identified as English learners (ELs). As noted by Horsford and Sampson (2013), English learners (ELs) have become the fastest growing population of students in K-12 public education. As a result of the re-authorization of ESEA, referred to as Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the same English Learner accountability measures set forth in NCLB remains (Burnette, 2016)
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