Research-Based Recommendations for the Use of Accommodations in Large-Scale Assessments. Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners. Book 3 of 3
Author: Francis, David J.
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Books
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Intervention,Federal Legislation,Academic Achievement,Second Language Learning,Guidelines,English (Second Language),Language Proficiency,Academic Support Services,Student Characteristics,Change Strategies,Educational Strategies,Educational Change,Improvement Programs,Educational Practices,Evidence,English for Academic Purposes,Teaching Methods,Educational Policy,Disadvantaged,Language Acquisition,Group Testing,Course Content,State Standards

The fundamental principles underlying the &quot;No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001&quot; focus on high standards of learning and instruction with the goal of increasing academic achievement--reading and math in particular--within all identified subgroups in the K-12 population. One of these subgroups is the growing population of English Language Learners (ELLs). NCLB has increased awareness of the academic needs and achievement of ELLs as schools, districts, and states are held accountable for teaching English and content knowledge to this special and heterogeneous group of learners. However, ELLs present a unique set of challenges to educators because of the central role played by academic language proficiency in the acquisition and assessment of content-area knowledge. Educators have raised multiple questions about effective practices and programs to support the academic achievement of all ELLs, including questions about classroom instruction and targeted interventions in reading and math, the special needs of adolescent newcomers, and the inclusion of ELLs in large-scale assessments. This document focuses explicitly on this last issue and in particular on research-based recommendations on the use of accommodations to increase the valid participation of ELLs in large-scale assessments. This document is organized into three sections. The first section provides an overview with important background information on the inclusion of ELLs in large-scale assessments and the role of language in content-area assessments. This background information lays the groundwork for understanding and selecting the types of accommodations that are likely to benefit ELLs. In the second section, the authors provide background information on accommodations, including the complementary concepts of &quot;effectiveness&quot; and &quot;validity&quot;, as they relate to proposed accommodations. They also review relevant research on state policies regarding accommodations for ELLs. In the final section, they provide descriptions of the most common accommodations that have been studied in the empirical research and conduct a quantitative synthesis (i.e., &quot;meta-analysis&quot;) of this research in order to determine those accommodations that are currently known to be most effective. Also, in this final section, the authors offer recommendations and conclusions for the use of accommodations in order to increase the valid participation of ELLs in state assessments. Appendices include: (1) Literature Search Strategy; (2) Studies Excluded from Meta-Analysis; (3) Overview of Meta-Analysis Methods; (4) Descriptive Information and Effect Size Calculations for 11 Studies Used in Meta-Analysis; and (5) Forrest Plot of Effect Sizes and 95% Confidence Intervals from Random Effects Model. (Contains 2 tables and 27 endnotes.) [For related reports see, &quot;Research-Based Recommendations for Instruction and Academic Interventions. Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners. Book 1 of 3&quot; (ED517790) and &quot;Research-Based Recommendations for Serving Adolescent Newcomers. Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners. Book 2 of 3&quot; (ED517791).]