The English Language Learner Variable in Research: One Definition Is Not Enough
Author: Debossu, Stephanie C.
Date: 2015-08-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Subjects: English Language Learners,Definitions,Educational Research,Research Problems,Elementary Secondary Education,Qualitative Research,State Regulation,Language Proficiency,Language Tests,Student Characteristics,Parent Background,Expectation,Testing Accommodations,Literature Reviews,Educational Policy,Classification,Data Analysis

Properly defining a population ensures that resources, such as funding and access, meet the needs, expectations, and intended outcomes for those represented. Ethical concerns arise when a target population, such as the English Language Learner population, is defined in numerous yet incomplete ways, and differently in research and in state policies (Solórzano, 2008). Defining populations of students in K-12 schools impacts the inclusion and exclusion of students in assessments and can become a method to manipulate systems and outcomes based on test scores (Katz, Low, Stack &amp; Tsang, 2004). Test scores turn into data, feeding research and policies. These policies drive development and revision of academic programs and tests, educating and preparing a population of students who follow and take these programs and tests. The resulting revisions generate new data that lead to continual adjustments. This cycle of tests, data, and revision is only as useful as the targeted population definition itself. With multiple definitions, each set of data and its resulting programs and assessments need to include a detailed description of the population the data set represents. For a certain population of students, such as for English Language Learners (ELL), or English Language Acquisition (ELA) students, results are aggregated under one label, regardless of the language, or languages, these students have learned prior to English, or to their pattern of language acquisition, e.g., consistent, interrupted, and of differing quality, creating one definition representing many (Solórzano, 2008). Definitions are meant to accurately describe and should have only one meaning across multiple contexts. Multiple definitions of one population only confuse, mislead, or conceal. This qualitative study examined how the English Language Learner is framed in two Colorado state statutes, the Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act (READ Act) and the English Language Proficiency Act (ELPA), and in two assessment program policies, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) and Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners (ACCESS for ELLs), the language proficiency test adopted through the WIDA consortium, of which Colorado is a member. These findings are then compared to the existing research on how an ELL learns and uses a new language, displaying linguistic acquisition. The following emerged as key elements framing the ELL student population: the students are described as multifaceted yet are assessed as homogenous; the parents are valued and expected to participate in their child's English language development while facing linguistic difficulties in doing so; the accommodations are computer-embedded and derived from a universal design borrowed from accommodations for cognitive and or physical disabilities; the language of the statutes is progressively obscure and can be misleading. This monograph consists of three major parts: 1) A synopsis which includes the problem definition, the literature review, the policies and assessment programs review, and the study methods; 2) the findings, and 3) the implications and recommendations.