C R E S S T / U C L A

UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information StudiesCenter for the Study of Evaluation

National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing

Recent Research Findings on Assessment Accommodations for

English Language Learners

Jamal Abedi

2000 CRESST Conference:Educational Accountability in the 21st Century

September, 2000

C R E S S T / U C L A

A Summary of CRESST Studies on the Impact of Language Background on Students’ Content-Based

Performance

Language Background as a Variable in NAEP Mathematics Performance(Abedi, Lord, & Plummer, 1994-1995) Analyses of existing NAEP data

ELL students performed significantly lower on the long items than non-ELL

The percentage of omitted not-reached items were significantly higher for ELL students

The performance of ELL students was significantly lower on linguistically complex items

Student Perception Study

Original and linguistically modified items were presented to both ELL and non-ELL students

An overwhelming majority of ELL students preferred the simplified versions

ELL students indicated the it would be more productive for them to use the simplified version

Accuracy Test Study

ELL students performed significantly lower than non-ELL students in reading

ELL students performed significantly lower than non-ELL students in math

However, the performance gap between ELL and non-ELL was reduced with the linguistically modified version of test

C R E S S T / U C L A

Three versions of math test items were used

Original English

Linguistically modified English

Spanish translated version

Booklets were randomly assigned to students within a classroom

All students performed slightly higher on the linguistically modified version

Spanish speaking students taking the Spanish translated version performed significantly lower than others, this may be due to the issue of language of instruction

Impact of Selected Background Variables on Students’ NAEP Math Performance

(Abedi, Lord, & Hofstetter, 1997)

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NAEP Math Performance and Test Accommodations: Interactions with Student Language Background

(Abedi, Hofstetter, Baker, & Lord, 1998)

Three different forms of accommodations were used:

Extra time

Glossary

Glossary + extra time

Standard NAEP condition

The three accommodation strategies along the standard condition were randomized within the classrooms across ELL and non-ELL groups

Extra time increased performance of all students slightly

Glossary without extra time did not have much impact on the students’ performance

Glossary with extra time had a big impact on the performance of both ELL and non-ELLs

However, the impact of glossary with extra time was more evident with non-ELL students. This raised concern over the validity of accommodations

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Analyses of Existing Data on the National Large-Scale Assessments

(Abedi, Leon, 1999, Abedi, Leon, & Mirocha, 2000)

The performance gap between ELL and non-ELL students was largest in reading.

The performance gap between ELL and non-ELL decreased as we moved from reading to science and form science to math.

For some subscales of math (such as math computation) there was not any gap between ELL and non-ELL students

The reliability coefficients for ELL test scores were substantially lower than those for non-ELL.

Our results indicated that language factor may act as a source of measurement error for ELL students.

C R E S S T / U C L A

Abedi, J. Leon, S. & Mirocha, J. (2000). Impact of students’ language background oncontent-based performance: Analyses of extant data. University of California, LosAngeles, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, andStudent Testing.

Abedi, J. Leon, S. (1999). Impact of students’ language background on content-basedperformance: Analyses of extant data. University of California, Los Angeles,National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and StudentTesting.

Abedi, J., Hofstetter, C., Baker, E. & Lord, C. (1998). NAEP math performance andtest accommodations: Interactions with student language background, DraftReport. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, National Centerfor Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing.

Abedi, J. Lord, C. & Hofstetter, C. (1997). Impact of selected background variables onstudents’ NAEP math performance, Final Report. Los Angeles: University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, National Center for Research on Evaluation,Standards, and Student Testing.

Abedi, J., Lord C., & Plummer, J. R. (1997). Final Report of Language Background asa Variable in NAEP Mathematics Performance. Los Angeles: Center for theStudy of Evaluation, CSE Technical Report # 429.

Butler, F.A. & Castellon-Wellington, M. (2000). Students’ concurrent performance ontests of English language proficiency and academic achievement. (DraftDeliverable to OBEMLA. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for the Study ofEvaluation/ National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, andStudent Testing (CRESST).

Butler, F.A. & Stevens, R. (1997). Accommodation strategies for English LanguageLearners on large-scale assessments: Student characteristics and otherconsiderations. (CSE Tech. Report). Los Angeles: University of California,Center for the Study of Evaluation/ National Center for Research onEvaluation, Standards, and Student Testing.