New test results for English-language learners to be released Tuesday

For the first time, state educators could soon know exactly how many English-deficient students California serves and how proficient each child is in the English language.

Educators and state officials said that information —- which will be released Tuesday in the results of a new state test —- is the first step toward sorting out a historically cumbersome, inconsistent system of identifying and testing non-native speakers.

The California English Language Development Test, the first standardized test designed to identify and measure all of the state’s 1.5 million non-native speaking students, was administered last summer and fall. Every California student in grades kindergarten through 12 identified as coming from a non-English-speaking home took the test.

The results of the test are expected to reveal basic figures about the number and status of the state’s English learners.

The information gleaned from the results may sound rudimentary, but the data will break new ground for California’s education system and eventually help fix some of the problems schools face when educating students who are still learning the language, said officials at the California Department of Education.

“The intent of the test is to create a common yardstick across all districts for measuring our English-language learners, something we have never had before,” said state testing chief Phil Spears. “(The school districts’) processes for identifying and assessing these students have been all over the map. This will give us one comprehensive test for students all over the state.”

For decades, it has been up to individual school districts to identify and test students who don’t speak fluent English, creating a mess of different systems for assessing language-deficient children. That allowed some districts to keep students in lower-level courses instead of pushing them into more advanced English classes.

The new exam will shine light on the number and status of their English language learners, making districts more accountable, said Spears.

“Some districts will find this uncomfortable at first,” Spears said. “As much as I hate to say so, there are some kids that have been in English-language learner classes year after year when they should be assessed and moved along. This should alleviate at least some of that.”

The language-development test was administered last year to all students across the state identified as potential “English-language learners,” the state’s term for students whose native language is not English.

North County schools had nearly 34,000 students learning English last year, according to data collected by each district and submitted to the state. San Diego County has about 109,000 such students altogether, including those in North County.

Districts in Escondido, Vista and Oceanside have the most English learners. Poway, San Marcos, Fallbrook and Carlsbad also have large numbers of non-native speakers.

First results won’t reveal much

Local education officials said the first test won’t tell the public anything about how well each district is helping students improve their English skills. Instead, the first results measure each student’s current skills and act as a baseline for comparing future scores.

“The challenge for the various school districts will be in two or three years, when everyone will be able to see how the data has played out and what districts are doing with it to improve the language proficiency of these kids,” said Doug Langdon, director of special projects for the San Diego County Office of Education.

The state does not currently include the test in its Academic Performance Index, the high-stakes school ranking also known as the API. But the performance index, which the Department of Education uses to rank and reward schools with cash awards, could eventually reflect scores on future English-development tests.

“I for one think it would be a good idea to include these results in the API,” said Rosalia Salinas, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the county education office. “Principals who say ‘we’ve made good gains’ but aren’t looking at the improvement of their language-learners are missing a very big opportunity to look at the gains of a population of students sometimes left out of the equation.”

‘Dollar signs attached’

Though the test isn’t included in the list of the state exams that could earn schools cash prizes, officials said there is plenty of other money riding on the test.

Under President Bush’s new federal education legislation, dubbed the “No Child Left Behind” act, the federal government will give districts about $63 for each English-deficient student, Salinas said.

That means school districts such as Escondido Union Elementary, with nearly 8,000 English learners reported last year, could receive more than half a million dollars for having so many language-deficient students.

“This may not be part of the API, but in many ways, this is a high-stakes test,” said Mark Fetler, a program administrator working on the test for the state education department. “If you identify a child as an English learner, there is funding involved and there are responsibilities involved that the district will have to fulfill. There are inevitably some dollar signs attached to these students.”

‘Problems and kinks’

Schools reported several problems with the logistics of giving the language-development test, a four-part exam involving speaking, listening, reading and writing. Some parts of the test require one-on-one administration from teachers and other testers, which is time-consuming and expensive.

Districts reported to the state that they spent $5 to $50 per child on the test, Spears said. The state gave districts just $1.50 per child for the testing.

“This was an expense for them, and there were some other complaints,” he said. “We are working out the problems and kinks, as we do in every new test.”

Schools also reported scoring discrepancies.

Though the tests were scored officially by a national testing contractor called CTB McGraw-Hill, districts were allowed to score their own tests unofficially in order to allow quick identification of language-learners before sending the tests off for the sometimes lengthy scoring process.

But across the state, some districts, which received their scores from the contractor several weeks before the public release of the results, reported large differences between their unofficial scores and the official results, Spears said. He would not discuss specific districts but said there had been no formal complaints or appeals of scores by any district.

“Again, this our first time off the starting block with this test and there will be some things to improve upon,” he said. “But in all, I think this test will be a very good thing for English-language learners and the school districts across the state that are working to educate them.”

Contact staff writer Erin Walsh at (760) 901-4090 or [email protected].



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