Curricular Investigation 4

Assessment tools used to determine an identified potential ELL student for English language proficiency

By: Christina Castello, Anthony Mangone, Samantha Stavish, Danielle Zanata

Which assessment tool(s) do districts/schools use to determine an identified potential ELL student for English language proficiency? Across the United States, there are a multitude of assessments used to determine an English Language Learner’s level of proficiency in English. The New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners (NYSITELL) is administered to assess the English language proficiency of newly enrolled students, to determine if they require ELL/Bilingual services.

In 2003, New York State had its first administration of the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT). The test is conducted annually in the Spring, across grade levels k-12. The NYSESLAT is administered within six grade bands: K, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12. It is a statewide test, used in all areas of New York as an indicator for student’s growth in English proficiency. There are four components to the NYSESLAT: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Identifying Newcomer ELL Students- NYSITELL

The New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners (NYSITELL) is administered to newly enrolled students who potentially need ELL services. The ways that this can be determined are: at enrollment a family member indicated that the child’s home or primary language is other than English, an educator interviewed him or her to determine the possible need for additional English language support, and through responses of the completed Home Language Survey. The results of the NYSITELL will reveal whether or not the student should receive Bilingual/ENL services.The NYSITELL is taken once only by newly enrolled students across New York State, and consists of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing components.-

Annual Assessment of Growth in English Proficiency-NYSESLAT

“New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) is designed to annually assess the English language proficiency of all English Language Learners (ELLs) enrolled in Grades K–12. The NYSESLAT is one component of the State’s compliance with federals laws that mandate annually assessing and monitoring the English Language proficiency progress of all ELLs. The results of the Spring 2015 NYSESLAT will drive the provision of ELL services in Bilingual Education and English as a New Language programs as of the 2015-2016 school year as prescribed in Commissioner’s Regulations Part 154-2 and 154-3. In the classroom, the Spring 2015 NYSESLAT results provide important information about each ELL’s English language development that help inform and drive instruction aligned to the NYS Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), Blueprint for ELL Success (BELLS) and Bilingual Common Core Initiative (BCCI), thereby ensuring that all ELLs are college and career-ready upon graduating high school in New York State.” - “Overview of the Spring 2015 NYSESLAT - EngageNY”

Changes to NYSESLATThe Spring 2015 NYSESLAT was changed in order to measure the linguistic demands of grade level Common Core instruction delivered to ELLs. These changes, or “shifts”, in the assessment can be categorized as the following:

Shift 1: Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) and New Language Arts Progressions Shift 2: Performance levels Shift 3: Integrated approach to modalities/global themes Shift 4: Complexity: grade-level text for all levels, with content area foci Shift 5: Instructionally relevant academic language

ELL Proficiency Levels Each ELL has a current baseline English proficiency where he/she is along the continuum of English language acquisition. For the purposes of describing these baseline proficiencies, in New York State as of 2015, the English language proficiency continuum has shifted from four levels (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Proficient) to five levels (Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding, and Commanding).

The levels achieved on the test determine the frequency of support and services ELLs will receive in the following school year. An ELL who achieves a “commanding” level on the assessment is then considered a Former English Language Learner, and is entitled to services for two years after exiting ELL status.

New Proficiency Levels VS Old Proficiency levels

NYSITELL Question Types

The NYSITELL has been developed into eight distinct levels with specific grades and time frames for its use.

The NYSITELL consists of multiple-choice, short written response, extended written response, and oral response type questions.

The NYSITELL is broken up into 4 subtests: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.

NYSITELL Question Types Cont.Level I consists of only listening and speaking

subtests and must be administered individually.Levels II through VIII assess all subtests areas

separately.The speaking subtest is administered individually at

all levels.The listening, reading, and writing subtest can be

administered individually or in a group.Individual administration is recommended for Levels

II, III, and IV.

NYSITELL Question Types Cont.|-----------Open-Ended Questions---------|

NYSITELLMultiple-Choice

QuestionsShort Written

ResponseExtended Written

Response

Oral Response

Listening ✅

Reading ✅

Writing ✅ ✅ ✅

Speaking ✅

NYSITELL ScoringListening/Reading:

Level I: Multiple choice responses written by the examiner as students point to answers.

Level II-IV: Multiple choice responses written by school personnel from test book to answer sheet.

Level V-VIII: Students mark multiple choice answers on an answer sheet, no transcription required.

Writing

Writing Score Guides used and scored recorded on students answer sheets.

Levels IV-VIII include some multiple choice/grammar questions.

Speaking

Scores recorded on Speaking Score Sheet and then transcribed onto the student’s answer sheet.

NYSITELL Scoring Cont.Total Score

Raw score calculated by totaling all four subtest scores

Raw score recorded on both sides of answer sheet

Student’s overall proficiency level calculated using NYSITELL conversion chart, taking into account student grade and test level

NYSESLAT Question TypesThe NYSESLAT consists of questions that cover the four language

modalities of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.Speaking

Measured through a series of tasks in which students are presented with stimuli and prompts that require a response using spoken English.

Listening

Measured by the student’s response to a series of multiple choice questions related to a passage that the student has listened to.

NYSESLAT Question Types Cont.Reading

Measured by the student’s response to a series of multiple choice questions related to a passage that the student has read

Writing

Measured by a student’s response to a writing prompt

Writing prompt is based on one of the reading passages from the reading section of the test

Two types of question include Short Constructed Response and Extended Constructed Response

NYSESLAT Scoring Multiple Choice Questions

Grades K-2 students’ responses to multiple choice question must be transcribed by a teacher or aid onto a machine scannable answer sheet

All other grades, students mark multiple choice answers onto a machine scannable answer sheet, no transcription required.

Constructed Response Questions

Scored by committees of teachers

No one teacher may score more than 4 constructed response writing task

No teacher who is a student's ESL or ELA teacher may score constructed response questions

NYSITELL vs. NYSESLAT We believe the NYSITELL is extremely effective because it matches the content and format of the annual NYSESLAT exam and better discloses the proficiency level of each student. The NYSITELL presents a clear picture of a student's language ability and linguistic needs, which helps determine the appropriate placement of a student in an ESL program. We also believe that the scores used from the NYSITELL are underutilized and can be beneficial for the content area teachers to be aware of these scores. For example, special education students have an IEP which is extremely important for their education and many hours and decisions are involved in deciding a student's education plan. The same amount of time and decision making should be given to the ESL students. Our main goal is to ensure that our ESL students are given an equal opportunity to achieve at their highest levels, which I believe will happen when districts start to use the scores of the NYSITELL effectively.

Mineola School District, Long Island NYWhat assessments are used in your district/school such as NYSESLAT or

other exams?Mineola School District utilizes the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners (NYSITELL). This helps our district initially identify English Language Learners whose home language entering the district is a language other than English. Upon entering the district, parents/guardians are required to submit a home language questionnaire which is where their home language is identified. If this questionnaire indicates that the student speaks another language the ENL teacher then gives the entrance evaluation to see what level the student is: beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Students are then categorized based on the NYSITELL results into one of five proficiency levels. These levels determine the number of hours of services each student should receive.

Depending on the scores of the students’ NYSITELL, there is an interview that follows. The interview is given by ELL teachers and administrators. It is a series of verbal questions to assess the student on their English proficiency skills. If further assessment is needed then the student is given a written test in their native language to assess their reading and writing proficiency skills.

Mineola School District, Long Island NYEvaluate each assessment tool as to how it effectively assesses ELLs’

English Language development.

NYSITELL- There are two types of Listening questions or prompts that are used in Levels 1 and 2, one of which is that the

student is asked by the examiner to choose a picture based on a question, and the other is the examiner reads a story that ends with a question. This appeals to both auditory and visual learners. In the Speaking part of Levels 1 and 2, the students are first asked academic and social open ended interactional questions. This second questions are picture descriptions and the third is story-telling about a three picture sequence.

During level 2, there are Reading and Writing sections. The reading questions consist of four different types, including identifying the letter of the first sound in a spoken word, identifying the letter of the last sound in a spoken word, identifying which word goes with the picture, and identifying which picture goes with a statement. The writing prompts consists of two different types, the first is a letter writing with one sample provided, and the second is word writing with no sample provided.

During levels 3-8, there are the same sections, listening, speaking, reading and writing, but the sections get more rigorous and extensive.

Discussion Questions 1.How are ELL students in your personal school or district assessed?

Do you feel the assessment tools are effective? 2.How do you feel about New York State’s shift from four proficiency

levels to five proficiency levels?3.In your opinion how effective are the New York State Identification Test

for English Language Learners (NYSITELL) and the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) at assessing ELLs’ English Language development?

4. What effective strategies or information during the interview process of identifying ELL’s into your school/district would be beneficial to the students, parents, teachers, and administrators?