Assessment
Assessment is an important component in developing instruction. It is also an important factor in deciding what the best educational setting is for students. With ELL students, authentic assessments can provide insight into their current levels of academic performance. If a student appears to be struggling significantly in a content area or multiple content areas, there are specific steps that need to be taken prior to having the ELL student tested for Special Education. First, the area of concern needs to be identified. The classroom teacher then needs to implement appropriate evidence-based practices and interventions, as well as consulting with the ESL teacher to provide the student with accommodations. The team should then contact the family using the appropriate strategies to communicate whether that is an interpreter or the ESL teacher to translate the concerns. The team then needs to discuss these concerns with the Child Study Team, and complete a checklist about the child’s skills. After a certain duration of time, the team will decide if there has been progress in the child’s performance, if not, they will meet again with the Child Study Team. The team will then implement more intensive interventions such as, tutoring, homework centers, and modifications to assignments. If these interventions are not effective, there will be further discussion about how to support the child and provide remediation. It is important that the intensive interventions that are provided are culturally responsive interventions that are designed by trained design teams. The design team needs to consider the ELL students’ background, culture, language, means of communication, etc. The response to intervention tiers should be individualized to the needs of the
ELL student.
Unfortunately, ELL students can be overrepresented in Special Education because their language and communication skills while learning a new language can be similar to those of a child with a speech and language problem. The largest disability group that ELL students get misidentified in is the learning disability category. Nearly 56% of the ELL population was diagnosed as having a learning disability in recent studies. Being that the assessments for special education are based on intelligence, but presented in context that an ELL student would most likely not be comfortable with, it is difficult to say whether or not these students are being placed correctly. Even if the assessment is presented in the individual’s first language, the wording of the questions could still be culturally bias and misleading. The administer of the assessment should talk time prior to the assessment to get to the know the student and understand their knowledge of language. If the student would be more comfortable answering the questions orally rather than writing, then that is how the student should be assessed. Ultimately, the goal of the assessment should be to assess the student’s levels of ability in the content, not to assess their language skills.
As educators, I feel that although standardized and formal assessments are an important part of our instructional decision-making, it is vital to collect data based on informal assessments as well. Doing frequent observations, progress-monitoring, and authentic assessments will give the teacher a concrete idea of the student understands of the skills being presented. It is the teacher’s responsibility to help the student to develop the skills, maintain them, and generalize the skills over different tasks.
ELL student.
Unfortunately, ELL students can be overrepresented in Special Education because their language and communication skills while learning a new language can be similar to those of a child with a speech and language problem. The largest disability group that ELL students get misidentified in is the learning disability category. Nearly 56% of the ELL population was diagnosed as having a learning disability in recent studies. Being that the assessments for special education are based on intelligence, but presented in context that an ELL student would most likely not be comfortable with, it is difficult to say whether or not these students are being placed correctly. Even if the assessment is presented in the individual’s first language, the wording of the questions could still be culturally bias and misleading. The administer of the assessment should talk time prior to the assessment to get to the know the student and understand their knowledge of language. If the student would be more comfortable answering the questions orally rather than writing, then that is how the student should be assessed. Ultimately, the goal of the assessment should be to assess the student’s levels of ability in the content, not to assess their language skills.
As educators, I feel that although standardized and formal assessments are an important part of our instructional decision-making, it is vital to collect data based on informal assessments as well. Doing frequent observations, progress-monitoring, and authentic assessments will give the teacher a concrete idea of the student understands of the skills being presented. It is the teacher’s responsibility to help the student to develop the skills, maintain them, and generalize the skills over different tasks.