Voices From the Field: Making State Assessment Decisions for English Language Learners With Disabilities

Author(s)
Kristin K Liu PhD, Linda Goldstone, Martha L Thurlow, Jenna M Ward, Jim Hatten, Laurene L Christensen

Description

A report describing an activity undertaken by the Improving the Validity of Assessment Results for ELLs with Disabilities (IVARED) project, which is a consortium of the five states of Arizona, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington, led by Minnesota. In collaboration with the National Center on Educational Outcomes, these states sought to understand ways to make state accountability assessments more valid and reliable for English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities. This report describes how IVARED tried to better understand the current assessment and accommodation decision-making process, test score use practices, and issues and challenges educators face in making appropriate decisions for ELLs with disabilities. Online focus groups were conducted in each of the five states with a total of 232 school, district, and state practitioners who had expertise in working with this population of students.

Details

Date
2013 
Type
Report 
Publisher
ici.umn.edu/content/projects/137.json

Topics

  • Educational accountability and assessment
    • English Learners with Disabilities
    • Accessibility & Accommodations
    • Assessment Participation
    • Alternate Assessments