Here’s my Master’s Thesis on the subject. I finished it last December.
Abstract
Federal required states to implement new annual assessments of English language proficiency and also to include nearly all limited English proficient (LEP) students in annual academic achievement testing. The purpose of this project was to investigate the relationship between LEP students’ scores on both assessments. Archived data from one northern Utah school district were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlations and crosstabulations. Correlations were calculated for the whole group and for subgroups, based on grade level, gender, race or ethnicity, length of United States enrollment for students born abroad, birth place (United States, Mexico, or other), and language (Spanish or other). Results indicated that for nearly all subgroups in nearly all subject areas there were statistically significant correlations between Utah’s assessments, the Utah Academic Language Proficiency Assessment (UALPA) and the Utah Criterion Reference Test (UCRT). For the whole group, correlation coefficients of 0.626, 0.434, and 0.570 were found for English, math, and science respectively. Of students with emergent and pre-emergent English proficiency as measured by the UALPA, 60-90% of students received unsatisfactory (level 1) scores on the UCRT subject tests. Results suggested that both the UALPA and UCRT assessed English language proficiency and throws doubt on the validity of using the UCRT to measure the achievement of students with limited English proficiency, especially with students having very limited English proficiency and with new immigrant students. Conclusions, limitations, recommendations for further study, and recommendations for policy makers were discussed.
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