Education Assistance Could Help States Better Measure Progress of Students with Limited English Proficiency: GAO

The U.S. General Accounting Office released a report last week focusing on the academic achievement of students with limited English proficiency as it relates to NCLB-LMCB. Click here for the report.

An excerpt from the report’s abstract:

In nearly two-thirds of 48 states for which we obtained data, students with limited English proficiency did not meet state proficiency goals for language arts or mathematics in school year 2003-2004. Further, in most states, these students generally did not perform as well as other student groups on state mathematics tests for elementary students. Officials in our five study states reported taking steps to follow generally accepted test development procedures to ensure the validity and reliability of academic tests for these students. However, our group of experts expressed concerns about whether all states are assessing these students in a valid manner, noting that some states lack technical expertise. Further, Education’s completed peer reviews of assessments in 38 states found that 25 states did not provide adequate evidence of their validity or reliability. To improve the validity of these test results, most states offer accommodations, such as a bilingual dictionary. However, our experts reported that research is lacking on what accommodations are effective in mitigating language barriers.

E.C. 🙂

CIS in Focus: HP Enterprise

My friend and former colleague Katisha Hayes over at the High Point Enterprise did a series today on the success factor of Communities in Schools (CIS). See the article here and two sidebars here and here.

An excerpt:

Test scores show that students in someof thecity’s most impoverished schools are struggling; clustering them at the bottom of academic indica­tors in math and reading.
But coordinators of a pro­gram aimed at keeping kids in school refuse to believe that these students – typically non­white, disadvantaged and lim­ited- English speaking – can’t do the academic work. For them, a little encouragement goes a long way, volunteers, staff and supporters of Communities In Schools of High Point believe.

I have a link to CIS on the links section on the right-hand side of the page. I encourage you to dial them up and see what they’re about, as they’re among the many that are about the business of trying to do some good in our schools.

E.C. 🙂

GCS Friday Spin for this Week

Click here for this week’s Friday Spin (March 23, 2007) from GCS.

E.C. 🙂