Assessment
This domain tests the purposes and technical qualities of assessment, New York's identification and exit process for English learners, appropriate testing accommodations, and the high-stakes judgment of separating language difference from disability.
Purposes and technical qualities
- Formative assessment happens during learning and changes instruction; summative assessment is end-of-unit; diagnostic assessment places students.
- Norm-referenced tests compare a student to peers; criterion-referenced tests measure against a standard. A test normed only on monolingual English speakers may be an invalid measure of an English learner's knowledge.
- Validity means the test measures what it claims; reliability means consistency across raters and occasions.
- Authentic options: portfolios, running records, writing samples scored with rubrics, performance tasks, and student self-assessment with can-do descriptors.
New York identification and exit
- A Home Language Identification Survey starts the process; when a home language other than English is reported, the student takes the NYSITELL screener to determine initial eligibility and level.
- The annual NYSESLAT measures listening, speaking, reading, and writing across five levels: Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding, Commanding. Results drive required services under CR Part 154 and exit decisions.
- Accommodations change access - extended time, bilingual glossaries, translated editions, separate location, read-aloud of permitted sections. Modifications change what is measured and can invalidate the score.
Worked example
A second-year English learner scores at the 12th percentile on an English vocabulary subtest. That single score does not support a disability finding. The team reviews L1 literacy data, schooling history, attendance, and classroom work samples and finds a pattern consistent with a normal CALP gap. They continue ENL services, add scaffolds, document progress for six weeks, and keep monitoring rather than referring.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating one low English score as evidence of a learning disability.
- Confusing an accommodation with a modification.
- Forgetting that writing is typically the last modality to develop on state assessments.