Accommodations for a Developing Bilingual Student on a Science Test
Ana, a seventh grader, arrived from Guatemala 14 months ago. She is at an entering/emerging level of English proficiency, reads English at roughly a second-grade level, and is strong in mathematics. You are her science teacher and hold no ESOL endorsement; the ENL teacher pushes in twice a week. Next Friday's unit test on ecosystems has 25 multiple-choice questions and 5 short-answer questions written at grade-level reading difficulty. Ana's mother, speaking through a phone interpreter, asks that the test be given in Spanish. Your district has no translated version of this test, and Ana's schooling was interrupted before she arrived. The ENL teacher suggests reading the whole test aloud to her; a colleague says that is unfair to the other students. Ana has no IEP and is not identified for special education.
1. Which accommodations are appropriate for this test, and how do you decide about the request for a Spanish version?
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Anchor question: what is being measured? The test is supposed to measure science understanding of ecosystems. Decoding grade-level English is not the construct, so reducing the reading load makes the score more valid, not less.
Appropriate for this test:
- Read aloud directions, questions, and answer choices (a human reader, not a translator);
- Extended time and a separate, quiet setting;
- A bilingual word-to-word glossary of content terms (not a full translation, not a translator who explains concepts);
- Simplifying sentence structure and adding diagrams on the teacher-made items, since this is a classroom test and you control the wording;
- Accepting oral responses that you scribe, and allowing her to say a key term in Spanish if she then uses the English term in her written answer.
On the Spanish version. A translated test is not automatically more valid. There is no district translation, so any version would be informal and might contain errors; Ana's academic Spanish is likely to lack the science vocabulary too, because her schooling was interrupted; and translating the whole test also removes her chance to practice the English of the discipline. Prefer the read-aloud-plus-glossary route, and pair it with pre-teaching the ten most important terms before Friday.
Not appropriate without a team decision: cutting items or exempting her from short answers. That is a modification - it changes what is measured - and it should be a documented, deliberate choice, not a quiet one.
2. How do you verify that the accommodations are working, and how do you tell a language error from a content error?
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Separate the two error types. After scoring, take two or three items Ana missed and ask her, orally and informally, to explain her thinking. If she can explain the science in simple English or in Spanish with a bilingual colleague present, the item was measuring English, not science, and the accommodation or the item wording needs adjusting. If she holds the same misconception as other students, that is a content issue and calls for reteaching, not more accommodation.
Comparison data. Note her performance on the read-aloud administration against her classwork and lab performance. A large gap between oral science reasoning and written test scores points to language load; a flat profile across both points to content gaps.
Add a low-language evidence source. A diagram-labeling item or a short lab practical on food chains gives a cleaner read of her science knowledge than a paragraph of prose. Use it for your own diagnostic purposes and, if the team agrees, as part of the body of evidence for the grade.
Track what you changed. Keep a brief record of which accommodations were used on which assessment, so that a pattern over several weeks - not one test - informs any conversation about further support or a referral.
3. How do you respond to Ana's mother and to your colleague's fairness objection?
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With the mother. Speak through the interpreter, thank her for raising it, and be concrete: explain that Ana will hear the test read aloud in English, will have a science glossary, will have extra time, and will be able to answer orally. Explain plainly why a Spanish translation is not being used this time - there is no accurate translation available and Ana's science vocabulary in Spanish is also still developing, so the glossary plus read-aloud gives a fairer picture - and say what you will watch for. Invite her to see Ana's lab work at conferences. Do not promise a translated test you cannot deliver, and do not leave the conversation vague.
With the colleague. Reframe fairness: fairness means each student has a way to show what they know about ecosystems. The other students are not being tested on decoding either; Ana simply needs a different route to the same target. Point to the item and ask what it would show if she could not read it - the answer makes the case better than an argument about principle does.
Documentation. Note the accommodations provided and the reasons, so the decision is defensible and consistent next time, and share the practice with the department rather than keeping it as an individual favor.