The Effects of NCLB on ELL Students
Cierra Anderson
Texas A&M University
The Effects of NCLB on ELL Students
In 2002, the No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law, requiring all students to achieve a score of proficiency of 100% by 2014. The law expects English language learners (ELL) to learn English, while simultaneously learning the content, in a short amount of time. ELLs low language proficiency has a negative impact on test performance. According to Roy-Campbell (2012), ELLs score an average of 20-50% percentage points below native English speakers on state assessments. Not only is the act unrealistic, but it places an undue burden on ELLs, schools, teachers and the state. When compared with the Bilingual Education
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One such flaw is the complete omission of bilingual education. With the ushering in of NCLB, the Bilingual Education Act was completely omitted from the law and replaced with the English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act. The Bilingual Education Act included the development of English skills, as well as native-language skills (Garcia, 2011), something the NCLB failed to provide. However, with a new law in place, more emphasis was placed on English learning and less on language learning. The exclusive focus on attaining English proficiency is another flaw of NCLB. This is seen in the fact that “bilingual” was completely omitted from the act, and any government office associated with it. The act only seeks to test student performance through state assessments. However, for ELLs, the test becomes a measure of two skills: subject and language. Another flaw of NCLB is the fact that schools serving ELLs could be susceptible to being labeled as failing if it does not make adequate yearly progress. This is due to the Acts reliance on standardized testing, which many ELLs have a low performance. According to Menkin (2010), schools in the states of California and New York that served large number of ELLs were labeled as failing with when ELLs do not pass state testing. Due to the low ELL pass rates, many schools will not admit …show more content…
To measure proficiency, ELLs are given statewide assessments—which includes a test of English proficiency, as well as tests of academic content that their English-speaking counterparts are required to take. NCLB expects to reduce the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. These goals are worthy, however, it is unreasonable. ELLs perform 20-30% lower than other students on state tests (Abedi & Dietel, 2004). That may in part be due to the language demands in tests. Tests measure their achievement and language ability, creating a negative influence on their test scores. Some students may have a clear understanding of the topic, yet the language barrier produces an inaccurate measure of their performance. Figure 1 below highlights that ELLs performed substantially lower when compared to native English peers. It is can also seen that, as the students move up a grade, the gap between performance becomes wider. A reason for their low test scores may be due to resignation and removal of students from the ELL group (Abedi & Dietel, 2004). High-achieving students in the ELL group are being removed and redesignated as Fluent English Proficient (FEP) when they become language proficient. At the same time, new limited English proficient students are being added to the group. This can cause a drop in the overall score of ELLs and places pressure to do well on
Much research was completed for the making of this article. It was found that ELL’s need time to develop oral English proficiency, teachers need to use ongoing authentic formative assessments throughout the year due to
After viewing the panel discussion about how our local school districts have implemented English Language Learning in their school, I am very intrigued. From what I gathered the field of ELL is a growing industry in education, especially in Colorado Springs. We have ELL’s students coming from all over the world. Here in Colorado Springs alone, school districts have to accommodate for over fifty different languages spoken by ELL’s. I can only imagine the challenge that comes with such a diverse group of non- English speakers in our community schools.
English learners have classes like ELD, can seek extra help to ensure their understanding in English curriculums, and take certain tests to help their fluency in English. One of those tests that English Language Learners have to take to build proficiency, is the CELDT Test. While taking other classes like ELD, out of the 224 English language learners at a local elementary school who took the test, 8 students got advanced, 57 students got early advanced, 85 students got intermediate, 56 students got early intermediate, and 18 students got beginning in the 2012-2013 school year. ** Out of the 224 students that took the test, 206 students were fluent or almost fluent in English. According to these stats, ELD classes and the CELDT test, help with making an English learner’s proficiency in English almost as proficient as a native English speaker, making the system seem equal for everybody to succeed. But, what happens to the students when they move on to higher classes or come from another country and do not have the opportunity to take these classes. According to statistics published by http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/2007/06/2007-math-01.png, English language learners had the highest percent of students at below basic in English and math in 4th and 8th grade. Students that do not get to take ELD classes, often have lower test scores because
93). Therefore, accountability became the central focus to improve education in America. Schools and teachers would now be judged or held accountable by their performance, and schools that failed to meet certain standards would be closed; this was a basic principle in the business sector (Ravitch, 2011, p. 8). Furthermore, NCLB mandated that every school must be 100 percent proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014; consequently schools that failed to perform would suffer punitive consequences. However, by 2007, the evidence was becoming clear that the mandates of the new law were not increasing student achievement in learning. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal testing program reported that only one-third of students met the federal standard for proficiency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 103). Ravitch argued that 100 percent proficiency in reading and mathematics was unattainable by the projected year. Not only did the law allow for each
The policy “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” is a policy where Federal legislation has mandated that children be tested, and where there is compliance with standards. Simply means, that all children must meet standards. The standards are defined by the states, and all children will be subject to testing, starting from as early as third grade. The students will be tested annually, in order to ensure that they are getting the type of education that they are entitled to, as determined by their performance on standardized tests.
Due to the rise in immigration and the demographics of classrooms in America are changing. As a result, English Language Learners are becoming more common in schools. English Language Learners make up one of the largest demographics in the American Classroom (Flynn & Hill, 2005). These students have been observed to have a major achievement gap because many of these students are placed in mainstream classrooms with basic literacy skills. Many English Language Learners are born in the United States (Goldenberg, 2008). These students have only attended the school system in America. However, the achievement levels are nowhere near the level of their peers. According to Calderon, Slavin, and Sanchez (2011) “these students, who have been in U.S. schools since kindergarten, are still classified as limited English proficient when they reach middle or high school— suggesting strongly that preschool and elementary programs are not adequately addressing the needs of English learners.” The achievement gap between English Language Learners and native English speaking students is extremely high. English Language Learners tests scores are low. According to the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress, “fourth grade ELLs scored 36 points lower than their peers on the reading section of the test and 25 points below their peers in math. The results in eighth grade were worse with a difference of 42 points in reading and 37 points in math” (Goldenberg, 2008). The gap between ELLs and non-ELLs are three to eighteen points larger then students from low-income households.
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
Because America is such a diverse country, public schools are faced with the challenge of providing students from all over the world with a quality education. As Chen points out “public schools have embraced the linguistic challenge presented by immigrant students” (¶1). Then, No Child Left Behind law was approved, and it required every public school should have an English Secondary Language (ESL) program that will provide the “academic support” for English Language Learners (ELLs). ELL parents are happy that their children are getting education help from the school, but it has raised the question of how successful are the ESL programs? Do ESL programs provide enough “academic support” to all ELL students? Do ESL programs have enough tools to help students learn English? Some ELL parents complain that ESL programs do not help their child learn English. A successful ESL program is not based solely on the test scores, but also the ability to connect parents, teachers, and students together to strengthen tools that will help ELL students to learn a new language in reading, writing, and speaking.
Despite the high number of ELL students, it is difficult to know, because of lack of data to see what type of educational programs they participate in. According to Prospects, a 1995 national survey, reading and math were taught in programs using bilingual education in less than half of first and third grade classrooms serving limited English proficient students. Offered more frequently were programs where instruction was offered only in English, or where instructional aides, not teachers, were the vehicles for native language instruction.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is currently the educational policy in the United States. Prior to NCLB the educational policies in effect were “A Nation at Risk, in 1987 America 2000, and a few years later with Goals 2000” (Eisner, 2001, p.21). No Child Left Behind is a test based accountability system used in schools to measure their performance holding the districts, administrators and teachers liable and accountable for the outcomes. Supovitz (2009) States that No Child Left Behind was a major reform initiative intended to bring about widespread improvements in student performance and reduce inequities between ethnic groups and other traditionally under-served populations like economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial
This required each state to develop a set of standards that each child would need to know in math and reading. The NCLB also required almost all of the students to be tested annually throughout elementary and middle school grades (Webb, Metha, Jordan 2013). The act also strived that all students would test at a proficient level by 2014. The impact of this decision was that the government would be more involved than ever before in how a school taught, what the school taught, and the requirements of outcomes. The downside impact of this was that states changed the proficiency levels over the years and there has been inconsistent data given when reported. In a report with control groups it is shown that there were changes before and after implementation of the NCLB (Ladd 2010). With that information one could conclude that the act was successful and should be further pursued along with
As the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal education policy begins to take precedence in our public schools, the impact of this reform that is designed to help the underachieving schools with minority children must be evaluated. The goal of NCLB is to
According to Sullivan, “few school systems have adequate mechanisms in place to collect identification, placement, or outcome data for students identified as ELLs in special education” (Sullivan 319). In many cases, schools do not have the proper materials to accurately test, identify, and help ELL students, and therefore, many times it is assumed that these students have some type of learning disability. This assumption is wrong in many cases, and ELL students are misidentified. One main reason of misidentification expressed in this article is that both ELL students and learning disabled students have difficulty with problems that require high language demands. Therefore, teachers assume that these ELL students that are having difficulty with activities with language demand have a learning
The purpose of the Language Proficiency Assessment Committee is to identify, assess and review the language proficiency and academic progress of ELL students; they are essentially a language liaison between ESL students and their parents and the school district and the state of Texas. This committee is in charge of determining what type of language assessment the student will need to take, analyzing the results of that assessment, notifying parents of what type of program they recommend the child be placed in, and then placing the student in either the bilingual program or ESL program (if the parent approves) to receive the language support he or she needs. They review each student’s progress annually and determine, through analysis of assessments and teacher input, what type of program the student will be enrolled in for the follow year and what the student will be classified as in terms of language
This situation was no longer allowed. While over ten percent of the total adolescent education systems contain emergent bilinguals, a whopping sixty percent of those students are educated in only English (Bale). Maria Estela Brisk, a Boston College Education professor, believes, “schools have wasted much energy in the search for a "perfect" model and the best way to learn English” when they could just focus on providing “quality education” to every student in the system (1). Teachers’ main priority should consist of effectively teaching their students to prepare them for the future, but currently there is a lack of certified bilingual education teachers.