No Accountability Without Valid Assessments
Many of NCLB’s shortcomings for ELLs can be traced to its failure to consider what is unique about these children. Setting benchmarks for student achievement, testing the progress of students against these benchmarks, then punishing schools where students fail is a simple, straightforward approach to accountability. It is also plausible and easily understood by the public. Yet, for ELL students in particular, it is an inappropriate, unworkable, and inequitable approach.
To succeed in school, ELLs must master academic knowledge and skills at the same time they are acquiring a second language. This is not an easy task. Nor is it a simple matter to monitor their progress, because existing assessment
Many of NCLB’s shortcomings for ELLs can be traced to its failure to consider what is unique about these children. Setting benchmarks for student achievement, testing the progress of students against these benchmarks, then punishing schools where students fail is a simple, straightforward approach to accountability. It is also plausible and easily understood by the public. Yet, for ELL students in particular, it is an inappropriate, unworkable, and inequitable approach.
To succeed in school, ELLs must master academic knowledge and skills at the same time they are acquiring a second language. This is not an easy task. Nor is it a simple matter to monitor their progress, because existing assessment