When you’re drowning in a sea of reading assessments, finding tools that will give you fair, accurate, and meaningful results when assessing English language learners (ELLs) only adds to the challenge.
Sick of treading water? Just want to know which assessments will actually help pinpoint ELL students’ risk for reading difficulties? Consider this the rescue boat you’ve been looking for.
First, the bad news: ELLs, also called multilingual learners (MLLs), may be one of the fastest growing segments of the student population, but there’s no single, clear cut assessment process for all of these students.
We know from existing research that early academic interventions have a bigger impact on ELL students’ outcomes than later interventions — so early assessment is key to ensuring these students get the right tools and services. But how should that process look?
Here’s what works for assessing ELLs, answers to some of the most frequently asked questions and how to get the most out of your data so multilingual learners excel.
The single largest school-based factor that keeps ELLs from reclassifying into full English proficiency is their literacy attainment.
Assessing English Language Learners: Myths and Facts
ELLs are in a unique place. Not only are these students developing brand-new language and reading skills at the same time, but they also bring a wealth of unique cultural and educational experiences to the classroom.
Make no mistake, this depth of knowledge is an incredible asset to learning. But this wide mix of languages, needs, and skills levels also creates a host of challenges for educators.
Consider this: Multilingual learners in US schools collectively speak more than 400 languages.
In one classroom, a teacher may have some kids who speak English at home, some who speak Spanish, some who speak Arabic, and then maybe one child who speaks Brazilian Portuguese, while another comes from a household where the predominant language is Haitian Creole.
At the same time, schools are navigating new territory as an increasing number of districts transition to reading instruction that’s aligned with the Science of Reading.
How do you make sure the moves your district is making are serving all kids, not just native English speakers?
First thing’s first: Steering clear of the misconceptions.
Here are some of the most common myths we see about ELL assessments, along with answers that set the record straight.
Myth: You have to wait until ELLs build oral language skills in English before assessing (and teaching) English literacy skills.
It’s a common belief that language limitations can obscure what kids actually know, leading many educators to believe literacy assessments aren’t useful if a student isn’t yet speaking perfect English.
Some educators may also feel that it’s unfair to test a child in a language they don’t understand. While this is true in some areas, it’s not true for tasks involving phonological processing. Let’s talk about why.
Fact: Students can still develop literacy skills even without perfect oral language skills.
Formatively, it’s not necessary to wait to assess an ELL’s reading ability, even if they’re a newcomer student.
In fact, 21 studies confirm that assessing phonological processing, letter and alphabetic knowledge, and the reading of word lists or connected text are valid means of determining whether English learners are likely to benefit from typical classroom reading instruction or need extra support.
Rather than delaying assessments, it’s important for ELLs to be assessed in a way that uncouples language proficiency from content knowledge. Here’s what we know, based on the science:
- Language proficiency is less important than students understanding the nature of the task. For example, if a student possesses phonemic awareness, they should be able to tell an examiner the first, middle, and ending sounds of a word like “fan” even without knowing the meaning of the word.
- Modifying how assessments are administered to ensure you’re focusing assessment on the right skill can prevent language limitations from impacting performance. For example, if multilingual students are given a word like “cake” and expected to come up with a rhyming word in English (like “lake”), they might lack the background knowledge and English vocabulary to supply the right answer. But if you provide those same students with a series of English words and ask them which ones rhyme, you switch the assessment from vocabulary to phonological awareness.
Helpful Resources
The Can Do Descriptors from the WIDA Consortium are helpful for educators envisioning the types of assessment responses multilingual learners might provide at each level of language proficiency.
Best of all? They’re free for all educators!
Myth: Anyone can administer a reading assessment for ELLs.
It’s common to think any teacher or para can administer ELL assessments because, often, that’s what has to happen. Resources, time, and staff are often limited, so assessments administration can fall to, well, anyone in some districts.
Fact: Ideally, teachers trained in teaching and assessing ELLS should administer assessments.
We get that this isn’t always possible, but the hard truth is that the majority of teachers — highly qualified and dedicated veteran teachers included — aren’t extensively trained to do this kind of work.
A 2023 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality found 71 percent of teacher preparation programs dedicate less than two instructional hours to teaching reading to English language learners.
English language learners can — and do — learn to read just like their native-English speaking peers, but the fact is, their skills development process is different, and the person administering the assessment needs to know how to account for this difference in order to eliminate bias and ensure accurate measurement of their abilities.
It’s critical for all staff participating in test administration for multilingual learners receive training for the specific assessments being administered (e.g., language or literacy) as well as background in language acquisition.
It’s OK if the assessment administrator is not fluent in a student’s home language; however, early literacy test administrators should:
- Demonstrate a background in language acquisition.
- Receive training for the specific assessments being administered.
- Give clear instructions, repeating and simplifying in accordance with state and district guidelines.
- Ensure students understand the task they are being asked to complete.
- Follow test protocol guidelines closely, including careful completion of the practice tasks.
Translanguaging + Training Teachers
Taking a “translingual” approach to instruction is an important strategy for educators who work with English language learners.
But what, exactly, does that mean? Translanguaging recognizes how multilingual students naturally and fluidly use all their language practices to communicate, learn, and express themselves. Instead of restricting students to English-only instruction, translanguaging empowers them to leverage their entire linguistic repertoire as an asset for learning. This approach affirms students’ full linguistic and cultural identities and helps them demonstrate their true knowledge without language barriers.
One way to improve literacy instruction for ELLs? Train your teachers in translanguaging! A majority of US elementary teachers — 67 percent — say they need more training in strategies like translanguaging to better serve ELLs in their classrooms.
Lindsay Gonzalez, M.Ed., whose district serves students speaking 90 languages, emphasizes the importance of helping “our teachers, our administrators understand the difference and which data to look at to see if it is a content concern or a language concern.”
“Often we think our students are lacking language and that way they might be struggling in a certain area,” the director of MTSS for Round Rock ISD in Texas says. “But what we find is when we collect multiple data points sometimes they’re struggling no matter what the language is.”
Ideally, the person administering the assessment is also one who is familiar with the student themselves. This can help create a more comfortable testing environment and allow the administrator to better distinguish between language barriers and actual skill gaps.
Myth: Reading assessments should only be given in a student’s native language.
Like most literacy programs, many bilingual and ESL programs have traditionally used whole language or balanced literacy approaches to teaching reading. These methods included a lot of context clues and visual supports to help ELLs learn to read while also learning English oral language skills.
Shifting to structured literacy can feel like it’s cutting off those supports, but there are actually a lot of methods that align with structured literacy instruction and provide similar scaffolding supports.
Fact: Most evidence-based foundational reading skills assessments are valid for ELLs and can be administered in English.
In general, it isn’t necessary to provide native language reading assessments to track reading skills development within an English literacy program.
It’s true that when a newcomer student or a level one English language learner is assessed for the very first time, the data may be impacted by their developing English proficiency, however the subsequent assessments — after instruction has begun — will provide a more reliable look at their foundational reading skills in English as.
In a nutshell, using assessments in English gives us what we need to track students’ reading development in English as their language skills also develop ((as measured by English proficiency assessments).
The Best Literacy Assessments for English Language Learners
At the end of the day, the “best” literacy assessment to use when assessing English language learners is going to be one that’s evidence-based.
Your district will still need to administer English language proficiency assessments — which measure different skills than those you’re assessing on a literacy assessment — but results from both will give you a more detailed picture of an English language learner’s progress.
Above all, be intentional about using data from both types of assessments to make the best instructional decisions for kids.
