Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education

ELA scores on average than LEP students who attend
schools who have not demonstrated AYP in
ELA. This relationship is not statistically significant
at the high school level. On the other hand, there
is a statistically significant relationship between the
percentage of a given school’s population that consists
of low income students and ELA achievement
at the middle school level in the negative direction.
In other words, as the proportion of low income
students at a school increases, MCAS scores in ELA
tend to decrease. However, this relationship is not
statistically significant at either the elementary or
high school level.
The remaining two variables representing school
environment, school size and the percentage of
a given school’s population that consists of LEP
students, did not have a statistically significant
relationship with MCAS ELA scores at any level of
schooling.
Results: Math
As discussed in the in-depth section, there is a significant
positive relationship between participation
in an ELL program and MCAS Math scores at the
high school levels. This means that LEP students
that are enrolled in any ELL program in high school,
including language specific and multi-language SEI
programs and non-SEI programs, tend to perform
better on MCAS Math testing than LEP students in
general education. LEP students enrolled in non-SEI
programs in elementary school also tend to perform
better on MCAS Math testing than LEP students
in the general education population. There is no
statistically significant relationship between placement
in an SEI program and MCAS Math scores at
the elementary school level, or between placement
in any ELL program and MCAS Math scores at the
middle school level.
MEPA scores and SPED placement have a consistently
statistically significant relationship with MCAS
Math scores as well as with ELA scores, and, once
again, these two variables account for the highest
amount of predictive value in this variable set.
The relationship between MEPA scores and Math
attainment is positive and statistically significant
at all schooling levels, which means that as MEPA
scores increase MCAS Math scores tend to increase
as well. In contrast, SPED placement shows a
significant negative relationship with MCAS Math
scores, with students in SPED programs tending to
have lower levels of math attainment at all schooling
levels.
The other two variables representing individual
characteristics, attendance rate and gender, also
show statistically significant relationships with math
attainment at all schooling levels. The relationship
between attendance and MCAS Math scores
is positive, with students with higher attendance
rates tending to demonstrate higher levels of math
attainment. The relationship between gender and
math attainment indicates that males tend to perform
better than females on MCAS Math testing at
all levels of schooling.
Amongst the four variables that represent school
environment, only AYP in Math demonstrates a
statistically significant relationship with MCAS Math
scores. The relationship is positive, with students
attending schools that have demonstrated AYP
in Math tending to achieve higher MCAS Math
scores than students who attend schools that have
not. There is no statistically significant relationship
between MCAS Math outcomes and the percentage
of the school population that is made up of
low income students, the size of the school, or the
percentage of the school population that is made
up of LEP students.
Improving Educational Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools 139