Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education

ciency for at least four years – i.e., immersion in all-
English instruction does not significantly accelerate
English acquisition (Goldenberg, 2008). Evaluations
of SEI implementation in California confirm that it
takes at least five years to attain English proficiency.
Parrish et al. (2006) in their evaluation of California’s
SEI programs estimated that the probability of
an English learner being re-designated as English
proficient in less than ten years was lower than
40%.
Although the process of acquiring proficiency in a
second language is well known and documented, in
many cases, educational policy does not reflect this
knowledge. For example, current Massachusetts
law stipulates that LEP students be taught only in
English, favoring Multilingual SEI classrooms where
the students’ native language is not to be used. Initially,
the expectation was that LEP students would
remain in these types of programs for one year before
transitioning into general education. Although
this was never a requirement, that expectation still
drives the thinking of the public and of many educators
as well. Given the demographics of Boston’s
ELL population and the restrictive language policies
of the state, most are the “typical young immigrant
student schooled all in L2” (English). Thus, Boston’s
ELLs may be at the most disadvantageous situation
described by Thomas and Collier in terms of the
acquisition of academic English proficiency.
Massachusetts requires that the English proficiency
of LEP students in reading, writing, listening, and
speaking as well as the progress they are making
in learning English be measured yearly. 3 The state
provides the Massachusetts English Proficiency
Assessment (MEPA) for this purpose. The test
consists of two parts: the MEPA R/W, a written test
measuring reading and writing knowledge and skills
and the Massachusetts English Language Assessment-Oral
(MELA-O), an observational assessment
which assesses proficiency in listening (comprehension)
and speaking (production). LEP students
in all grades (K-12) began to take the MEPA R/W
and MELA-O in SY2009. But during three years
covered by this study (SY2006, 2007 and 2008),
only students in Grades 3-12 were tested. Testing
results were reported in three ways: as an overall
scaled score from 300 to 400 in SY2006-SY2008
and 400 to 550 in SY2009; as scores for each Reading,
Writing, Listening, and Speaking area; and as
performance levels. Between SY2006 and SY2008,
there were four MEPA performance levels; this was
changed to five performance levels in SY2009. At
MEPA Level 1, a student has not yet developed simple
written and spoken communication in English.
At MEPA Level 2, a student has developed simple
written and spoken communication in English but
errors often interfere with basic comprehension and
communication although overall meaning may be
retained. At MEPA Level 3, a student can communicate
in English and use the language in a school
context but where errors still impede communication
and comprehension even though overall meaning
is usually retained. At MEPA Level 4, a student
is nearly fluent in English and uses the language in
the school context with few errors. Finally, at MEPA
Level 5, a student has effective communication in
English with few errors (MDESE, 2009a, pp. 20-24).
In most cases, we report MEPA performance levels
for SY2009 using the five categories; but in reporting
trends through time or when we need to draw
the MEPA results from SY2008 (for example in the
dropout analyses) we use the four performance
categories.
In the analysis of English language acquisition in
this chapter, we focus squarely on English language
learners and report on the English proficiency of
the overall population of LEP students and of ELLs
in different types of programs. We explore also the
correlation between MEPA English proficiency level
and performance in the Massachusetts Comprehensive
Assessment System’s (MCAS) standardized
achievement tests in English Language Arts. Finally
we examine the trajectory of English language acquisition
of three cohorts of students – third, sixth,
and ninth graders – and observe the progress in
MEPA performance made over three years.
40 Improving Educational Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools