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Liriano Esc 761 Nyseslat Paper 1
Liriano Esc 761 Nyseslat Paper 1
Liriano Esc 761 Nyseslat Paper 1
TheAuthenticityoftheNYSESLATAssessment
anditsEffectontheELLPopulation
JenniferLirianoQuiros
LehmanCollege
ESC761
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 2
StandardizedAssessments
StandardizedassessmentsposeahugeproblemforEnglishLanguageLearners(ELLs)
forvariousreasons.Themainreasonsbeingthelinguistic,socioeconomic,andcontentbiases
thatsurroundtheseassessmentsinregardtoELLs.AccordingtoLaingandKamhi(2003),the
assessmentscontaincontentbiasbecausetheyaredesignedformainstreamcultureandWhite
middleclassschoolsettings.ThiscontentbiasaffectsELLsgreatlybecausetheymaynothave
beenexposedtothatlifestyleenough,ifever.Therefore,theywouldnotperformaswellasthey
couldbecauseoftheirlackofexposuretomainstreamculture,whichishighlyunfair.This
contentbiastiesintothelinguisticbiasoftheassessments,whichconcernstheassessmentsbeing
writteninstandardEnglish,asopposedtoavernacularthatELLswouldunderstandbetter.This
linguisticbiasisevenanissueforstudentswhouseAfricanAmericanVernacularEnglish
(AAVE)becausetheyareaccustomedtoacertainwayofspeakingandlisteningtoEnglish.In
addition,thedisconnectbetweenthestandardEnglishontheassessmentandtheEnglishusedby
thestudentwillcausethemtoperformpoorly.
Coincidentally,thisbroughttomindhowstudentswhoareaffectedbyasocioeconomic
backgroundmaynotonlyhaveissueswiththeEnglishassessments,butalsothemathematics
assessmentsbecauseofthelanguageusedonthem.ConsistentwithSolanoFloresand
Trumbulls(2003)example,studentswereaskedaquestionthatcouldbemisinterpretedbythose
influencedbyasocioeconomicbackgroundsimplybecauseoftheirinteractionswiththeir
families.Thequestionincludedthephrase,Hismotherhasonly$1.00bills,whichcaused
studentstobelievethatthesaidmotherhadonlyonedollarintotal(SolanoFlores&Trumbull,
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 3
2003,p.45).Therefore,themathwordproblemwouldbesolvedincorrectlybecauseofthe
studentsmisunderstandingofthewordingintheassessment.
Inaddition,theissueswiththeuseofthestandardlanguageconnectstothetesting
accommodationsthatELLsaregivenduringallstateassessments.AsmentionedbyMenken
2000),ELLsaregivenfourtypesofaccommodations,whicharepresentation,response,setting,
andtiming/scheduling.Fromexperience,studentsinabilingualtransitionalsettingaregiven
accommodationsinonlysettingandtiming/schedulingfortheNewYorkStateEnglishLanguage
Artsexam,andMenken(2000)indicatesthatthoseaccommodationsdonotaddressELL
linguisticneeds.Incontrast,allaccommodationsareusedfortheNewYorkStateMathematics
examsinceitisofferedinSpanish,whichmeansthatitdoesaddresstheirlinguisticneeds.Even
thoughthemathematicsexamisofferedinSpanishandtheaccommodationsaddresslinguistic
needs,theexamiswritteninstandardSpanish,whichdoesnotaddressanyofthedialectsthat
wouldexistinanurbanbilingualclassroomsetting.SimilartotheissueswithstandardEnglish,
bilingualstudentstakingtheexaminSpanishhavequiteafewissuesunderstandingsomeofthe
wordingoftheexam.Thisissueresultsinthemperformingmuchlowerthantheirperformance
intheclassroom.
Nonetheless,ColornColoradosParentsguidetostandardizedtesting,(n.d.)explains
howstandardizedassessmentdatacouldstillbeusedtoidentifytheareasthatstudentshave
masteredandstillneedworkin.Byknowingthis,teacherscanhaveabaselineofdatatowork
withandfocusonforthebeginningoftheyear.Moreover,itcandemonstratesomeprogress,not
idealamountsofprogress,butevenslightamountsareasuccess.Schoolscanalsodeterminea
studentsclassroomsettingbasedonthestandardizedtests.Forexample,ifastudentis
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 4
consideredcommandingontheNYSESLATexam,thentheirparentshavetheoptionofhaving
theirchildexitthebilingual,ESL,orsimilarprogramtobeplacedinamainstreammonolingual
generaleducationclassroom.
AuthenticClassroomAssessments
Althoughstandardizedassessmentsareusedlessfrequentlyandcarrymoreacademic
weight,classroomassessmentsareusedmorefrequentlybyteachersanddirectlyaffectdayto
dayinstruction.Thatbeingsaid,educatorsofELLshavefacedmanychallengesinhaving
authenticclassroomassessmentsthattrulycapturethestudentslearningandlanguage
proficiency.SomeclassroomassessmentsusedinmyschoolareDRAs,TeachersCollege
checklistsandrubrics,MathExemplarsRubrics,shortreadingresponses,constructedresponses
inmath,exitslips,andmanymore.
Fromexperience,theissuewithmostoftheseassessmentsforbilingualteachersisthat
mostassessmentsarenottranslatedintoSpanishfornewcomersorotherELLswhoarenotyet
proficient.Inmathematics,studentsaregiventheoptionoftestinginSpanishorinEnglishinthe
classroombecausethestandardizedassessmentalsoprovidesthatoption.Yet,Ihavehadto
translateanentiretestpreparationbookletintoSpanishformyclassbecausethecompanydid
notmaketheminanyotherlanguage.Furthermore,TeachersCollegewritingmaterialsareonly
inEnglish,sonewcomersandotherELLswhocontinuetowriteinSpanishareonlyprovided
withEnglishchecklistsandrubrics.WhileIdotranslatethosechecklistsandrubricsformy
students,otherbilingualteacherssimplyleaveitasissincesomuchworkispiledonthemasis.
Asaresult,itisverydifficultforeducatorstohavereadymadematerialsinEnglishandin
SpanishfornewcomersandnonproficientELLs.
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 5
Besidesthetraditionalformsofclassroomassessments,ColornColoradosUsing
informalassessmentsforEnglishLanguageLearners,(2007)providesexamplesofspeaking
andreadingassessmentsthataneducatormaynotimmediatelythinkofusing,suchasrole
playing,debating,andplayinggames.AwaytoassessEnglishlanguageproficiencyinrole
playingwouldbetoanswertowhquestions.Inadditiontothat,portfoliosareaformof
assessmentthatseemstobethemostcomprehensivemethodtoattaincleardata,evidence,and
growth.Portfoliosshowastudentsgrowthovertimeusingvariousmeasuresofprogress,such
aswritingsamples,formaltests,studentprogressnotes,orevenrecordingsofthestudentgiving
apresentation.Thesemultipleformsofassessmentshowhowmuchlanguageproficiencygrowth
astudenthashad.Thatway,anyonecouldreceiveamoreaccuratepictureoftheELLstudent
versustheirperformanceonastandardizedtest.
ColornColoradosUsinginformalassessmentsforEnglishLanguageLearners,(2007)
mentionsthatwhenusingportfoliosasaformofauthenticassessment,teachersshouldkeepin
mindthattheyshouldmakestudentsapartoftheportfolioprocessbyallowingthemtoselect
samplesoftheirworkorcreaterubrics.Moreover,teachersshouldrememberthatwhenteaching
content,theyshouldscaffoldtheirassessmentsbyallowingstudentstousegraphicorganizers,
makedrawings,orcreateprojectstodemonstratetheirunderstanding.Additionally,when
scoringcontentassessments,teachersshouldfocusonscoringstudentsknowledgeofthe
contentandnottheirwriting.IfindthatIdothisaswellbecauseIamfocusedonmakingsure
thatstudentsunderstoodtheconceptandnotifeverythingisspelledorpunctuatedcorrectly.This
doesbringtomindthatallstudentsarenotexplicitlytaughtgrammar.Whileitispossibleto
implicitlyteachgrammar,Ihavefoundthatsometimesstudentsneedexplicitgrammarrules
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 6
giventothem.GrammarisachallengeforeducatorsofELLstoobecausewefocussomuchon
theconceptofthecontentandtheoverallunderstandingofagenreofwritingthatstudentsgoon
inlifeneverknowingsubjectverbagreementorevenhowtomakeacompletesentence.I
believethatELLsdoneedsomekindofinstructiontocovertheseareas,butunfortunately,
schooldaysarenotstructuredtoaccommodatethatatall.So,howareourELLsexpectedto
writeinstandardEnglishwhenwedonotteachthatknowledgetothem?
Anotherthingthatteachersshouldbeawareofiswhotheirstudentsare.Teachersshould
bewellversedintheirstudentsbackgrounds,inordertofindthemostauthenticassessmentsto
(2006),awaytoreallygainasenseofthebackgroundsofstudentsistoouseapredictabilitylog.
In a predictability log, teachers should get answers to questions in six areas, which are language
use, knowledge, important events or experiences, narrative, relationship, and aesthetics and
ethics. In order to answer these questions, teachers could interview families and students, make a
home visit, and look through their cumulative record folders. That way, teachers can truly know
who they are teaching and how to design authentic assessments for them. Some students may
need to make a recording of them telling a story or make a drawing to tell their story, instead of
writing one. Whatever the case may be, teachers need to find assessments that can capture the
amount of English the student has actually acquired in the form that best fits their needs.
NYSESLAT Skills
that annually assesses the English language proficiency of ELLs in grades K through 12. This
assessment serves as a basis for program placement in various classroom settings, such as
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 7
monolingual, bilingual, ESL, and others. In order for students to be successful on the
NYSESLAT, they need to have a strong command of the English modalities of speaking,
listening, reading, and writing. The students performance on those modalities determines their
English language proficiency level. There are five levels of English language proficiency, which
are entering, emerging, transitioning, expanding, and commanding. The entering level is
considered to be where a beginner would be, while the commanding level is where a proficient
Since the NYSESLAT is an annual and progressive exam, students must continue to take
it until they pass with a commanding level in the English language. Therefore, student success
can be viewed in one of two ways, they have passed and tested out of the entire exam by scoring
commanding level, or they progressively score higher and higher levels as they take the exam
each year. As a bilingual teacher. I measure their progress from the latter, instead of the former,
which is how most teachers measure progress in my school. The reason being that it is easier to
help students become more proficient in English if you are focusing on how to help them
From experience, in order to best help ELL students who take the NYSESLAT, teachers
can use the results of the NYSESLAT to know their students English proficiency levels, but to
also focus on their performance in each modality. By focusing on each modality, teachers can
differentiate their lessons depending on the needs of their students, such as listening to
audiobooks for a student who scored low in the listening modality. Another idea would be to
have more moments for conversation and discussion for a student who did not perform as well in
the speaking modality. By working on each modality during daily lessons, students can progress
proficiency, but not necessarily academic success. Since the exam does not assess students
knowledge of content in any area, it should not be viewed as academic assessment. Although the
NYSESLAT is now thematic in correlation with grade level topics, the exam does not determine
if the student has learned any of the grade level material taught to them, such as place value or
the scientific method. Therefore, the NYSESLAT, at most, focuses on the language standards in
all modalities, but not necessarily the content-based standards. As a result, the NYSESLAT can
only determine how much English the child has acquired in each of the modalities, in order to
In contrast to the NYSESLAT, the New York State English Language Arts exam does
assess students academic knowledge of content because the exam addresses the English
Language Arts Common Core Standards. This means that students should know literary
elements, literary devices, and genres of writing in order to be successful on the exam. For
short answer questions from the Grade 7 NYS ELA Exam. One item, number 48, asks students to
analyze the theme of the accompanying story, and supporting their response with two details
from the story. The following question, 49, then asks students to explain how certain lines in the
story are important to the plot, and once again support with two details from the story. These
types of questions are directly linked to the ELA Common Core Standards for grade 7.
Therefore, they focused solely on the students academic knowledge of the material learned
the grade 7 NYSESLAT Exam, students are allowed to use information from the passage and
their own ideas to answer a more common knowledge topic, such as how people use electricity.
That way, students are allowed to use their background knowledge and experience with
electricity, in order to answer the question. Furthermore, they are even given a checklist to follow
while answering the question to ensure that it is complete. While it is slightly possible that some
immigrant students may not have used electricity in some rural areas, chances are most of them
have.
Not only do the questions vary greatly, but so do the passages. In the ELA Grade 7 Exam,
the story that accompanies questions 48 and 49 mentions a studio apartment, Picasso, Klee,
Monet, acrylic paint, an internship, and consumers. Most immigrant seventh graders will
probably have zero idea as to who the artists are, let alone types of paint, art internships, and
consumers. Since students, like those in my classroom, are forced to take the NYS ELA Exam
after only being in the United States for one year, it is very unfair to expect them to even come
close to approaching the standards with these types of passages. The exam does not lend itself to
allowing students to use their background knowledge on most, if not all of the exam, because the
topics, passages, and questions are very elaborate, only academic, and highly inferential. In
contrast, the passages in the NYSELAT are more relatable, since they cover topics that the
students may have heard of or experienced. In addition, some students may not even need to read
the passage in some instances because they can rely on their own knowledge and experience,
such as the question on electricity. However, on the NYS ELA Exam, students are required to
provide two details from the passage to support their answers, otherwise they lose points.
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 10
Both exams do require knowledge on the concept of reading a passage and writing a
response to a question. Also, both exams score mechanics. The major difference being that the
NYS ELA scores short responses based on the topic sentence and the two details that address the
questions and comprehension of the passage, while the NYSESLAT looks for varied sentences,
scores the craft of writing and answering a response, rather than effective use of evidence from
the passage and how well students understood the passage. Moreover, when students receive a
language proficiency level from the NYSESLAT, they do not feel as unsuccessful as they do
when they receive a numerical score, like a 1, from the NYS ELA Exam. Clearly, the
NYSESLAT is for the betterment of the immigrant student, while the NYS ELA Exam feels like
their downfall.
Adequacy of NYSESLAT
proficiency progress of a student. It places them in different levels of proficiency based on that
progress. While the NYSESLAT is less pressure-filled and allows students to use their own
knowledge to answer questions, it does not serve as a good basis to know how students will
perform in mainstream content classes. These days, content classes are aligned to common core
answer questions does not directly connect to the realities of the classroom. I have students who
scored on a commanding level on the NYSESLAT, but yet write on a level 2. Most of it being
due to them being below grade level in reading. That being said, I have no idea how they score a
THEAUTHENTICITYOFTHENYSESLATASSESSMENT 11
commanding level on the reading portion of the NYSESLAT, if they are below grade level in
Furthermore, the NYSESLAT allows for scorers to give students a 1 even if their
responses are completely irrelevant, which makes no sense. In the classroom, students are given
scores of 0 when their writing is completely irrelevant. These types of inconsistencies leave
major gaps between their language proficiency and their academic classroom performance. In
my years of teaching, I have never encountered a student who had a lower language proficiency
level, like transitioning or entering, and 3s and 4s in their academic work in ELA. In that
respect, the NYSESLAT appears highly accurate. Yet, when a student is scored on commanding
or expanding level on the NYSESLAT, but receiving 1s and 2s in their writing and are two or
more years behind in reading in the classroom, the NYSESLAT appears completely inaccurate. If
students score a commanding level on the NYSESLAT, the expectation is that when they are
placed in a mainstream classroom, they will be performing at least on grade level, which is
hardly ever the case. Additionally, students could still take the NYSESLAT during their first
year in the United States, but should be given two or three years of instruction in English before
even taking the ELA exam, that way, they will not be boxed into a level 1 from the beginning.
Hence, in order to best address the needs of our students and to make them feel successful both
on the NYSESLAT and ELA, we need to meet in the middle. The difficulty of the ELA needs to
be reduced and taken after a few years of English instruction, while the difficulty of the
accurately aligned, students who score commanding on the NYSELAT can actually continue to
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