Contribution to Book
Assessing English Language Proficiency in the United States
Language Testing and Assessment
(2017)
Abstract
The 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) ushered in a series of important changes for the education of students classified as English language learners, including greater attention to achievement and equity through mandated evaluation and reporting on the part of districts and states of student subgroups. This feature of the ESEA reauthorization and the role of high-stakes testing in general has fueled extensive discussions of educational reform in the years since NCLB, continuing into the present day when the accountability requirements of NCLB are coupled with the benchmarks and assessments set forth in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). While the CCSS and their accompanying assessments strive to address early criticisms of NCLB such as the narrowing of curriculum, states have also had to develop or adopt new standards for English as a second language (most frequently referred to as English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards). These state ELP Standards are an essential and defining element of the education of English language learners (ELLs) in the context of the CCSS for the foreseeable future and will dictate exactly how learning English is defined for this population, whether a common definition of English language learners can be established, and the degree to which the United States can provide a first-class education for students who range from emergent to accomplished multicompetent users of two languages.
Keywords
- English language learners,
- Assessment,
- English Language Proficiency Standards
Disciplines
Publication Date
2017
Editor
Elana Shohamy, Iair G. Or, Stephen May
Publisher
Springer, Cham
Series
Encyclopedia of Language and Education
ISBN
978-3-319-02261-1
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-02261-1_30
Publisher Statement
SJSU users: use the following link to login and access the book chapter via SJSU databases.
Citation Information
Luis E. Poza and Guadalupe Valdés. "Assessing English Language Proficiency in the United States" 3rdLanguage Testing and Assessment (2017) p. 427 - 440 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/luis_poza/14/