Making the Cut: Indiana School Accountability and English Learner Test Performance

• In Event: 31.091 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 31.091-10 - Assessment in Cross-Cultural Settings: Issues, Challenges, and Successes

Abstract

Indiana English learners constitute not only a rapidly growing segment of the state’s school-aged population, but those classified as limited English proficient are also low performers on the state’s standardized test. The author of this embedded mixed methods study examined the complex relationship between accountability mandates, student test performance, and the perspectives and decision making of school personnel. The constant comparative method was used to analyze data from interviews with school personnel in a rural Indiana school district and descriptive statistics were used to analyze four years of student test scores. Findings indicate the district has implemented a number of programmatic and instructional changes and elucidate the level of English proficiency required to pass the state test.

Author

• April M. Burke, Central Michigan University