Accountability Reform and Responsive Assessment for Immigrant Youth Purpose

• In Event: Imagining Sites of Possibility in Immigrant and Refugee Education

Abstract

Immigrant students have been linguistically and culturally disadvantaged by recent accountability systems (Jaffe-Walter, 2008). Recent school accountability systems often rely heavily on standardized test scores to make determinations about student learning, teacher effectiveness, and school success while neglecting to consider other important variables (O’Neil, 2016). Those critical of these accountability systems argue that an unbalanced reliance on standardized tests has unintended consequences. For example, when teachers feel pressure to “teach to the test”, or adapt their teaching practices so their students can perform well on high-stakes assessments, they have less time to teach other content areas not explicitly tested (Darling-Hammond & Adamson, 2014; Darling-Hammond, Ancess & Falk, 1995). This type of accountability system has a disproportionately negative impact on immigrant students and English Learners (ELs) (Dabach, 2014; Jaffe-Walter, 2016; Valenzuela, 1999).
Under the most recent policy of school accountability, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), schools can incorporate assessments other than standardized tests in their accountability systems to better determine the depth and breadth of student learning. Performance based assessment tasks (PBATs), like portfolios, may reduce some of the negative impacts of high-stakes assessments on immigrant students and ELs (Holme, Richards, Jimerson, & Cohen, 2010; Ou, 2010; Papay, Murnane, & Willett, 2010; Reardon & Kurlaender, 2009). PBATs are responsive assessments that evaluate problem-solving skills and the ability to defend original statements using textual evidence and to synthesize content from multiple disciplines, among other things. This key change in accountability policy may be particularly beneficial when educating and assessing immigrant youth (Gijbels et al., 2005). This paper explores how teachers at one high school that serves only newly arrived immigrant youth are adapting their practices to prepare students for both high-stakes standardized tests and PBATs which are both required for graduation.

Methods
This paper draws on data from a larger ethnographic study of a high school for recently arrived immigrant teenagers.

Findings
We find that teachers have embraced the use of the PBAT as an appropriate and responsive form of assessment for their immigrant students. They have adapted their instructional choices to better prepare students to produce PBATs. Teachers across content areas are using project-based learning techniques to simultaneously teach both content and English, and they agree that students develop better language skills while preparing for PBAT requirements than for the state ELA exit exam. They also believe that students are better prepared for post-secondary opportunities.

Discussion
That teachers modify instruction based on the assessment is consistent with prior literature. What is new is that teachers and administrators are not resistant to these changes. As an assistant principal at IHS explained, “It is no secret that assessment drives instruction.” However, he goes on to say, “I just happen to like this assessment, so I don’t have a problem with that.” Findings from this study show that systems of accountability that include more than just standardized tests can be rigorous in terms of content mastery and also address the special language needs of immigrant students.

Authors

• Chandler Patton Miranda, New York University

• Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, New York University