The number of English learners (ELs) in U.S. schools has increased exponentially in the last three decades, but educational attainment and achievement for these students have not. Academic outcomes for this group have remained stubbornly flat, revealing an entrenched achievement gap between EL and non-EL students.
This project investigates the validity, feasibility, and usability of classroom tasks designed to measure challenging mathematics and science knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of lower English proficient English learners, and designed to provide valued learning progress data to the students and their teachers.
Key components of the assessments include interactive, multipart performance tasks that dynamically present experimental or authentic contexts and target questions, using multiple screens and a range of representations (e.g., simulations, animations, image rollovers, sound, interactive sequences) in addition to minimum amounts of text and oral support as needed for precision. Depending on the nature of the task questions, students will be asked to respond by building, modeling, assembling, categorizing, or producing relational or inferential explanations using screen stimuli. A total of 4 middle school end-of-unit modules, each with about 5 performance tasks and a total of about 20 items and 25 score points each, will be constructed to measure terminal and supporting KSAs. |
