THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008
New Program To Help Dist. 214 ELL Learners
Township High School Dist. 214 school board members recently approved a district-wide program that will help English Language Learner (ELL) students achieve higher scores in state testing.
In November 2007, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced that the IMAGE test would no longer be used as an academic achievement assessment measure for ELL students across the state.
The ISBE determined that in order to comply with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates, that all juniors would take the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE), including ELL students.
According to school officials, the PSAE was never intended as a reliable nor valid measure of academic achievement for ELL students. The ISBE proposed a list of accommodations to attempt to alleviate the concerns raised by schools across the state.
Students in Dist. 214 who are not proficient in English will be given two options when they take the PSAE, which in cludes the ACT test, during the last week of April.
The state is allowing accom modations for those students who possess fewer English skills. However, if the student chooses to allow an accommo dation, the test score cannot be considered an official ACT score and it also can't be sent to col leges for admission purposes.
The first accommodation is for lower-level ELL students. Once a student reaches frustra tion level during test taking, it is suggested they stop and dis continue the test, according to Assoc. Supt. for Educational Services Dr. Mike Damyanovich, and Director of English Language Learner (ELL) Norm Kane.
Damyanovich said the district projects that 25% of ELL students, all juniors, will fall into this category based on pro ficiency tests and teacher rec ommendation.
The second accommodation is for intermediate or advanced ELL students. They will be al lowed extra time, time-and-a-half, to complete the test.
According to Damyanovich, the district projects the remaining 75% based on proficiency teats and teacher recommendations will be able to navigate through the test and actually "benefit" from the extra time. The district anticipates a small number of students in the ELL program will want to take the regular PSAE test so that they can report the scores to colleges. In order to ensure that financial considerations do not drive this decision, district officials will remind all current ELL juniors that the district will pay for them to take the ACT as seniors. Officials will discourage most students from taking the test without any accommodations.
Numerous educators believe ELL students will have a diffi cult time with the new test and expect scores to fall below the standards set by No Child Left Behind.
English learners in the past took the IMAGE test, which was con sidered an easier test for ELL students.