Education Week - November 17, 2021 - 8

The Complicated Picture of English-Learners'
Progress During the Pandemic
By Ileana Najarro
The latest data on how Englishlearners
around the country fared in
their language development during
the pandemic are out. But there's a
major catch: About 30 percent fewer
students took a widely used standardized
assessment in 2021 than
did two years prior, making the data
difficult to analyze over time.
Students also took the test at different
points in the school year, with
some taking it up to 15 months later
than their peers in other places, according
to a new report from the
WIDA consortium that offers the
online assessment. Thirty-six states,
several United States territories, and
agencies such as the Bureau of Indian
Education use WIDA assessments,
with nearly half of all English-learners
nationally taking those tests.
While it's tempting to look at the
aggregate results, which show overall
declines, particularly in speaking
skills, and indicate that Englishlearners
are worse off than they were
before the pandemic, experts caution
that the test results are skewed and
have limited uses. The WIDA data
problems are indicative of a pervasive
challenge educators and researchers
face right now in trying to pin down
student achievement across the subjects:
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted
assessments, leaving major
asterisks on most data collection.
English-proficiency tests, offered
by WIDA and others, are required
by state and federal law for ELL students
in kindergarten through 12th
grade. They measure students' English-proficiency
in four domains-
listening, speaking, reading, and
writing-and are used to determine
if a student will remain in an Englishlearner
program.
Because the WIDA test is generally
given in the spring, schools were
largely able to administer the 2020 assessment
prior to shutdowns that year.
WIDA, one of the nation's largest
English-learner testing programs,
required that its 2021 assessment
be taken in person-even in places
where students were still learning remotely.
That move, stemming from
concerns about the validity of a takehome
test and students' inability to
access the internet, caused some uproar.
Advocates claimed it was unfair
and possibly dangerous to ask these
students-most of whom are Latino,
Asian, and Black-to go into school
buildings with COVID-19 raging in
their communities.
While the 2021 WIDA data show
where test-takers were in terms of
their language skills at the time of
the test, experts say using the data
to make assumptions about Englishlearners'
proficiency and growth as a
population is problematic.
" I would not use [2021] test data to
say, 'Oh, this is where we're going as
a nation,' other than to see if it aligns
with something that we have some
evidence of locally, " said Kristina
Robertson, the English-language-development
program administrator at
Roseville Area Schools in Minnesota.
Instead, the main value in the latest
WIDA scores, experts say, is in
considering them a starting point in
assessing English-learners' language
proficiency and growth during the
pandemic.
There are major caveats
in reviewing results
The 30 percent decline in Englishlearners
taking the language assessment
in 2021 raises a number of questions
both in terms of students tested
and those whose scores are missing.
For instance, the results may be
rosier or worse off than the true results
depending on whether the students
who happened to be tested had
higher or lower levels of language
proficiency than those not tested,
said Gary Cook, senior director of assessment
at WIDA. This prevents an
apples-to-apples comparison to both
past and future aggregate results.
There are even concerns among
State Test Results Are In.
Are They Useless?
A sign is posted at the entrance
to a hall for a test-preparation
class. Assessment experts say
educators should use data from
spring 2021 tests with caution.
By Catherine Gewertz
Educators have been bracing for
them, and now they're here: the first
state test results since COVID-19 interrupted
K-12 schooling. Districts,
states, and schools are poring over
the data from spring 2021 tests, hoping
to understand exactly how-and
how badly-the pandemic affected
children's learning.
But even though educators are hungry
for insight, assessment experts are
urging caution. This year, more than
any in recent memory, calls for extreme
care and restraint when analyzing
statewide test scores, drawing conclusions,
and taking action, they say.
Like schooling itself, standardized
testing was deeply disrupted in many
ways last spring, which may have distorted
the meaning and utility of the
results. In some cases, state test data
will be virtually useless, the experts
say. In others, with thoughtful analysis,
the data can yield insights that
could help leaders and educators
allocate resources and help children
rebuild academic muscle.
Here are some key considerations-and
important cautions-for
state, district and school leaders, and
teachers, to bear in mind as they review
state test scores.
A lot happened with state tests in
2021 that could affect the results
In 2020, the U.S. Department of
Education allowed states to skip federally
required assessments. In 2021,
however, states had to administer
those tests. But that doesn't mean it
was business as usual.
In a handful of states, some students
took tests remotely, while others
took them in person. Massachusetts,
for instance, allowed students
in grades 3-8 to take remote tests if
their schools were in remote learning
mode, and more than 15 percent of
those students did so.
Some states made other changes
to their testing regimens. A few gave
shortened versions of their tests.
Colorado gave its English/language
arts test only in grades 3, 5, and 7 and
its math test only in grades 4, 6, and
8 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 17, 2021 | www.edweek.org
cent of their students.
" There was a wide variety in the
8. In California, some districts gave
the Smarter Balanced test, and others
used assessments of their choosing.
Many states saw fewer students
take the test than usual, though, and
that is the factor poised to exert the
most widespread influence on the
validity and comparability of state
test data. According to the Center
for Reinventing Public Education,
which has been monitoring states' responses
to COVID-19, of the 30 states
that have released test results so far,
only 14 reported test-participation
rates of 90 percent or more.
Some states reported participation
rates as low as 10 percent (New Mexico)
and 30 percent (Oregon). Participation
also varied markedly within
states: Colorado reported regional
participation rates ranging from
51 percent to 88 percent.
A number of factors fueled low
participation rates, including many
parents who chose not to send their
children into school buildings simply
to take a test. And schools likely felt
less pressure to insist that students
show up for testing, since the Education
Department waived its accountability
rules that normally penalize
schools for testing fewer than 95 perways
testing played out, " said Terra
Wallin, who advised the Education
Department on assessment and accountability
from 2014 to 2017 and
now oversees those issues for Education
Trust, a civil rights advocacy
group. " There are still ways states
could look at general patterns [in
test-score data], do a higher-level examination,
to help them think about
how best to use federal funding for
recovery, but they need to proceed
with caution. "
Ask key questions before
deciding how to use the data
Experts say it's important to ask
three crucial questions about your
state test data.
nDid any of our students take the test
remotely? If so, those scores shouldn't
be viewed as comparable to the
scores of students who took it in person.
That " mode effect " is a key tenet
Alex Brandon/AP
sesame/DigitalVision Vectors
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - November 17, 2021

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