STEPHANIE STAUFFER: Okay, so the first thing we wanna consider is what is the definition of an English Language Learner, who is categorized as an ESL, as an English Language Learner within our school system, because not
everybody who speaks a language other than English is categorized as an English Language Learner. We have plenty of people who are a balanced bilinguals who don't ESL support services. And once a
student is categorized as an English Language Learner in the school system that has implications, they need to be tested every year with the English Language Proficiency Test, and they are then
eligible for ESL services as well. So we have three parts to the definition of who is an ELL on the screen in front of you. The first part concerns what their environment is, where they come from,
what language they speak as a dominant language or mother tongue. And so on the number one, the student wasn't-- either wasn't born in the United States and speaks another language, or was born in the
United States but has, as another language, as a native language or a dominant language, [inaudible] which other than English. That's the most common situation in Pennsylvania. Those two are the most
common situations in Pennsylvania, along with the third situation mentioned here. The second one is a Native American or Alaskan native whose environment uses a language other than English. And the
third is then the migratory student whose native language is other than English and comes from an environment where a language other than English is dominant. So I-- all of these three points share
the commonality of coming from a background where another language is dominant. This is very similar to a student whose home language is sign-- who's ASL and has to learn English in school. The second
criterion is that-- and this is-- it says and number one has sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language, and that would be sufficient difficulty to make
school difficult. And finally, has the difficulties that may deny the student the opportunity to learn successfully in the classrooms where the language of instruction is English, or to participate
fully in our society. [ Pause ] Okay, English Language Learners are identified and placed, they're identified in a number of-- by using multiple criteria. One very important criterion is the result of
the home language survey, and this is a survey that is completed when in-- when a student is enrolled, and this helps to identify English Language Learners by picking up where students come from an
environment where language other than English is spoken. But again, as I mentioned on the first slide, that's not a fail-safe criterion that another-- another language is a dominant language at home.
Often children might have immigrant parents who speak another language but that they have learned English already to-- they're highly proficient, and they might not need ESL services. So you wanna use
criteria that in-- that are available to you that are in addition to the home language survey, such as observations, interviews, any school work or course grades that they might have from other
locations that they picked up before they enrolled in your district. Once a student is identified as an English Language Learner, then the schools in Pennsylvania must administer an English language
proficiency placement test, that's called the WAPT, the WIDA Placement Test-- Access Placement Test. And this determines the English proficiency of the student, both in their level of proficiency and
their learning needs-- helps to identify their learning needs. [ Pause ] Now, I know that this-- the presentation has been focused mainly on the PSSA as a statewide assessment, that students with IEPs
will be taking. But I also wanna mention that English Language Learners take-- yes, they do take the state academic achievement tests, the PSSA, the PSSA-Modified, or the PASA. But then every English
Language Learner must also take every year, from K through 12, the access for ELLs, which is that English Language Proficiency Test to test their progress and attainment of both social and academic
language skill, and especially skills related to mathematics, social studies, science, and other core subject areas. On these next two slides, I'll elaborate a little bit on those statewide
assessments. And you see in front of you the list of statewide assessments that the students take, the PSSA or the PASA Mathematics Grades 3 through 8 and 11. Every English Language Learner will take
that regardless of whether this is their first year in ESL services or their third year. There is a PSSA-Modified available for Mathematics this year that begins with Grade 4. It's not
available in Grade 3. So starting with Grade 4, either you take the PSSA or the PSSA Modified Mathematics Test. ESL students also take PSSA or PASA Science Test - Grades 4, 8, and 11. Next year, there
will be a Modified Science Test available. ESL students who are-- have been enrolled in a US school for more than one year are required to take the PSSA Reading Test, or the PASA Reading Test - Grades
3 through 8, and 11. And this date was mentioned during Diane Simaska's presentation, but I will mention it again here. We're looking for enrollment on or after April-- sorry, on or after March 28,
2009. March 28, 2009, for exemption or possible excusal from the Reading Test, the PSSA Reading or PASA Reading Test, that same date of enrollment in a US school would be the date you would look at
for the exemption or the excusal from the PSSA Writing Test, and that's given in Grades 5, 8, and 11. One thing you might wanna think about when you are excusing a student from-- and because they have
ES-- ELL status, excusing them from the PSSA Reading Test is that if the student actually has come to you, they're in their first year of enrollment in a US school, but they have pretty high
proficiency, and you think that they might meet the state's exit criteria, so that they would be proficient enough to exit from ESL services by the end of the year, if this student is in a grade where
the PSSA is given, you might wanna consider having them sit for the test [inaudible] test score is used as part of the portfolio that goes to determine whether or not the student may exit from the
program. If they don't take the test, they won't have that piece of data to help them make the exit decision. [ Pause ] I also wanna point out then a little more information about this state English
Language Proficiency Test. It is mandatory for all ELLs in Pennsylvania, whether those ELLs are titles reserved or not. And it is mandatory for every English Language Learner Grades K through 12. This
test is developed by a consortium called the WIDA Consortium. We are a member, and we get a lot of great professional development, a lot of service from the consortium, and we're very pleased that
we're able to belong. Our state standards are derived from the WIDA, our state English language proficiency [inaudible] derived from the WIDA standards and more information about the consortium can be
found at the links that I've provided on the slide. So when it comes to English Language Learners, who also have IEPs [inaudible], who determines what the testing accommodations-- which testing
accommodations should be used which are appropriate. Well, that very light bullet point at the top of the slide, that's the most important point here, that for students who are duly identified in this
way, the IEP team should be aware of the ELL's specific needs, and they should cooperate in identifying these ELL specific accommodations. On the second bullet point, you want to involve their-- the
appropriate personnel. So at your school or in your district, there should be-- if there are ELL students, there should be an ESL or bilingual education coordinator staff who takes care of the ESL
bilingual children. Perhaps they come from the intermediate unit, or perhaps they're on the staff in your school or district. And you should involve the parents, sometimes the children themselves may
be involved, really, it's a-- the work of a team. This determination has to be done just as for the IEP, on at least an annual basis, and it has to be done individually, not for groups of English
Language Learners, but to take each individuals situation, language learning background and special education needs into consideration. [ Pause ] Now, just as with-- okay, just as with students who
are not ELLs, but who have IEPs, you do carefully need to consider which accommodations that are available are actually applicable to your individual student. Again, as all of our presenters expressed
the student's familiarity with the accommodations is really key, so we don't wanna introduce accommodations in the testing situation that are not familiar to the student, and I will use the example of
the student who might have arrived the-- be newly arrived in the United States, newly enrolled in your school, who comes here to the seventh grade with no literacy skills, either in their native
language or in English. And for this student, certain accommodations would not be appropriate, for example, you wouldn't offer that student a dictionary, because that student can't read. Instead, you
would offer that student an interpreter as they develop their English skills and their literacy skills. But later on, as they develop reading skills, then perhaps that dictionary or a dual language
version of teaching or assessment materials may be appropriate. So again, just monitoring progress and reviewing annually or of course, more often, will help to determine which accommodations are
applicable. So now we get to the accommodations that are specifically available to ELLs, but not to other students, and there are three. The first is word-to-word translation dictionaries. The second
is qualified interpreters or site translators, and the third is that -- specifically for Spanish, because we have a larger population of Spanish speakers in Pennsylvania than the other languages that
are spoken here, we do offer a printed Spanish-English bilingual version of some of our tests. I will expand on each of these types of accommodations on the next slides. I do wanna point out that all
of these accommodations for English Language Learners are voluntary and not mandatory. Under that first type of accommodation, the word-to-word dictionary, let me be clear that that's a-- that's
shorthand, you'll find that word-to-word dictionaries might actually be words to phrase, an English word for a foreign phrase, or an English phrase for a foreign phrase, they might give-- the
dictionary might give a translation of an idiom such as it's raining cats and dogs. Now that's probably not an idiom that would appear on any of our state assessments on-- unless it's in a reading
passage, then it would be translated. But let's say it did, you wouldn't take its raining cats and dogs and try to translate that word for word literally into Hutterite or Arabic. You would want to
rephrase it and say it's raining heavily. So a word-to-word, or word-to-phrase dictionary will often do that for you. And those have permission-- those you have permission to use-- the ELL has
permission to use. The dictionary should be without the definitions and without pictures. A definition is something that elaborates and expands to explain the meaning of the word, and of course, the
picture is the same way. Now, dictionaries with definitions and with pictures, or even pictured-- purely pictured dictionaries, are wonderful, wonderful instructional tools for English Language
Learners, but they're not appropriate for the assessment. So we-- you should note that for the Mathematics PSSA, the Mathematics PSSA-M and the Science PSSA, these are permitted. But they're not
permitted for any part of the Reading Test nor for any part of the Writing Test. We also permit, just as we do for ASL. We permit qualified interpreters or site translators. And again, those-- that's
for the content of the Mathematics PSSA, Mathematics PSSA-M and Science PSSA only. It would be a violation of the-- it-- sorry, it would invalidate testing of the reading construct and the writing
construct to read aloud those test questions with reading passages, so we don't allow interpreters or site translators to provide services for either those two tests, except for the translation of the
writing essay prompt. With that writing essay prompt, we want the student to not to have any barriers to understanding what the-- what they're being asked to do. So that's why we permit the
translation of that prompt. And the translation may be into any language other than English. The instructions for all of these tests may be translated, or as I-- or interpreted. So that's defined--
that's this distinction that you need to keep in mind that for every single test, the instructions may be translated, but not the test questions or answer choices or passages for reading and writing.
Translation should be literal where appropriate. I've already mentioned the idiom example if it's raining cats and dogs with being should be very rendered faithfully, but we shouldn't elaborate or
explain what that means. And we have more information for districts who need to use site translators in our PSSA and PSSA-M accommodations guidelines for English Language Learners. This slide just
summarizes the tests for which now Spanish-English side by side versions are available. There're available in PSSA Mathematics, PSSA-M Mathematics, and PSSA Science, but not for Reading and not for
Writing. And for students who do need these support in Spanish, we do ask that you provide-- that you order, just as you would order from DRC any of the other accommodated versions that you order the
Spanish-English version for those students. And if it should happen that a student needs a read aloud, of-- if a student needs an oral interpretation of the Spanish version, that they should actually
have these-- the existing Spanish-English printed version read aloud by its test administrator who should have Spanish proficiency. We point out that students who had been ESL students, who had been
English Language Learners, but who've met the state exit criteria and have passed out of the English Language Services, the ESL services, they're no longer classified as English Language Learners. And
so those ELL specific accommodations are no longer available to them. They-- those students will be monitored for the first year and the second year after they exited services to determine whether
they're still making progress, and whether the exit decision was appropriate, but they should not receive ELL specific accommodations after they've actually exited. For the PASA test, we-- in the PASA
Test Administrator Guide for last year, does provide an Appendix D on Page D1, I mention of student characteristic, so data on the student who was administered the test, and the PASA test does not
specifically address accommodations for English language learners. However, accommodations for students who need to use ASL are addressed there, and under student characteristics, or the student
situation, there is a place to mark whether the student needed foreign language interpretation. So as we here at the state, at PDE in assessment as we become more involved and more aware of the
accommodations that English as a Second Language learners who take the PASA as we become more aware of their requirements, I think we will be-- we'll be working on those accommodations for the PASA, I
want to invite those of you who work with the PASA population who would be English Language Learners to contact us if you have-- if you like to discuss these issues or have the information for us.
Just two more brief points before I finish and hand the microphone over to Diane to take questions. But for that access for ELL's test, the test that's required for K through 12, for English Language
Learners, because it's specifically to test the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills of English Language Learners, there are no ELL specific accommodations for that test. But of course,
English Language Learners with IEPs do have accommodations permitted on that test, and the test administrator manual for the access for ELLs provides comprehensive information on that. Now, please
consult with us, the PDE, on any accommodations for that test if you've got questions, and just remember that you don't wanna offer accommodations that will invalidate the skill that's being tested.
For example, you don't wanna read aloud the Reading Test. For the PASA population, right now, we don't have alternate access for ELLs, but one is in development by the WIDA Consortium, and the PDE
will keep the state updated on the progress of that test. This is my contact information, please do feel free to contact me if you have questions or if you wanna discuss any of these points, moving
forward, and we'll just flash up this familiar slide that we want those accommodations to be appropriate. Now, we're over to Diane. Thank you.
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