Title III ELL Symposium July 29 th & 30th, 2013 Justin Porter Director, Assessments for Special Populations Student Assessment Division Texas Education Agency ELL Assessment Update

Disclaimer  These slides have been prepared by the Student Assessment Division of the Texas Education Agency  If any slide is changed for local use, please remove the TEA footer at the bottom of the slide

What’s New at TEA? New Director Assessments for students served by special education and assessments for ELLs are now the responsibility of the Assessments for Special Populations Unit in the Student Assessment Division. TETN dates have been set for the fall of September 9 from 9:15 until12:15 – ELL Assessment Update October 8 from 9:00 until12:00 – LPAC Assessment TOT for ESCs TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

Topics TELPAS ELL Progress Measure to be implemented in 2014 STAAR L TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

TELPAS

TELPAS Standard Setting TELPAS standards were last reviewed in Changes in the academic achievement test make it necessary to look at the language proficiency assessment.

What does Advanced High mean?

8 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium TAKS to STAAR: Differences in Curriculum and Rigor Compared to TAKS, STAAR has a stronger emphasis on rigor is a more comprehensive system with standards aligned from elementary to high school

99 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium STAAR: A New Assessment Model Assessments are vertically aligned within a content area from one grade/course to the next. The focus is on the most essential curriculum. Content and skills are addressed at a greater depth and cognitive complexity.

Transition from TAKS to STAAR How does the transition from TAKS to STAAR impact the TELPAS reading standards? Has the increase in rigor associated with STAAR changed the meaning of “grade-appropriate” in relation to state assessments? TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

STAAR reading to TELPAS reading: Text Complexity Analysis Conducted as part of preparations for the standards review meeting Compared the text complexity between selected STAAR passages and Advanced High TELPAS reading passages Done for grades 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10/English II TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

STAAR reading to TELPAS reading: Text Complexity Analysis Together with Pearson, TEA created a rubric for raters to use when evaluating the complexity of a text. The rubric had descriptors for four specific areas: Purpose and Meaning Organization and Structure Language Knowledge Demands For each area, raters assigned one of four ratings to the text: Not Complex Slightly Complex Moderately Complex Very Complex

STAAR reading to TELPAS reading: Text Complexity Analysis For the purposes of this analysis, differences between academic achievement and language proficiency were not the focus The goal was to attempt to quantify the difference in complexity from TELPAS reading texts to STAAR reading texts TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

STAAR reading to TELPAS reading: Text Complexity Analysis TEA staff from the STAAR reading, and TELPAS teams, as well Pearson content staff worked together to form the ratings. Differences in complexity were found to be much more dramatic at the upper grades and much less apparent at the lower grades. Results were not surprising given the relationship between language proficiency and academic achievement across the grade levels. TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

TELPAS Reading Standard Setting TELPAS has four proficiency levels: Advanced High Advanced Intermediate Beginning Reading test proficiency level is determined by scale score cuts. Three proficiency level cut scores were determined in 2008 to define the four proficiency levels – TAKS assessment program. The standards review committees will make recommendations about where the proficiency level cut scores should be – STAAR assessment program.

16 Global Definition of Advanced High Advanced High students have attained the command of English that enables them, with minimal second language acquisition support, to engage in regular, all-English academic instruction at their grade level. Key features – Ability to engage in grade-appropriate academic instruction with minimal second language acquisition support 16 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

17 Global Definition of Advanced Advanced students are able to engage in grade- appropriate academic instruction in English, although ongoing second language acquisition support is needed to help them understand and use grade-appropriate language. These students function beyond the level of simple, routinely used English. Key features – Ability to engage in grade-appropriate academic instruction with second language acquisition support 17 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

18 Global Definition of Intermediate Intermediate students do have some ability to understand and use English. They can function in social and academic settings as long as the tasks require them to understand and use simple language structures and high-frequency vocabulary in routine contexts. Key features – Limited ability, simple language structures, high-frequency vocabulary, routine contexts 18 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

19 Global Definition of Beginning Beginning students have little or no ability to understand and use English. They may know a little English but not enough to function meaningfully in social or academic settings. Key features – Little or no English ability 19 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

20 Neighborhood for Advanced High cut 100% Meeting Standard0% Meeting Standard TELPAS reading Neighborhood for Advanced cut 20 Neighborhoods for Intermediate, Advanced and Advanced High Neighborhood for Intermediate cut TELPAS Reading Standard Setting Neighborhood for Scale Score Cuts

TELPAS Reading Standard Setting New standards will be applied to TELPAS reading beginning with the 2014 administration. Due to the fact that the reading domain is weighted heavier in composite proficiency level calculations, districts may see slight shifts in composite scores for students. TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

Grades 3–12 TELPAS % Students at Each Proficiency Level Listening B I A H Speaking B I A H Reading B I A H Writing B I A H 12– – – – – – – – B = Beginning I = Intermediate A = Advanced H = Advanced High New Test Former Test (RPTE)

TELPAS Composite Ratings 2006 — 2013 Percent Reaching Advanced High K TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium Composite weights have not changed TELPAS reading tests changed in 2008 for grades 2—12

2013 Audit of TELPAS Writing 2000 writing collections from across the state have been collected and are being reviewed right now. Training histories of selected raters were reviewed as part of the audit process. Audit results and technical documents will be posted to the TEA website in late 2013 or early TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

TELPAS Release There will be a full release of TELPAS forms for all grade bands in These are to be released in an online format to allow them to be seen in the TestNav environment, just as the students see the operational test. TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

ELL Progress Measure

TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium 27 ELL Policies for STAAR Texas Administrative Code All ELLs required to participate in all STAAR grade 3–8 and EOC assessments Exemptions from testing not permitted except for qualifying asylee refugees in grades 3 through 8 TAC § (h) requires policies for including academic performance of ELLs in accountability measures to take into account second language acquisition developmental needs of this student population.

Impetus for ELL Progress Measures in Texas 1. Texas ELL Assessment Focus Group indicated: Too often ELLs who qualified for linguistic accommodations or exemptions were not included in campus and district focused efforts to help struggling students because they were not counted in state reporting and accountability. For STAAR program, it would be preferable to eliminate exemptions and find fair and appropriate ways to assess ELLs and be accountable for meeting their unique needs 2. National ELL policy experts now officially recommend that states create ELL-specific measures of progress for use in federal accountability systems. 3. Policymakers and stakeholders would like more similar state and federal policies in new accountability system TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

29 Recommendations of National Working Group on ELL Policy 1.Establish state-expected timeframe for second language acquisition Make timeframe challenging but achievable 4 to 5 years is group’s recommendation for a defensible timeframe based on best currently available second language acquisition research ELLs are diverse; time required for second language acquisition is affected by many factors and individual student characteristics. This group recommends, however, that state’s timeline not exceed 5 years for an individual ELL.

30 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium Recommendations of National Working Group on ELL Policy 2.For ELLs tested in English, incorporate English language proficiency (ELP) into accountability provisions for content area achievement using expected timeframe from Recommendation 1 to the extent possible. Language plays significant role in knowledge acquisition and content mastery Students should meet grade-level achievement standards no later than when they are expected to be proficient in English based on their initial ELP level and time in U.S. schools Differentiate content-area performance expectations by expected ELP level for each grade

31 Recommendations of National Working Group on ELL Policy 3.Hold schools and districts accountable for meeting ELLs’ content- area performance expectations taking into account students’ level of ELP Rationale for having different content-area performance expectations tied to different levels of ELP lowers standards for ELLs: Standards do not differ in terms of ELLs’ schooling outcomes All ELLs should achieve proficiency in English and meet grade-level performance standards in English within state’s timeframe for second language acquisition A traditional one-size-fits-all performance standard does not take into account the developmental role that language proficiency plays in content learning

TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium 32 What will the Texas ELL Progress Measure look like? ELL Progress Measure will: take into account the amount of time needed to acquire English language affects time needed to fully learn and demonstrate grade-level academic skills in English be applied to all content areas

Initial Years in Schools Initial TELPAS Composite Proficiency Level Plan 1 Beginning and Extenuating Circumstances 5-Year Plan 1Beginning4-Year Plan 1Intermediate3-Year Plan 1Advanced2-Year Plan 1Advanced High1-Year Plan 2 Intermediate or Below and Extenuating Circumstances 5-Year Plan 2Intermediate or Below4-Year Plan 2Advanced3-Year Plan 2Advanced High2-Year Plan 3 Advanced or Below and Extenuating Circumstances 5-Year Plan 3Advanced or Below4-Year Plan 3Advanced High3-Year Plan 4 Advanced High or Below and Extenuating Circumstances 5-Year Plan 4 Any TELPAS Score4-Year Plan ELL Progress Measure Plan Expectation 5-Yr Plan 1 st Year (E1) 2 nd Year (E1) 3 rd Year (E2) 4 th Year (E3) 5 th Year (LII) 4-Yr Plan 1 st Year (E1) 2 nd Year (E2) 3 rd Year (E3) 4 th Year (LII) 3-Yr Plan 1 st Year (E2) 2 nd Year (E3) 3 rd Year (LII) 2-Yr Plan 1 st Year (E3) 2 nd Year (LII) 1-Yr Plan 1 st Year (LII) DRAFT

TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium 34 How will the ELL Progress Measure be used? ELL Progress Measure will be incorporated into the 2014 state accountability reports Used to calculate accountability for both Index 1 & 2 For detailed information regarding the accountability system: nical_ pdf

STAAR L

2013 STAAR L Administrations Online interface provided certain linguistic accommodations for qualifying students: Clarification in English at the word or phrase level for pre- determined words Words read aloud at the word-by-word level 35,000 students across the state were administered STAAR L across all administration in 2013 TEA – ELL Assessment Update for July 2013 Title III ELL Symposium

STAAR L Practice Sets The agency is currently working with the contractor to produce practice sets for STAAR L Anticipated to be released in early 2014 They are anticipated to be in an online format similar to TELPAS so that students may experience the items as they will be presented in the operational administration.

Contact Information Justin Porter, Director of Assessments for Special Populations (512)