Test Accommodations for LEP Students (continued)

Rivera and Stansfield (2001) examined the effects of linguistic simplification on fourth- and sixth-grade science test items used in the Delaware Student Testing Program. At each grade level, four parallel 10-item testlets were included on an operational statewide assessment. Items differed only in that on one testlet, they were linguistically simplified by experts at The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education, while on the other, the standard wording was used. A total of 11,306 non-LEP students and 109 LEP students took one of the eight forms of the test. Because the number of LEP students was split among the eight forms, the number of LEP students taking each test form was small, ranging from 6 to 23 students. While the researchers caution that due to the limited sample size, nothing can be generalized about linguistic simplification as an aid to LEP students, the findings for the large non-LEP sample are quite clear. The linguistic simplification was not helpful to non-LEP students who received it. This provides evidence that linguistic simplification is not a threat to score comparability.

The result of the process of linguistic simplification must be to make the item accessible to ELLs without altering the difficulty of the content. However, at times, language and content interact, and in these cases, it is not possible to linguistically simplify items without simplifying the content. Further studies are necessary to address the usefulness of linguistic simplification for LEP students taking formal and high-stakes assessments. If experimental studies involving large samples of LEP students who are randomly assigned to treatments show that those LEP students who receive simplified items perform statistically and meaningfully better than those who receive the regular, un-simplified version of such items, then the utility of linguistic simplification in meeting the needs of LEP test-takers will be established. At the moment, the research shows that when properly carried out, linguistic simplification need not be considered a threat to score comparability.

References

Abedi, J., Lord, C., & Hofstetter, C. (1998). Impact of Selected Background Variables on Students' NAEP Math Performance. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation/National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing.

Abedi, J., Lord, C., Hofstetter, C., & Baker, E. (2000). Impact of accommodation strategies on English language learners' test performance. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 19 (3): 16-26.

American Educational Research Association (2000). Position statement of the American Educational Research Association concerning high-stakes testing in pre-K-12 education. Educational Researcher, 29 (8), 24-25.

American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education (1999). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, D.C.: American Educational Research Association.