SAGE accommodations

SAGE accommodations policy

When he visited our class, Daron Kennett talked about the accommodations in the SAGE testing.  He said that all students received all the accommodations, which should limit the stigmatization involved when students are singled out for special accommodations.  He mentioned that all students could have the questions read aloud to them (except in the reading portion of the SAGE) with the screen reader, that students could change the background and text colors, that students have words defined in context in the questions, and that students have extra time. 
The text color isn't an accommodation that is responsive to ELLs, but having the questions read aloud in English can help students who are good at listening but not reading, the words defined in context is very helpful for students who are mid to high levels, and the extra time is useful to everyone.

I just finished SAGE training at Granger, and the accommodations are indeed, having the question read to you in a weird computer generated voice, definitions of words in context, and extra time.  These are great accommodations for students who are middle or high level WIDA (check my other post on accommodations) but not useful at all for low levels.

Some highlights of the actual accommodations policy:

Students not tested due to parent request shall receive a non-proficient score, which shall be used in school accountability calculations.

There is no accommodation that allows for a paper-based submission of a student’s response.

The actual ESEA act says:

The following are some other ESEA provisions for ELs:
• All EL students’ English language proficiency must be tested at least once a year.
• All ELs have to take state academic achievement tests in language arts and math, except that EL students who have been in the U.S. for less than one year do not have to take the language arts test for that first year.
• EL students should be assessed in a valid and reliable manner and provided reasonable accommodations (Title I, 115 STAT. 1451).
• EL students as a group must meet specific annual targets of Annual Measureable Objectives (AMOs); schools, LEAs, and states will be held accountable for ensuring that they meet these targets.
• Language instruction curricula used to teach EL children are to be tied to scientifically based research and demonstrated to be effective.
• Local entities have the flexibility to choose the method of instruction to teach ELs.
• States must establish standards and objectives for raising the level of English proficiency that are derived from the four recognized domains of speaking, listening, reading and writing, and that are aligned with achievement of the challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards (Title III, 115 Stat. 1694).  

Math Language

WIDA blog, language of math

This blog entry uses the coincidence that March 14 contains three of the same digits as pi does to explore the different ways we might describe the formula for the area of a circle.

It describes the way we talk about math, and makes what might be an unexplored concept overt.

List of differentiations

From Kalani's class, a list of differentiations grouped by content, process, and product.  This is far from an exhaustive list, but it gives a bunch of ideas for how to make the learning process work better for students with different language levels.  It will help me to think of ideas when I'm stuck trying to figure out how to make my complete mess of a lesson comprehensible to my students.

Story Problem, Dropping a car.

This story problem is an experiment in slightly more authentic questions.  There is a physics underpinning, and the students have to figure out how to translate something they understand, driving a car at freeway speeds, to something they can only imagine, dropping off a tall building.  I've given it to two different students who have struggled to understand math, and who also happen to be ELLs, and both have had a more intuitive interaction with the question than they have with most of the math I've presented to them.  The text isn't minimal, but it is simple words.  The sentences have not been barriers, at least to students with middle to upper WIDA levels.

My experience suggests that students don't feel confident about their ability to do story problems, but when they get into them, the enjoy them more and learn more than from context-free math.

Ted Skateboarding

This video talks about learning to skateboard, and learning in schools.  Skateboarding has authentic assessment, in that it has real-time meaningful feedback.  Students don't need a teacher to tell them whether or not they are doing it right.  The concrete makes that message plain.  He has some wonderful points, and these are my favorites:

• Failure is normal.  Failure isn't stigmatized. 

• Nobody knows ahead of time how long it takes anyone to learn anything. 

• Work your ass off until you figure it out. 

• Learning is NOT fun 

Immersion

Youtube Video Immersion

This video makes it so clear why a test that is supposed to measure a student's accomplishments in mathematics is invalidated if an English Language learner isn't allowed appropriate accommodations.  The academic articles I've linked to make a very reasonable argument based on logic and statistics and numbers.  This video, on the other hand, makes the emotional appeal that will probably have a better chance of convincing someone other than me.

Best Practices in ELL accommodation

Best Practices in State Assessment Policies for Accommodating ELLS

This study breaks down all the accommodations that have been used on high stakes assessments, and classifies them by their utility for English Language Learners.  Because most of the accommodations that have been used were originally created for in the context of Special Ed, there are a bunch of accommodations that have been considered that don't really respond to the special needs of ELL students.  There are also a bunch of accommodations that are useful for every student in making the tests more valid measures of the student's understanding.  Those things that are so useful in the end aren't really accommodations so much as they are best practices.  The interesting thing about this study is that the one thing that is most useful to the largest set of students is extended time.  It makes you wonder about the ACT and the SAT, it really does.