ELPA Concurrent Validity Study (Woodcock-Munoz and IPT)

11/28/2012 9:45:00 AM

Under Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) 581-22-0617 (Essential Skills Assessments for English Language Learners), students that meet certain eligibility criteria may be given the opportunity to satisfy Essential Skills graduation requirements in their respective home languages. The eligibility criteria, as described in the OAR listed above, include: 1) enrolled in U.S. schools five (5) years or less; 2) on track to meet all other graduation requirements; and 3) demonstrated sufficient English language skills using an English language proficiency assessment option that is approved by the State Board of Education. Currently, Oregon’s English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) is the only English language proficiency assessment approved by the State Board of Education, with an achievement standard, or “cut score,” of three (3).

A number of districts have requested that ODE examine other English language proficiency assessments in order to provide greater flexibility to students in meeting the eligibility criteria described above – to do so, we need your help. ODE does not have access to student performance results for other English language proficiency assessments, and as such, needs to conduct a field test in order to collect the necessary data. The Woodcock-Munoz and IPT are two of the most commonly used English language proficiency tests in Oregon; we understand that not every district uses one or both of those assessments, but it makes sense to start with the most commonly used instruments. Therefore, we need high schools around the state to volunteer to have students (grades 9-12) take one of the two assessments (Woodcock-Munoz or IPT) as well as the ELPA within a 6-week window of each other. The testing window for these activities will be concurrent with the ELPA testing window, which is January 9, 2013 to April 30, 2013.

ODE is seeking 500 student responses statewide for each of the two tests listed above (Woodcock-Munoz and IPT). If high schools in your district are willing to participate in this effort, please e-mail the following information to Carla Martinez (carla.martinez@state.or.us eMail

) by Friday, December 7, 2012.

District and DTC name
High School(s) willing to participate
Which assessment instrument (Woodcock-Munoz or IPT) you will use
Estimated number of high school students per school to participate

Once ODE receives your information, a confirmation response will be sent followed by detailed information regarding data collection and submission. ODE will prepare spreadsheet templates with all the required data fields necessary for the alignment study, which districts will need to complete and send back securely once they have completed testing. Data fields will include, for example, first and last name, date of birth, SSID, testing event dates, and so on.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of additional English language proficiency assessments which high school students (English Language Learners) may be able to use to meet the eligibility criteria described in OAR 581-22-0617. We understand that this effort requires your students to participate in more testing, which takes away from important instructional time as well as other services. As such, we are sensitive to the burden associated with this work, and ask that you carefully consider the needs of your students when deciding whether or not it is appropriate to participate.

If you have any questions, please contact Derek Brown (derek.brown@state.or.us eMail

) at 503-947-5841.

- end -