School effectiveness, "High stakes" testing, and English -language learners

The purpose of this study was to investigate the achievement of a cohort of elementary English-language learners on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests and to examine a relationship between their test scores and the schools that prepared the students for the tests. According to the hypothesis of this project, it was expected that despite all of the obstacles English-language learners face in the academic setting, SOL test scores increased significantly over time. In addition, it was anticipated that these tests scores could be correlated to schools that are providing an exemplary education for their English-language learners. The Virginia SOL tests have been classified as "high stakes" tests. The impact of the achievement of English-language learners on such "high stakes" tests may ultimately affect school accreditation, funding, curricula, programming, retention rates, professional development, and teacher training. Two data sets were investigated. One data set included student demographic information and two years of SOL test scores. The second data set was the results of an original survey distributed to the principals of the schools that the English-language learners attended. The items on the survey presented questions on school effectiveness for English-language learners. After review, a composite score was calculated for each completed survey. The surveys were ranked and grouped into quartiles for further analysis. Since the research was correlational in nature, descriptive and bivariate correlational statistics were used to analyze the data. Box plots, scatter plots, histograms, Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient ( r), and linear regression analysis (beta) were used to analyze the data, though neither significance nor correlation was verified. Upon examination of the comparison of the performance rates of the English-language learners and their classmates, it should be noted that both groups made improvements on the SOL subtests, but the English-language learners scored significantly lower.