Guidelines for the Assessment of ELLs
This 2009 ETS (Educational Testing Service) PDF offers guidelines for the assessment of English Language Learners. ETS: Quality and Fairness
NCES: Testing Integrity Best Practices
Educators, parents, and the public depend on accurate, valid, reliable, and timely information about student academic performance. The availability of test data is important to improve instruction, identify the needs of individual students, implement targeted interventions, and help all students reach high levels of chievement. Testing irregularities – breaches of test security or improper administration of academic testing – undermine efforts to use those data to improve student achievement. Unfortunately, there have been high-profile and systemic incidents of cheating in several school districts across the country in recent years. This summary focuses on four areas related to testing integrity: (1) the prevention of irregularities in academic testing; (2) the detection and analysis of testing irregularities; (3) the response to an investigation of alleged and/or actual misconduct; and (4) testing integrity practices for technology-based ssessments
OCR: Developing Programs for ELLs
This OCR website provides the process of developing an ELL program beginning with developing a plan outline, identification, and then assessment, services, and staffing. After implementation of the developed ELL program or plan, transition, evaluation, and reviewfollows.
Standards for Test Administration
This ETS 2014 resource contains excerpts from the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education which lists obligations for informing test takers and/or their parents and guardians about the assessment to be given and the use of the data gathered from the assessment process.
Source: Excerpts from the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testingprepared by the Committee to Develop Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education, 1985. The purpose of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing is provide criteria for the evaluation of tests, testing practices, and the effects of test use. Part VI contain standards regarding test administration, scoring, and reporting, as well as standards for the protection of test takers' rights. This excerpt is taken from Chapter 15, Test Administration, Scoring, and Reporting.
In typical applications, test administrators should follow carefully the standardized procedures for administration and scoring specified by the test publisher. Specifications regarding instructions to test takers, time limits, the form of item presentation or response, and test materials or equipment should be strictly observed. Exemptions should be made only on the basis of carefully considered professional judgment, primarily in clinical applications.
The testing environment should be one of reasonable comfort and with minimal distractions. Testing material should be readable and understandable. In computerized testing, items displayed on a screen should be legible and free from glare, and the terminal should be properly positioned.
Testing sessions should be monitored where appropriate both to assist the test taker when a need arises and to maintain proper administrative procedures. Among the conditions that should be avoided in testing situations are:
- Noise
- Disruption in the testing area
- Extremes of temperature
- Inadequate work space
- Illegible material, and so forth.
In the context of computer-administered tests, the novelty of the presentation may have an unknown effort on the test administration.
Standards for Testing Bilingual Persons
Originally produced by the Evaluation Assistance Center-West, the Standards for Testing Bilingual Persons is a useful resource to share with the school staff members responsible for testing ELL students. Refer to the ERIC/CUE Digest No. 65.