John W. Young to Give Buros Center for Testing Third Annual Lecture

Topic: Ensuring valid and fair assessments for language minority students

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Princeton, N.J. (March 23, 2009) —

With one in nine students in the United States being an English language learner (ELL) and a quarter of all children in California, the issues of designing fair and valid assessments for this group has never been more critical. John W. Young, Educational Testing Service (ETS) Senior Research Scientist, will discuss these issues and challenges when he presents the Third Annual Buros Center for Testing Lecture, “Ensuring Valid and Fair Content Assessments for Language Minority Students.” The lecture will take place at the Buros Center for Testing on March 30, 2009, in College Hall, Room 139 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in Lincoln, NE.

“English language learners are one of the fastest growing subpopulations of students in U.S. schools with over 5 million students in Pre-K-12 classrooms,” Young explains. “They are concentrated at the lower grade levels, mostly native Spanish speakers, but also conversant in almost 400 different languages. For Title I tests of academic content, Young notes that the main validity concern is ensuring that academic content tests are valid and fair for all student groups, including native English speakers; Initially fluent students; ELLs without testing accommodations; ELLs with testing accommodations and former ELLs.

Research studies have identified certain linguistic features that contribute to inaccessible language, including unfamiliar vocabulary not related to the target construct; cultural references or idioms (“being on the ball”); false cognates (different languages, different meanings) and confusing or ambiguous syntax (such as using double negatives), Young explains. Additional challenges for ELLs include indefinite pronouns; missing or unclear antecedents; unfamiliar verb tenses; long phrases in questions; low-frequency, long, or complex words; sentences with multiple clauses and confusing sentence structure such as passive voice.

During his lecture, Young will note that test developers can use different strategies to reduce the use of inaccessible language.  These steps include:

  • Using linguistically modified or simplified language
  • Minimizing unnecessary language or information
  • Using examples with familiar contexts (such as school settings)
  • Using examples with familiar objects (such as school materials)

Young is a co-author of ETS’s Guidelines for the Assessment of English Language Learners. The Guidelines are designed to help policy makers and test developers build assessments in academic content areas that are fair and valid for K-12 ELLs. View a free copy of the Guidelines.

The Buros Lecture Series is collaboration between ETS and the Buros Center for Testing.  The first lecture was presented by ETS Principal Research Scientist Linda Cook. The second lecture was presented by ETS Principal Research Scientist Brent Bridgeman.

About ETS

At nonprofit ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions, businesses and government agencies by providing solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® test and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.