EDC 385GThe Texas Accountability System Fails Our English Language Learners
	Home Analysis of the Problem Evidence & Testimonials Guide to Action Links

Links

AEIS - Academic Excellence Indicator System of the Texas Education Agency. This lays out the criteria for judging the success of schools based upon high-stakes exams and several other measures, including attendance and dropout rates, and provides the links to view results at the state, district, and school levels.

AERA (American Educational Research Association) position statement on high-stakes testing

Amrein and Berliner - "High stakes testing, uncertainty, and student learning" This article takes a nationwide look at high-stakes testing by comparing states across the common tests that students take - the SAT, the ACT, the NAEP, and the Advanced Placement tests. The authors conclude that no state that has used high-stakes testing has seen an increase in performance on these tests, and that most show a decline. For an alternate account by Rosenshine, click here.

ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) position statement on high-stakes testing

BETA- This document is the report from BETA, an outside consultant hired by the Texas Education Agency to study the feasibility of increased testing for English Language Learners (predominantly Spanish speakers). TEA concluded that it would not expand testing in Spanish to grades 7 & 8 but it would implement the RPTE. For problems with the RPTE, see the section called, "Analysis of the Problem."

Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Bibliography
Appendices

Carlos Blanton-The Strange Career of Bilingual Education - This takes you to the Texas A&M Press blurb on this book, which traces bilingual education in Texas through its many forms, including Stephen F. Austin's desire to "Mexicanize" Anglo children by having them learn Spanish.

Chapter 89, Adaptations for Special Populations
Subchapter BB. Commissioner's Rules Concerning State Plan for Educating Limited English Proficient Students - The state's official policy toward bilingual education and Limited English Proficient students (now called English Language Learners).

Walt Haney - "The myth of the Texas miracle in education" This takes you to Walt Haney's article describing his methods at getting at the actual dropout rates for Texas schools, which are very different from the official rates of the state. According to Haney's best calculations, dropout rates for Hispanic and African-American students hover around 50% (compared to the single-digit rates touted by the state).

Harvard University Civil Rights Project research on high-stakes testing

Guadalupe San Miguel - This link takes you to works by this author, who has a distinguished history fighting for Mexican-American rights in Texas.

Testimony by Michael Guerrero to the Latino Legislative Summit - On June18, 2002, Dr. Michael Guerrero, a professor of bilingual education at UT-Austin, provided a brief list of problems and recommendations based upon the administration of the high-stakes Grade 3 Reading TAKS in Spanish.

Lau V. Nichols - This the landmark court ruling of 1974 that started the nation on the path to recognizing language minority students' rights in public schools. The San Francisco school system was ordered to find ways to appropriately instruct their Chinese-speaking students so that they could receive "a meaningful opportunity to participate in the public education program." This law remains the standard against which instruction for English Language Learners ought to be judged.

NCLB - Link to the OELA (Office of English Language Acquisition, formerly the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs) with the table of contents of the NCLB statute. Compare this law's language on the education of English Language Learners with the original Bilingual Education Act of 1968 and its reauthorizations through 1994. For analysis of the differences, see the "Obituary for the Bilingual Education Act" below.

Obituary for the Bilingual Education Act which has been replaced by NCLB and the Office of English Language Acquistion. By James Crawford, President of NABE (National Association of Bilingual Education).

Office of Civil Rights Guide for Using High-Stakes Tests to Make Decisions on ELLs - Includes the three-pronged check specified by Castaneda v. Pickard (1981)

Successful Schools Study - This is the Texas Education Agency's report on how best to provide a quality education to Limited English Proficient (LEP) students in Texas

Transadaptation - This is the Texas Education Agency's official language on how they translate the English TAKS into Spanish. Note the vagueness - strange for a document on translation!

Valenzuela, A. (2002) High-stakes testing and U.S.-Mexican youth in Texas - This article describes in length the idea of multiple, compensatory methods of assessment.

Winter 2003 edition of Theory Into Practice on High-Stakes Testing - Many short articles on the subject