Additional Clarifications regarding English Learner Reclassification in 2015-16
May 10, 2016
On April 28, 2016, Oregon Department of Education (ODE) staff and Dr. Karen Thompson from OSU met with staff from several districts and from Education Northwest on the topic of English Learner (EL) reclassification decisions in 2015-16. The purpose of the meeting was to provide ODE and the participating districts the opportunity to learn from one another, for ODE to provide feedback to districts, and for the districts to inform ODE about whether additional state guidance was needed. In addition, ODE wanted to collect district-developed reclassification resources from the participating districts to share with other districts in the state. Following is a link to documents that other districts are using to guide their EL reclassification processes this spring (please note that you will have to have a Google account to access): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5fwejB8caBNa0huRnBNWWs4bDA
This is the link to the resource document that ODE drafted that includes a list of possible sources of evidence for reclassification decisions: http://www.ode.state.or.us/opportunities/grants/nclb/title_iii/2015-16-el-reclassification-chart.pdf
Because of the unique nature of EL reclassification decisions this year, ODE will need to collect information from districts about this process. As such, the EL director for each district will be required to complete a brief survey in late June about their EL reclassification process this spring. This is in lieu of an update to Section 6 of district EL Plans. Additional details about the content of the survey and when it will be sent out will be forthcoming.
Following is additional clarification regarding some questions that arose at the April 28 meeting with districts, as well as other questions that ODE staff received via email from other districts.
Q: If a district/building chooses to keep a student in EL services and, at the time of release of the ELPA21 data, decides to reclassify the student based on ELPA21 results, would the student be required to take the ELPA21 in 2017 given that the 2016 scores were released after the September 18, 2016 deadline for required ELPA21 participation in 2017?
A: This deadline will be revised to reflect that ELPA21 scores may not be available by then.
Q: Are districts required to change reclassification decisions made in Spring 2016 based upon ELPA21 results that may not be available until December 2016?
A: No, districts are not required to change these decisions; however, districts are required to review ELPA21 results once they are received. If the ELPA21 results are drastically different than anticipated for a given student, ODE encourages districts to consider revising their previous decision and, if this requires a different instructional placement, to make that change at a sensible time (e.g., when the semester ends.)
Q: If an EL passes Essential Skills requirements for reading and writing in English, should the district automatically reclassify the student?
A: It is possible that passing work samples in English for the Essential Skills requirements for English Language Arts could be strong indicators that the student qualifies for reclassification. District staff should apply the same high level of consideration for Essential Skills work samples as they would any other measure that might be an indicator of language proficiency. However, the district should also consider weighing whether the student has sufficient proficiency in all domains, including spoken English, to support a reclassification decision.
Q: (a) Should districts spend time on reclassification decisions this spring for graduating seniors? (b) And, if the district chooses not to do so, will there be negative impacts for the district in terms of accountability reports?
A: (a) It makes sense to prioritize district resources on students who will be returning in the fall and whose EL status will determine their instructional placements.
(b) Regarding AMAO results and reporting: Districts will not be rated on AMAOs in 2015-16 although ODE must still submit a report to the USED that includes the number of ELs making progress in learning English and the number of ELs obtaining proficiency in English. There should be no negative impacts on districts based on AMAO results in 2015-16, however there is a potential positive impact for those districts that are in Title III Improvement Status and meet AMAO targets in 2015-16. These districts will come out of Improvement Status. ODE will not be making AMAO results publicly available, however districts will have the opportunity to review their results in the Achievement Data Insight (ADI) application prior to ODE submitting these results to the federal government.
Regarding other state and federal accountability requirements: There are some uncertainties with 2015-16 accountability. ESSA will change how we evaluate schools, so we don't know all of the effects yet. For example, we don't know how ELs will factor into Title I accountability. ODE will report all data like usual, but we may not rate schools. The potential impacts of lower EL exit rates for 2015-16 are likely to be no effect on assessment, growth, and graduation in the near term, but some effects in future years. Additional details about these potential impacts follow.
· Lower EL exit rates will not affect this summer's data, since the EL subgroup includes students eligible at any time during the year.
· Data used for assessment and growth accountability includes monitored students. The effect of delayed exits only affects the composition of the EL assessment subgroup in a few years when some students would exit monitored status one year later than usual. There is no effect on 2016-17 assessment and growth.
· There may be also an eventual effect on graduation. Eighth grade students who don't exit this year would end up in the EL subgroup for graduation rates. This would give a slight bump to grad rates in five years.
However, without knowing what will happen with ESSA, this is ODE’s best guess at potential impacts. We cannot say what these will be for certain until ESSA accountability requirements are clarified.