CTEL CTEL Assessment for English Learners 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under federal law, which document establishes the requirement for states to assess the English language proficiency of all EL students annually?
- Title I of ESEA
- Title III of ESSA (Correct answer)
- IDEA Part B
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
Correct answer: Title III of ESSA
Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires annual English language proficiency assessments for EL students.
Question 2: A teacher uses a portfolio of student writing samples collected over a semester. Which assessment principle does this approach best reflect?
- Reliability through standardization
- Validity through isolated skill measurement
- Authentic assessment of language development over time (Correct answer)
- Norm-referencing to grade-level peers
Correct answer: Authentic assessment of language development over time
Portfolios demonstrate authentic language development by showing growth across real tasks collected over time.
Question 3: What is the purpose of an 'exit criteria' in EL program assessment?
- To determine initial EL program placement
- To define the benchmarks a student must meet to be reclassified as proficient (Correct answer)
- To assess teacher effectiveness in EL classrooms
- To set minimum scores for college admission
Correct answer: To define the benchmarks a student must meet to be reclassified as proficient
Exit criteria specify the language proficiency benchmarks students must achieve before being reclassified from EL status.
Question 4: A newly arrived student from Vietnam has limited formal schooling. Which assessment concern is MOST critical for the teacher to address first?
- Administering a standardized state ELP test immediately
- Assessing prior literacy and schooling background before interpreting language scores (Correct answer)
- Placing the student in the highest ELD level temporarily
- Testing only oral language skills
Correct answer: Assessing prior literacy and schooling background before interpreting language scores
Students with limited formal schooling (SLIFE) require background assessment before ELP scores can be meaningfully interpreted.
Question 5: Which type of reliability is most important when multiple teachers score the same EL writing sample?
- Test-retest reliability
- Internal consistency reliability
- Inter-rater reliability (Correct answer)
- Split-half reliability
Correct answer: Inter-rater reliability
Inter-rater reliability ensures that different scorers apply the same rubric criteria consistently when evaluating the same student work.
Question 6: An EL student scores at the 45th percentile on a norm-referenced reading test. What does this score indicate?
- The student answered 45% of items correctly
- The student scored higher than 45% of the norming sample (Correct answer)
- The student is performing 45% below grade level
- The student needs 45 more points to pass
Correct answer: The student scored higher than 45% of the norming sample
A percentile score indicates the percentage of the norming sample that the student outperformed, not the percentage of items answered correctly.
Question 7: Which accommodation is generally NOT appropriate for EL students on content-area assessments?
- Extended time
- Bilingual glossary of non-content terms
- Reading the questions aloud
- Allowing a different, easier version of the test (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Allowing a different, easier version of the test
Providing a fundamentally different, easier test changes the construct being measured and is not a valid accommodation.
CTEL CTEL Assessment for English Learners 3
Under federal law, which document establishes the requirement for states to assess the English language proficiency of all EL students annually?