Volume 1 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership - Page 34

32Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership 2017, VOL. 1, ISSUE 1 http://www.dbu.edu/doctoral/edd THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT AND A STATE MATHEMATICS ASSESSMENT AMONG EXITED ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Nathan S. Frymark, Ed.D. Introduction As school districts consider the importance of teaching math skills to all students, many school districts in the Unit- ed States are struggling to meet the No Child Left Behind Act’s academic targets of English Language Learners (ELLs) who do not perform well in math and reading (Zehr, 2008). Many school districts have experienced an increase in their English Language Learner (ELL) population. The ELL pop- ulation of enrolled public school students has increased by almost 30% in the United States from the 2000-2001 school year to the 2009-2010 school year (ELL Students Increase, 2012). ELLs consist of students who speak a language other than English who have inadequate language skills to prop - erly participate in a classroom dominated by English (Rojas and Iglesias, 2013). The linguistic needs of ELLs can include insufficiencies in speaking, listening, reading, and writing English. ELLs are generally enrolled in English-only class- es where educators accommodate the linguistic needs of the students. Since the majority of state assessments are taken in English, many ELLs do not perform well on state assess - ments according to federal and state standards. The most underperforming academic group in the United States is ELLs (Kihuen, 2009). Background of the Study In the North Texas ISD in the study (hereafter referred to as the District), all sixth, seventh, and eighth grade ELLs are underperforming on mathematics STAAR assessments com- pared to the state of Texas average score for All Students (Texas Education Agency, 2013d). The April 2013 mathemat- ics STAAR performance data between all Texas students and ELL students in the District is indicated in Table 1. (See Table 1 and 2 on page 35.) Although all sixth, seventh, and eighth grade ELLs in the District are underperforming in mathematics STAAR assessments compared to the state of Texas, ELLs who met the criteria to exit an ESL program in their first and second year of monitoring are outperforming All Students and other sub-populations including economically disadvan- taged, Black/African American, Hispanic, female, male, spe - cial education, and Caucasian. The April 2013 mathematics STAAR performance data between All Students, first year of monitoring LEP students, second year of monitoring LEP students, and ELL students in the District is indicated in Table 2. First and second year of monitoring LEP students are students whose first language is not English. These students have met the state criteria to be exited from the bilingual or ESL program. To exit a bilingual or ESL program, the LEP student has passed a Texas Education Agency (TEA) approved test measuring the student’s written and oral pro - ficiency skills, achieved a Met Satisfactory performance on the reading or English language arts state assessment ad- ministered in English, passed a TEA-approved criterion-ref-