Volume 1 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership - Page 39

Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership 37 sessment similar to the TELPAS assessment to administer to non-ELLs. With the results of the developed English language proficiency assessment, the school district can use those scores to develop interventions for non-ELL students between the developed English language proficiency assess - ment and the STAAR mathematics assessment. Addition- ally, the school district can use the English language pro- ficiency assessment as a benchmark assessment to predict mathematics scores for non-ELL students. Recommendations A future study should be done to determine if there is a re- lationship between the TELPAS assessment and the mathe - matics STAAR assessment between fifth and eighth grade ELLs who have met the criteria to exit an ESL program. Be - cause school districts are to adhere to SSI grade advancement requirements as applied to mathematics and reading assess- ments of fifth and eighth grade students, all fifth and eighth grade students who did not meet satisfactory performance on mathematics and reading assessments are retained and must receive accelerated instruction after each unsuccessful administration (Texas Education Agency, 2014c). A future study could also be conducted to determine if the TELPAS assessment predicts the mathematics STAAR assessment between fifth and eighth grade ELLs who have met the criteria to exit an ESL program. When a student does not meet satisfactory performance on the mathematics STAAR assessment in fifth and eighth grade, the student is retained (Texas Education Agency, 2014c). Since there is a significant relationship between the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 TELPAS raw and scale score and 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 mathematics STAAR raw and scale score among recently exited ELL students, a duplicate study is recommended to investigate if there is a relation- ship between the TELPAS raw and scale score and the End of Course (EOC) Algebra I raw and scale score among ninth grade ELL students who have met the criteria to exit an ESL program. If a relationship is found between the TELPAS raw score and the EOC Algebra I raw score among recently exited ELL students, the results could be used for planning, instruction, or assessment among ELLs in the classroom. The mathematics TEKS changed in fifth through eighth grade starting in the 2014-2015 academic school year (Texas Education Agency, 2014b); therefore, a future study should be done to ask if there is a relationship between the TELPAS raw, scale, or percent score and the mathematics STAAR raw, scale, or percent score among sixth, seventh, or eighth grade ELL students who have met the criteria to exit an ESL program. The results from a future study could be used to plan and develop accelerated instruction plans for those students who do not meet satisfactory performance on the mathematics STAAR assessment. Conclusion The population of ELLs in the North Texas ISD in the study is 40%, and ELLs perform lower on state assessments in mathematics compared to All Students in the same district. Freeman and Crawford (2009) found English Language Learners were underperforming on state and federal mathe - matics assessments. Although ELLs in Texas perform lower on state assessments in mathematics and reading, ELLs in the District who have met the criteria to exit an ESL program perform higher on state mathematics assessments than ELLs who have not met the criteria to exit. ELLs who have met the criteria to exit an ESL program have met the exit criteria on the TELPAS assessment and STAAR reading assessment. This study is significant in that it responded to calls for research and identified gaps in the existing literature. The study’s findings from RQ1 addressed Abrahamson’s (2007) call on further research to identify a connection between different content area instructional programs and student achievement in mathematics. The findings from RQ2 an - swered the call of research by Allen (2012) to provide teach - ers with a tool to predict STAAR mathematics assessment scores for students who are at-risk and Lopez (2007) who called for future research to develop an instrument to more accurately predict the success of Limited English Proficient students’ performance on standardized assessments. The gaps in literature addressed in this study were the lack of research of exited ELLs (Bounds, 2003), and the findings of the current research provided educators with more research on the relationship between language and mathematics. Teachers have difficulties closing the achievement gaps between classrooms of English speaking and non-English