Are there ELL modifications to the assessments?

The primary author of the easyCBM system, Dr. Julie Alonzo, worked for 12 years as a secondary school teacher with a special focus on EL students before coming to the University of Oregon. In designing the easyCBM system, she has incorporated a lot of best practices for EL students. For example, the system is designed to be intuitive for students to use, without requiring a lot of written (or oral) instructions. In addition, all the math items are written with particular attention to reducing the impact of language knowledge on student performance.

The Basic Reading assessments (available on the Deluxe and District Editions) use shorter, easier-access text to assess students’ reading comprehension, with a focus on literal comprehension (the Proficient Reading measures, in contrast, are significantly longer and assess students’ literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension). The Vocabulary tests (available on the Deluxe and District editions) assess students’ ability to figure out the meaning of words in context, and include both individual words as well as idiomatic expressions (a sub-set of vocabulary knowledge particularly challenging for EL students).

Although there are no ELL modifications to the test, the assessments and the easyCBM system as a whole are built from a framework of scaffolded, sheltered instruction with an emphasis on ensuring their appropriateness for students from special needs populations, including English learners.