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Retesting Spanish dominant children with Spanish version

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Mexican students that spoke predominantly Spanish were given intelligence tests in English which resulted in students to be classified as educable mentally retarded (EMR) (Mahoney, 2024). When students were retested with a Spanish test, their English results were considered invalid and students were incorrectly classified as EMR. This is important for the assessment of multilingual learners (MLs) today because it shows us that students are knowledgeable in different content areas and forcing students to use a language they have not yet mastered to assess their intelligence is no only unfair but will yield inaccurate results. When it comes to creating tests for students when the content is not focusing on the English language, allowing MLs to use their home language will give educators a more accurate measure of their students' understanding.

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Ogbu's (1978 & 1998 as cited in Mahoney, 2024) explained how minorities are grouped and how their label affects their treatment or mistreatment in school. Students are labeled in different minority groups based on their history or immigration. Autonomous minorities are different from the dominant group, but are not affected educationally by their label. Voluntary minorities are the groups who moved to the United States for a better opportunity and involuntary minorities are the groups that are historically forced into American society. Based on which group an individual is categorized in, their treatment in and outside of an education institute will differ and affects their assessments. This event is important at the assessments of MLs today because it shows the importance of educators keeping in mind students background when creating activities, lessons and assessments for MLs. Educators should be knowledgable of students' nationalities, cultures and histories when it comes to assessing MLs.

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The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has influenced the way MLs have been assessed, categorized and labeled even post NCLB (Mahoney, 2024). This act created a focus on assessments and their performance. Schools, teachers and students were labeled based on test scores and were punished if students and schools underperformed. MLs who were not yet fully English proficient were still required to take tests. This event forced educators and students to focus on test results over gaining essential English skills that will benefit MLs in the long run. States and schools were now highly accountable for their students' performance and forced MLs to take tests in a language they have not yet fully mastered. The purpose of the act was to increase the school, students and teacher's accountability of MLs' performance in school. In a way NCLB forced schools to focus on English as MLs' main language and did not prioritize multilingualism or students' home languages. This has now influenced teachers to rethink the validity of MLs' assessment results. Even after NCLB, the purpose of assessments still remains with new laws trying to fix the problems that affected MLs.

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With the implementation of NCLB, Title III has replaced Title VII (Mahoney, 2024). Title III required every state to implement standards for MLs and provide measurable assessments annually. Tittle III also took place of Title VII, which allowed states to provide MLs with Bilingual education services. Student will now receive English language services and have been given a subtractive (negative) labels (e.g. Limited English Proficient). This is important for the assessment of MLs because it has decreased the validity of results. MLs in bilingual education are at least gaining content knowledge in their home language, but with Title III, MLs are receiving content primarily in English which will decrease their understanding. For future educators, it will be difficult to measure what MLs actually know if their English language proficiency doesn't match their content knowledge when assessed in English.

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During Obama's presidency, Race to the Top (RTTT) which changed how MLs' test scores would be utilized with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)(Mahoney, 2024). ESSA kept the accountability placed on MLs by NCLB, but allowed certain breaks for schools and MLs' test results. During this time schools had to either adopt or create their own standards that would align with their Common Core State Standards. The CCSS still placed an emphasis on assessments and English as the main language that should be used, though they tried to create assessments that had validity when it came to MLs' test scores. Views on dual language programs and home language use stayed relative the same, making English acquisition students' priority. This is important for educators because although, MLs are still expected to take ELA, math and other content area assessments they have different forms of flexibility available and their scores are no longer associated with the teacher. The validity of their scores have decreased but their accountability, purpose and usage have stayed the same. Schools are still required to show that English Language Learners (ELLs) are progressing in their language acquisition and schools have increased their motivation for MLs to learn English.

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Mahoney, K. (2024). History: How did we get here? In The assessment of multilingual learners (MLs): Supporting English language learners [Manuscript in Preparation] (pp. 29 - 54). Multilingual Matters: Bristol, UK.