English Learners Left Behind: Standardized Testing as Language Policy

Kate Menken

Published by Multilingual Matters 2008

English Learners Left Behind

Standardized Testing as Language Policy

Kate Menken

In the series Bilingual Education & Bilingualism

https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853599996

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book explores how high-stakes tests mandated by No Child Left Behind have become de facto language policy in U.S. schools, detailing how testing has shaped curriculum and instruction, and the myriad ways that tests are now a defining force in the daily lives of English Language Learners and the educators who serve them.

Author / Editor information

Menken Kate :

Kate Menken is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), and a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for the Study of Language in an Urban Society at the CUNY Graduate Center. Previously, she was a teacher of English as a second language.

Reviews

James Crawford, President, Institute for Language and Education Policy:

English Learners Left Behind is an outstanding, albeit troubling, study of how language policy is made in the surreal world of American education. As the first scholar to exhaustively document the pernicious effects of high-stakes testing for ELL students, Kate Menken has performed an invaluable service for both children and educators. All U.S. politicians should be required to read her book – and pass a test on it – before voting on misguided legislation like No Child Left Behind.

Professor Ofelia García, Program in Bilingual/Bicultural Education ,Teachers College, Columbia University,:

Educating students who speak languages other than those recognized by school authorities is a most important issue. As the students' linguistic diversity has increased, educational authorities around the world have instituted high-stakes assessments that in effect push out language minority students. But there are few accounts of the effects of these assessments in the lives of students and their teachers. Menken's book is an exception. Written in elegant prose and with an abudance of scholarly data, Menken brings to light the tensions between top-down assessment policies and the ways in which teachers, as well as students, negotiate them. Focusing on the U.S. context, this important book is of relevance to anyone thinking about the relationship between school assessment and educational processes and practices throughout the world.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Part 1: Language Policy Context
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. Language Policy, Federal Education Legislation and English Language Learners in the United States Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
3. The New York Case: The Local Implementation of a National Policy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
Part 2: Standardized Tests in Daily School Life
4. Tongue-Tied: The Linguistic Challenges that Standardized Tests Pose for English Language Learners Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
5. The Ones Left Behind: How High-Stakes Tests Impact the Lives and Schooling Experiences of ELL Students Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
6. ‘Teaching to the Test’ as Language Policy: The Focus on Test Preparation in Curriculum and Instruction for ELLs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Part 3: Expansion and Recommendations
7. Higher Expectations vs. Language as Liability: Why the Drawbacks of Accountability Outweigh the Benefits for English Language Learners Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
8. High-Stakes Testing and Language Un-Planning: Theoretical Implications of Testing as Language Policy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
9. Moving Forward: Embracing Multilingual Language Policies from the Top-Down to the Bottom-Up Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204

Language: English
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Pages
- Main content: 216
Keywords: assessment; testing; language policy; ELT; English language teaching

eBook

Published: February 27, 2008
ISBN: 9781853599996