THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 89 Washington Avenue Room 675 EBA Albany, NY 12234 Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education

                                               

                                                                                                February 2007

 

TO:                 District Superintendents

Superintendents of Public and Nonpublic Schools

Principals of Public and Nonpublic Schools

Directors of Regional Information Centers

FROM:           David Abrams  

SUBJECT:     NYSESLAT – Determining a Limited-English-Proficient
Student’s Level of English Proficiency

 

I.   GENERAL INFORMATION

 

This memorandum provides the scaled score ranges for the NYSESLAT 2006 and guidance
and information concerning the interpretation of the scaled scores. The NYSESLAT scaled score ranges are based on the results of standard setting in which New York State teachers set the appropriate student proficiency levels at each grade from K to 12.

This document will be posted on the Department’s web site at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/nyseslat/home.shtml. Superintendents and principals are advised to share this information with English as a Second Language (ESL) / bilingual education program administrators and coordinators immediately.

II.   RAW SCORE TO SCALED SCORE CONVERSION CHARTS

NYSESLAT is administered in five grade bands: K-1, 2-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12. Each grade band has four modalities: Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing.  To determine a student’s level of proficiency (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Proficient*), a student’s raw scores must be combined as follows:

 

Ø     Listening & Speaking combined raw score

Ø     Reading & Writing combined raw score

The attached Raw Score to Scaled Score Conversion Charts for 2006 (Attachments A-E) should be used to convert a student’s raw scores to scaled scores. Please note that there are separate
conversion charts for each of the five grade bands as follows:

 

 

III.   METHOD FOR DETERMINING ESL PROFICIENCY LEVELS

A student’s English proficiency level is determined by the scaled scores on both the Listening & Speaking and Reading & Writing parts of the NYSESLAT. Only the NYSESLAT may be used to determine if the student continues to be LEP and to annually assess proficiency in English.
The NYSESLAT Scaled Score Ranges Chart (Attachment F) should be used to determine a student’s English proficiency level.  The score ranges differ for each grade (K-12).  Limited-English-proficient (LEP) students are determined to be English proficient when they achieve the minimum combined scaled scores at the proficient level in both Listening & Speaking and Reading & Writing. To determine a student’s proficiency level in Listening & Speaking and Reading & Writing, follow these steps:

1.     Find the appropriate conversion chart for a given student (e.g., Attachment A for a
Grade 1 student and Attachment E for a Grade 10 student).

2.     Match the student’s combined raw score for Listening & Speaking to the corresponding scaled score for Listening & Speaking on the “NYSESLAT Raw Score to Scaled Score Conversion Chart.”

3.     Match the student’s combined raw score for Reading & Writing to the corresponding scaled score for Reading & Writing on the “NYSESLAT Raw Score to Scaled Score Conversion Chart.”

4.     Match the student’s grade and scaled score on Listening & Speaking to the NYSESLAT Scaled Score Ranges Chart (Attachment F) to determine the student’s Listening & Speaking proficiency level.

5.     Match the student’s grade and scaled score on Reading & Writing to the NYSESLAT Scaled Score Ranges Chart (Attachment F) to determine the student’s Reading & Writing proficiency level.

The following guidelines should be followed in determining a student’s overall proficiency level:

• To move from one level of proficiency to the next, the LEP student must score within the range of the higher proficiency level in both the Listening & Speaking and Reading & Writing components.
• To move from a LEP level (beginning, intermediate, or advanced) to the English proficient level, the LEP student must score at the proficient level in both the Listening & Speaking and Reading & Writing components.
• LEP students who have advanced in only one combination of modalities should remain at the lower proficiency level.

·       A description of the ESL proficiency levels is available on the web site of the Office of Bilingual Education and Foreign Language Studies at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/biling/.

For example, a kindergarten student must achieve scaled scores of 616 on Listening & Speaking, and 609 on Reading & Writing to be classified as English proficient.  A first grade student must achieve scaled scores of at least 649 on Listening & Speaking and 655 on Reading & Writing to be classified as English proficient.

IV. 2005 CONVERSION CHART REVISIONS

The scaled scoring for the 2006 NYSESLAT has changed in some ways. Therefore, the 2005 NYSESLAT raw-score-to-scaled-score conversion scores must also be adjusted so that the scaled score results from 2005 can be meaningfully compared with scaled score results from 2006 and beyond. This is a purely technical change. The proficiency levels of the students who took the 2005 NYSESLAT remain unchanged, as do the numbers and percentages of students at each of the proficiency levels. The 2005 and 2006 tests are equated, and the original definition of proficiency has not changed on either test. Federal accountability reporting based on the 2005 NYSESLAT scores also remains the same. We have reviewed this change with our Technical Advisory Group, which includes some of the nation’s foremost test experts, and they have approved it.

The change in the 2006 scaling is being done for a purely technical reason. The 2005 NYSESLAT included questions from the Stanford English Language Proficiency Test (SELP), which is published by Harcourt Assessment, Inc, our test-development vendor for NYSESLAT. Harcourt recently found it necessary to revise the equating of the 2005 SELP. Therefore, we must change the scaled scores on the NYSESLAT, but we are not changing the meaning of proficiency or other levels of achievement on the test.

What does this mean in practice? Example: A grade 5 student who received a raw score of 55 in Listening/Speaking and a raw score of 44 in Reading/Writing on the 2005 NYSESLAT would have received a scaled score of 674(L/S) and 688 (R/W) and would have been considered proficient. On the revised 2005 scale, that same student will receive a scaled score of 686 (L/S) and 704 (R/W) and will also be considered proficient.

The attached Revised 2005 Raw Score to Scaled Score Conversion Charts (Attachments G-K) must be used to convert a student’s 2005 raw scores to scaled scores. Please note that there are separate conversion charts for each of the five grade bands as follows:

 V. FURTHER QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS

If your school has not received its students’ NYSESLAT score data, please contact the
Regional Information Center (RIC) or Large City Scanning Center, as applicable. Nonpublic schools should contact Kevin McCarthy in the Office of Information and Reporting Services
at 518-474-7965. If you have any further questions about determining a LEP student’s level
of English proficiency, please contact the Office of State Assessment at emscassessinfo@mail.nysed.gov or call 518-474-5902. If you have any questions regarding ESL services, please contact your local Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (BETAC). Contact information for the BETACs is available at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/biling/.

 

 

ATTACHMENT A

Grades K-1 NYSESLAT 2006

Raw Score to Scaled Score Conversion Chart

 

K-1 Listening and Speaking		K-1 Reading and Writing
Raw Score	Scaled Score	Raw Score	Scaled Score
0	315	0	338
1	364	1	389
2	390	2	415
3	406	3	431
4	418	4	443
5	427	5	453
6	435	6	461
7	442	7	467
8	449	8	473
9	454	9	479
10	459	10	484
11	464	11	489
12	469	12	493
13	473	13	498
14	477	14	502
15	481	15	506
16	485	16	510
17	489	17	514
18	492	18	518
19	495	19	522
20	499	20	526
21	502	21	530
22	505	22	534
23	508	23	538
24	511	24	543
25	514	25	547
26	517	26	551
27	520	27	556
28	523	28	560
29	526	29	565
30	529	30	570
31	531	31	575
32	534	32	580
33	537	33	585
34	540	34	591
35	543	35	597
36	546	36	604
37	549	37	611
38	552	38	619
39	555	39	629
40	559	40	641
41	562	41	657
42	565	42	683
43	569	43	733
44	573
45	576
46	581
47	585
48	590
49	595
50	600
51	606
52	613
53	621
54	630
55	642
56	658
57	684
58	734

ATTACHMENT B

Grades 2-4 NYSESLAT 2006

Raw Score to Scaled Score Conversion Chart

2-4 Listening and Speaking		2-4 Reading and Writing
Raw Score	Scaled Score	Raw Score	Scaled Score
0