The majority of students in public Montgomery County middle and high schools who don’t speak English fluently are meeting Maryland’s improvement goals toward proficiency, according to a new report. All middle school students enrolled in English for Speakers of Other Languages instruction, or ESOL, made the expected annual progress toward proficiency, while findings among high school students were a mixed bag.
The county measures progress by year-to-year score increases of 15 points or more on the Language Assessment System Links, the state’s proficiency test. In the 2009-2010 school year, 83 percent of eighth-graders, 77 percent of seventh-graders, and 69 percent of sixth-graders achieved the benchmark, blowing past the state’s target of 58 percent of students.
| Making the grade | ||||||
| The percentage of Montgomery County students achieving the state benchmark in the state’s proficiency test for English for Speakers of Other Languages: | ||||||
| Grade | 2007-2008 | 2008-2009 | 2009-2010 | |||
| (Target: 48%) | (Target: 56% | (Target 58%) | ||||
| Grade 6 | 73% | 64% | 69% | |||
| Grade 7 | 70% | 70% | 77% | |||
| Grade 8 | 78% | 76% | 83% | |||
| Grade 9 | 47% | 50% | 53% | |||
| Grade 10 | 64% | 67% | 66% | |||
| Grade 11 | 57% | 64% | 57% | |||
| Grade 12 | 55% | 54% | 48% | |||
Middle school students also easily beat the previous school years’ goals of 48 percent in 2007-2008 and 56 percent in 2008-2009.
High school students’ progress was more varied, with 11th- and 12th-graders falling short in 2009-2010, the most recent year included in the report. Eleventh-graders also faltered the previous year, while ninth-graders failed to meet state benchmarks every year of the report (since spring of 2008).
Helen Wang and Shahpar Modarresi, the report’s authors and researchers for MCPS, recommended officials “provide more intensive English language instructional services to ESOL students in Grade 9, given that this grade level was least likely to meet the [testing] targets among all secondary grade levels.”
Students in less-advanced ESOL classes were more likely to meet progress goals, probably because their scores were initially lower and had room for improvement, Wang and Modarresi said. Those receiving higher-level ESOL instruction were significantly more likely to pass the Maryland High School Assessments.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires all students to become proficient in English and reach state standards in a variety of content areas.
Among Montgomery County Public Schools students, 13 percent qualify for ESOL services, a number that has been rising as the county’s population has become significantly more diverse. The majority of ESOL students speak Spanish as a first language.
The ESOL population has been a high priority for MCPS, as the students can come with challenges. Students with limited English proficiency are more likely to be chronically absent, missing 20 or more days of school, and to qualify for free or reduced lunch, the school system’s indicator of poverty.
However, the gap is starkest when it comes to graduation rates. Systemwide, 86 percent of MCPS students graduate within four years, but that’s the case for only 37 percent of Hispanic students with limited English proficiency. Given five years, still just 48 percent of these students throw their caps in the air.
