ELPT

All students who are identified as English learners must participate in ELPT testing until they become proficient. In order to be identified as proficient, students must make a score of 4 or 5 in all four domains tested: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

English Language Proficiency Test

The English Language Proficiency Test (ELPT) is designed to assess the English proficiency of students who meet the participation criteria for English Learners (ELs) as they progress through their K–12 education. In pursuit of this, ELPT draws upon emerging technologies and innovative methods to measure progress, encourage reclassification relative to grade-appropriate performance, and determine which districts are meeting accountability goals for ELs.

The ELPT items are designed to gather evidence that demonstrates how students are progressing toward full English language proficiency and meeting the skills measured through the LA Connectors for ELs. The standards describe how language is used to meet the rigorous content demands in each grade through the integration of academic language and content. The test presents a range of items in the four language domains of reading, writing, speaking, and listening and results are reported individually for each category. Proficiency in the domains is measured by increases in:

• • • the amount or sophistication of words or ways of combining words;

    • repertoire of use and expansion of the types of relationships students can construct between ideas (e.g., additive, causal, conditional, contrastive) and the number of ways students are able to construct those relationships between ideas;

    • accuracy in constructing precise meanings;

    • contextualization, the ability to tailor the use of language functions to fit a variety of sociocultural contexts; and

    • autonomy, which is observed by the need for fewer language supports and scaffolds as proficiency increases.

Students are presented with age-appropriate language to measure the proficiency level of students who are just beginning to learn English to those who are fully English proficient. All identified ELs in grades K-12 will take ELPT each year until they meet the criteria to exit.