MCAS and ELs

According to DESE's fall 2017 document, Bilingual Dictionaries and Glossaries Authorized for Use by English Language Learners on MCAS Tests:

"Students who are reported as ELLs, or who have been reported as ELLs in the past, may have access to an authorized bilingual dictionary or bilingual glossary for the MCAS tests. Please note that providing a word-to-word bilingual dictionary to ELL and former ELL students is encouraged, but not required.

Authorized bilingual dictionaries and glossaries are limited to those that provide word-to-word (or word-to-words) translations and may not include definitions, phrases, or sentence translations. Word-to-word dictionaries and glossaries that have been listed on previous authorized lists, but were removed in subsequent editions, may continue to be used. However, these previous editions may not include all language that students may need for the assessments."

A list of approved word-to-word dictionaries can be found in the document above.

MA DESE MCAS Accommodation Manual