Performance of English Language Learners as a Subgroup in Large-Scale Assessment: Interaction of Research and Policy

Factors that contribute to the performance gap between subgroups and mainstream students deserve special attention. Different subgroups are faced with different sets of challenges. To understand and control for factors leading to the performance gap between subgroups and mainstream students one must clearly understand the issues specific to each subgroup. This paper focuses on assessment and performance issues for English language learner (ELL) students as a subgroup. Identifying factors affecting the performance gap between ELL and non-ELL students may help gain insight into assessment issues for other subgroups of students as well as strengthen assessment of this group.