USED Answers to NAELPA's Questions about English Language Proficiency Standards and Assessment Alignment

NAELPA has several active committees, one of which is the Standards and Assessment Committee. NAELPA members work in programs that serve multilingual learner students who are taught the English language based on their State's English language proficiency standards. Those students' English proficiency is measured using, at a minimum, the State's English language proficiency assessment, which is administered by educators working in programs that serve these students. Federal law requires that the State's English language proficiency (ELP) standards and assessment be aligned. For educators working in programs that serve multilingual learner students, the requirements related to alignment of ELP standards and assessments are not always clear because the adoption and alignment of ELP standards and assessment is not handled by educators working in programs. It is typically handled by the State Education Agency's assessment department.

To help provide some answers to program administrators working with multilingual learner students, the NAELPA Standards and Assessment Committee recently asked the President of NAELPA to submit five questions related to the alignment of English language proficiency standards and assessments to the U.S. Department of Education (USED). The USED responded to those five questions, whose answers are keyed to the 2018 document A State's Guide to the U.S. Department of Education's Assessment Peer Review Process. A copy of the letter from USED to NAELPA is also available.