reset menus

The Assessment Challenge

The assessment of migrant students presents some definite challenges. There is much room for improvement in this arena. And improvement is critical if we are to measure the effectiveness of school systems in working with migrant students, craft appropriate supplemental programs for them, measure the effectiveness of the interventions, and begin to close the achievement gap.

Some of the challenges we face in the area of assessment include the following:

  • Mobility factors-Precisely because migrant students are more highly mobile than other students, their inclusion in standardized assessment processes is less likely. Migrant students may not be enrolled in a school district during given norming "windows", and thus may in some cases be effectively excluded from standardized assessment processes. Additionally, students may be present during a pretest administration, but may be absent during the post-test administration. Subsequently, there is not a valid measurement of the growth which may occur.

  • Language issues-Often migrant students are second language learners. Assessments administered in English may or may not effectively measure the knowledge and skills of the student. Conversely, assessments administered in another language may not provide a true picture if there are not appropriate language supports in place.

  • Preschool Children-Although preschool-age children are a major emphasis in our programs, too often migrant children are either not enrolled in preschool programs, or receive only partial programs due to their migrant lifestyle. It is particularly challenging to gather assessment data on preschool-age children who are not enrolled in any program. An organized system of gathering this data and sharing the information with both the migrant families and the existing programs is crucial.

  • Drop Out Rates-Because the drop-out rates among secondary migrant youth are high, these students too often become invisible for the purposes of assessment and educational placement. It is difficult to assess a student who is not enrolled in an accredited program.

  • Out of School Youth-Students ages 19-21 who have not graduated from high school and who are not enrolled in an accredited educational program, like their school-age counterparts, become invisible to the community and the school systems where they reside. Their needs are often ignored or not adequately addressed, principally because there is a lack of organized assessment and data collection.

  • Cultural factors-Since the level of education of parents is a predictor of student success, many of our migrant students are at risk because their parents may not have completed a secondary program, and may therefore not understand how critically important it is for their children to continue through high school and into a post-secondary program. The participation of migrant students in SAT, ACT, or other testing processes required for entrance into a college or university program needs to increase if we are to see higher rates of college attendance.

Meeting the Challenge

In order to meet the challenge of full inclusion of migrant students in assessment processes, and in order to gain a true picture of the achievement of migrant students, we must address the issue systemically. And, as with other student populations, no one assessment instrument or process is sufficient. Rather, we need a system for gathering multiple measures of student achievement in order to build educational supports that will adequately address the needs of our students.

A few of the needed supports include:

  • Better communication between MEP staff and mainstream staff-Too often it is only the MEP staff who have a clear understanding of who the migrant students are in the system. Because the identification and recruitment process is not well understood by mainstream staff, it is critical that MEP staff take on the responsibility of ensuring good communication with schools and districts working with migrant children.

  • Coordination of efforts to include migrant students in existing test administrations and assessment processes-If program participation is not appropriately bubbled or pre-slugged for migrant students participating in standardized test administration, then their performance will not clearly emerge as a subgroup.

  • Use of classroom based evidence of student success-Often evidence of student learning gathered at the classroom level may present the most in-depth picture of student learning. It is important the MEP staff stay in close contact with mainstream teachers to ensure that we are able to mine those rich sources of information on our students. The better we are able to stay in close alignment with existing classroom-based processes and measurements, the less need there is for duplication of effort in terms of student assessment. Just as importantly, this will allow us to more carefully design supplemental services that avoid duplication of services and minimize student segregation.

  • Preschool Assessments-There is a critical need for more assessment information on the needs of our migrant preschool children. Precisely because their participation rates in preschool programs lag behind other groups, there is insufficient data. We are working in Region 1 to ensure that every preschool child has an appropriate assessment conducted annually. This might include a district-designed assessment, a Brigance screen, Desired Results, or an observational screen. That information should at a minimum be shared with parents. And the compilation of the data will allow MEP staff to better advocate for migrant preschool children, to help link them to existing preschool programs, and to craft supplemental preschool programs that make bring the goal of universal preschool closer to a reality for our migrant students.

  • Needs Assessment Forms-A program requirement is that all newly-enrolled migrant children must have a Needs Assessment Form completed within thirty (30) days. This is a safety net for migrant students who may not be enrolled at the beginning of the school year, may be gone during norming windows, and/or may have withdrawn before the end of the year. At the minimum, we must use the Needs Assessment Process to ensure that the needs of ALL migrant students are addressed in both the district and supplemental MEP instructional service plans.

  • A focus on literacy-Historically, the weakest area of performance for our migrant students is reading. We need a more systematic way of gathering information on the reading performance of our students. Toward that end, the Region 1 office conducts reading audits for all of our K-3 students. We gather information in regards to the reading programs in place in each of our districts, the calibration of "at level" for students participating in those programs, and the current level of performance of each of our migrant students in Grades K-3. This gives us better data in regards to the literacy needs of our students, and how we can better work with mainstream staff to ensure that migrant students build the literacy foundations so vital to school success.

  • Promotion/Retention Data-With the increased attention on student and school accountability, it is important that we know which of our students are being retained. MEP can play a critical role in drawing the family into the process, and ensuring that the communication between the school and the home is effective. We know that historically the issue of OVERAGE FOR GRADE has been a significant issue for our migrant students, enough so that funding formulas typically address this area of need. Solid dialogue between the MEP staff and the districts serving migrant children will help build supports needed for student success.

  • Secondary Student Data-Region 1 systematically reviews the student transcripts of all secondary migrant students. We have standardized the data collection points and are able to build a profile for each of our secondary systems serving migrant youth. Information is collected and compiled around the following data elements: grade placement, on course to graduate, grade point average, credit deficiencies, 90% attendance, Algebra 1 completion, English 9 completion, English Language Development program participation, special education placements, and passing rates for any required proficiencies or competencies established in the districts serving our students. As the High School Exit Exam has become more firmly established as a graduation requirement, we will gather that information. The information we gather is compiled, and a profile of the achievement of the migrant secondary students is developed. Additionally, the information on individual students is available to both mainstream and MEP staff, so that appropriate supports can be put into place to help ensure student success.

  • Out of School Youth Profiles-We are working to meet the challenges of better identifying our Out of School Youth, profiling their individual needs, collaborating with districts and community agencies to develop a network of supports for them, and build a measurement system for evaluating the success of our programs. While we have begun to increase the counts of Out of School Youth in the region, and have worked to ensure that Out of School Youth Profiles are completed for all identified young adults, we now have begun work on a system for profiling the needs of the population as a whole, as well as a system for measuring our successes and challenges in working with them.

  • Post Secondary Participation Rates-Although the enabling legislation for the Migrant Education Program clearly establishes a mandate for our program to focus on removing obstacles to post-secondary participation on the part of our students, we do not have solid data on migrant students as a subgroup. Our regional office and districts serving these students should be able to document the participation rates of our students in post secondary courses of study, and track that longitudinally. While that is happening in certain districts within our region, we need to collect the data more systematically in order to craft programs that will more effectively ensure that our students continue on into post-secondary institutions and beyond.

 
Student Assessment