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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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Better communication between MEP staff and mainstream staff-Too
often it is only the MEP staff that has 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
