Walton to Present on ELL Student Performance at AERA

Date: April 20, 2010
Location: College Park, MD

At the American Education Research Association’s (AERA’s) Annual Meeting in Denver on May 1, Ebony L. Walton will present her research on how the language used at home and length of residence in the U.S. relate to the identification of English Language Learners (ELL) status and student performance on NAEP mathematics, reading, and science.

Walton’s paper, coauthored with Optimal Solutions Group’s colleagues from the NAEP Education Statistics Services Institute and Dr. Salvador Rivas of the American Institutes for Research, is entitled “Looking to the Past to Help the Future: Using Retired NAEP Variables to Improve ELL Identification.” The paper is part of a four-paper symposium, Understanding the Dynamics of the ELL Student Population and their Academic Achievement Using NAEP Data. The larger scope of the symposium will inform NCES researchers about the validity of their background questionnaire pertaining to ELL students.