English Learners Left Behind: Standardized Testing As Language Policy »

Kate Menken is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), and a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for the Study of Language in an Urban Society at the CUNY Graduate Center. Previously, she was a teacher of English as a second language.

This book explores how high-stakes tests mandated by No Child Left Behind have become de facto language policy in U.S. schools, detailing how testing has shaped curriculum and instruction, and the myriad ways that tests are now a defining force in the daily lives of English Language Learners and the educators who serve them.

Pt. 1 Language Policy Context

1 Introduction 3

2 Language Policy, Federal Education Legislation and English Language Learners in the United States 13

3 The New York Case: The Local Implementation of a National Policy 36

Pt. 2 Standardized Tests in Daily School Life

4 Tongue-Tied: The Linguistic Challenges that Standardized Tests Pose for English Language Learners 63

5 The Ones Left Behind: How High-Stakes Tests Impact the Lives and Schooling Experiences of ELL Students 97

6 'Teaching to the Test' as Language Policy: The Focus on Test Preparation in Curriculum and Instruction for ELLs 118

Pt. 3 Expansion and Recommendations

7 Higher Expectations vs. Language as Liability: Why the Drawbacks of Accountability Outweigh the Benefits for English Language Learners 141

8 High-Stakes Testing and Language Un-Planning: Theoretical Implications of Testing as Language Policy 160

9 Moving Forward: Embracing Multilingual Language Policies from the Top-Down to the Bottom-Up 181

Notes 189

References 191

Index 204