Within the context of accountability for US schools, standardized achievement tests
are being used for increasingly `high stakes' decisions for all students including
those for whom English is a second language, even when their English language skills
are not adequate for the task. This article discusses approaches to the standardized
assessment of content knowledge for English language learners (ELLs),1 including
testing in the student's first language, the use of test accommodations, and
measuring growth in English as an alternative for accountability until student
control of English is sufficient to assure validity of test scores. Limitations of
current research on the use of standardized content assessments with ELLs are
presented and alternative approaches suggested.
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