Robinson awarded AERA grant

Joseph P. Robinson, an assistant professor of quantitative and evaluative research methodologies (Queries) in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been awarded a research grant from the American Educational Research Association (AERA).  The AERA grant (sponsored jointly by NSF and NCES) is for Dr. Robinson’s research on assessment accommodations for English learners.  Robinson’s project explores the effect of taking mathematics assessments in English vs. Spanish on the achievement scores of kindergarten and first-grade English learners.

Prior research suggests it is important for English learners to have the language of the assessment match the language of instruction. But that research has focused on older students, who take math tests that are more linguistically taxing.  We do not know what the effect of language accommodations is on children when they enter school, though it is reasonable to suspect the later-grade effects would translate to the lower grades.  And we do not know how the language of assessment interacts with the language of instruction for these younger English learners.

Robinson—whose research focuses on the causal effects of policies and practices on English learners—hopes that this research will shed light on these issues, and in doing so, inform local and national policy debates regarding how best to assess the skills of English learners. Accurate test results are important for the students, whose placement decisions may be based in part on achievement scores. Likewise, the test results also have ramifications for schools, which must meet accountability standards for all subgroups of students, including English learners.

Professor Robinson is grateful to the AERA Grants Board for their generous funding of this research.