ABSTRACT
Improving Testing for English Language Learners is designed to summarize how academic tests, for instance assessments which measure achievement in mathematics or science, might be made accessible for English language learners, or ELLs. 1 The focus of the book is to address this issue within the mainstream large-scale aca-demic tests that states and districts use. Large-scale is being defined here to include tests that are developed to be used to obtain data about the achievement of students over classrooms, schools, districts, or states, although many of the points may be useful for classroom purposes as well. As this text will document, many researchers and test developers have found that it is not sufficient to focus on only one aspect of test development or implementation, for instance on providing administration accom-modations post hoc without considering this population when tests are designed or when studies of technical quality are being conducted. Rather, access needs to be considered at several points, beginning with the conceptualization of what the assessment is intended to measure.
