eal pupils and assessment without levels [email protected]...
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EAL Pupils and Assessment Without Levels
The best pastoral care for students from the most
deprived backgrounds is a great set of exam results
TES June 2015
At the end of Reception only 44% of pupils recorded as having EAL achieve
a good level of development (GLD), compared to 54% of pupils
recorded as FLE. Expressed as an Odds Ratio, the odds of achieving a
GLD are 0.67 (or 33%) lower for EAL pupils compared to FLE pupils. Put
another way, for every three FLE children who achieve a GLD only
two EAL children do so. Unsurprisingly, at the end of their first year of full-
time education children from homes where they may have had less
exposure to English on average achieve lower results than those with FLE.
The association between EAL and achievement decreases markedly in
magnitude at later ages. Considering the summary measures of achievement
at each age, the OR at age 5 is 0.67, at age 7 it is 0.73, at age 11 it is 0.81
and by age 16 it is only 0.90. Thus by age 16 there is only a small gap on the
headline measure (58.3% of EAL pupils achieving 5+A*-C EM compared to
60.9% of FLE pupils) and no gap at all for the broader measure of Best 8 points
score.
The achievement of pupils with EAL varies widely. Many of the factors associated with risk
of low achievement are the same for EAL as for FLE pupils, e.g. Having an identified
Special Educational Need (SEN) and the intensity of the SEN, being entitled to a Free
School Meal (FSM), living in an economically deprived neighbourhood, being young for
the year group and being male. However other factors represent particularly large risks
among the EAL group including: Entry to England from abroad during the key stage
(as proxied by the absence of a prior attainment score), changing school in the last
two years of a key stage, Black African or White Other ethnicity, and some specific
first languages within these two ethnic groups (e.g. among White Other Groups
particularly low scores were noted for students with Romanian, Lithuanian, Turkish,
Portuguese and Polish recorded as their home language). These differences by first
language remain after taking account of socioeconomic variables.
(Strand and Murphy 2015: EAL and Educational Achievement in England)
Another notable feature of the data is the strong difference in results
for reading and mathematics. EAL pupils’ scores in maths
assessments are higher than their scores in reading assessments at
every age. With respect to maths, the gap is large at age 5 (OR=
0.67) and age 7 (OR= 0.76) but decreases substantially by age 11
(OR=0.90) and disappears completely by age 16 (OR=1.03)
It is reassuring that where EAL students have attended English schools for the whole of
a key stage they make greater progress than FLE students, and indeed that by age 16
they have caught up with their FLE peers. However such progress reflects a long history
of considerable additional funding being directed to address language learning
needs, first in the form of Section 11 of the 1966 Local Government Act and then
from 1999 through the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG). Until 2011/12 EMAG
funding was ring-fenced so it could not be spent on other activities, but these protections
have now been removed. A recent NASUWT Survey (2012) saw over onethird of 147
school leaders confirm that resources for EMA and EAL provision across their LAs was
decreasing. Policy makers need to guard against the danger of assuming the strong
progress of EAL students is inevitable; even if the level of need were not rising as rapidly
as it is, there is no guarantee that EAL students will continue to make such good
progress unless schools continue to receive, and to use appropriately, funding to
address EAL learning needs
In relation to school funding, the EAL flag may be a poor basis for targeting
funding. Funding can be focussed on the risk factors and some of these,
such as FSM, will be picked up by the Pupil Premium Grant. However,
other high risk factors, such as new international arrivals, should also be
funded. We note there is a proposal in the March 2014 DFE consultation on
‘Fairer Schools Funding’ to allocate £505 for any primary student and
£1,216 for any secondary student who enters the English state school
system from overseas in the preceding three years (DFE, 2014). The
current results strongly support this proposal. We have noted that
concentrations of EAL can be very specific to small local areas and schools,
even if the total numbers are low in broader geographic area, suggesting that
funding should be targeted at the schools, either directly or through
redistribution by LAs.
It is proficiency/fluency in the English language that is the major factor
associated with variation in the attainment of students recorded as EAL
(Strand & Demie, 2005; Demie & Strand, 2006). Fluency in English is also
the biggest factor influencing the degree of support an individual student
will require, and schools need to be able to assess this need accurately
using their own procedures and expertise. However, we have been able
to point to various risk factors for low attainment among EAL
students. In most cases these are the same risk factors as apply for
FLE students, but it is notable that recent international arrival, school
mobility and particular first languages groups within the White Other and
Black African ethnic groups are associated with much higher risks of low
attainment for EAL students.
The definition of EAL used in the NPD reflects exposure to a language
other than English at home or in the community, it gives no indication of a
students’ proficiency in the English language. It is important that this is
recognised. On the one hand, the EAL group includes second or third
generation ethnic minority students who may be exposed to a language
other
than English as part of their cultural heritage, but may use English as their
everyday language and be quite fluent in it. At the other extreme it
includes new migrants arriving in England who speak no English at all,
and may have varying levels of literacy in their previous country of
origin.
Everything you have seen today can be found on this
dedicated webpage.
www.collaborativelearning.org/ealhls.html