English Language Learners: Percent Proficient on the MAC II exam

Download Mac II chart (15KB)

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT

In addition to administering the New Standards Reference Exam state assessments to all eligible students, RIDE administers another assessment, the Maculaitis II (Mac II), to all English Language Learners. This test measures the proficiency that non-native speakers have attained in the English language.

This table shows the results of the Mac II administered in 2004-05 to all English Language Learners. These tests are administered at all grade levels, to all students in ESL or bilingual programs and to monitored students (those who left the programs within the past two years).

The results show the percent proficient on the Mac II, by district and for the state as a whole. The table also shows the percent proficient on the Mac II broken down by the number of years since the student entered an ESL or bilingual-education program. (After two years out of the program, monitored students no longer take the Mac II.)

In the right-hand column, the table shows the total number of English Language Learners in the state as a whole and in each district.

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

First of all, you would like to see that a high percentage of students in all districts attain proficiency on Mac II assessment.

A relatively low level of proficiency for students just entering ESL or bilingual-education programs is to be expected. Students enter these programs because they are nonnative speakers of English. But you would like to see a high level of proficiency in years 3 and 4, when students may have gone through a year or two of ESL or bilingual education and a year or two of monitoring. Proficiency levels may fall off during years 5 and 6. Students in ESL or bilingual programs for so many years may be students with multiple educational challenges or the districts may be offering programs that are not addressing the complex process of learning the English language.