National Scan of Screening Policies and Practices for Identifying English Learners in Pre-K

Last spring, advocates in California raised alarm bells regarding how four-year-old children in the state’s Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program were being screened for English language proficiency and identified as English Learners (ELs). Their concerns focused on the use of the English Learner Proficiency Assessment for California—which has not been normed or validated for children younger than five—and the implications for labeling a young child as an EL based on results from this test. State leaders listened to these concerns and proposed legislation to eliminate this testing requirement in TK. The bill was signed into law in June. Interim guidance has been published for the current academic year, and work is currently underway to identify a potential alternative assessment or screening process.

Federal law mandates that all children in grades K-12 be screened and assessed for English language proficiency upon school enrollment. Yet, the law is murkier when it comes to state preschool and pre-K programs. Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education highlights that federal funding for English learner programs—provided under Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)—can be used to support early childhood programs. However, the department has not issued any guidance or recommendations on the screening and assessment of ELs in early childhood programs, such as state pre-K. Federal guidelines define an English Learner as “an individual— (A) who is aged 3 through 21; (B) who is enrolled or preparing to enroll in an elementary school or secondary school...” Based on this definition, a pre-K student could be considered an English Learner. As such, states must individually decide whether to screen and identify pre-K students as ELs to help inform eligibility (some state-funded preschool and pre-K programs use EL status as an eligibility criteria for enrollment), instruction, assessment, and other services.

To learn more about how states are addressing this issue, we conducted a fifty-state scan to identify state-level policies and guidance for EL screening and identification procedures in state-funded pre-K programs. Specifically, we searched through websites of state education agencies (e.g., Department of Education and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) for state-level procedures regarding EL identification in pre-K. Then, we contacted leaders from each state (e.g., Title III officers, Directors of Assessments) to verify our findings. Building off of previous reporting, we found that approximately half of the states screen pre-K students for EL identification, yet screening and identification procedures vary state to state. In the next two sections, we discuss state-level procedures for identifying and screening ELs in pre-K.

Rules for Screening Pre-K Students Across States

Currently, 23 states (including Washington D.C.) have established a process for screening students for EL identification in pre-K. Among these states, 16 require screening for pre-K students, meaning that these states have issued explicit policy on assessing pre-K students for possible EL identification and service provision during their pre-K year(s). The other seven states offer guidance or recommendations for the EL identification process but do not legally require screening pre-K students. See Table 1 for more details.

Table 1. State Policies for Screening English Language Proficiency for English Learner Identification in Pre-K

An additional nine states screen pre-K students in the spring prior to their entry into kindergarten to determine EL status and service provision for their Kindergarten year. These states use a developmentally-appropriate assessment for Kindergarteners created by WIDA or ELPA 21 (see below for more information about these educational consortia) to assess EL status.

Lastly, 19 states do not screen or assess pre-K students for potential EL status. One state leader replied to our email inquiry by saying, “We don’t recommend pre-K identification because we don’t believe it is developmentally appropriate, and when we reviewed the available screener tools, we didn’t find any that we deemed [appropriate] for that age level.” This concern was echoed by several states.

Screeners Used to Identify Pre-K ELs

The majority of states are members of two large educational consortiums and assessment developers, WIDA (36 states plus D.C.) and ELPA21 (8 states), which provide standardized K-12 English proficiency assessments and EL screening procedures. Neither WIDA or ELPA21 recommend using their screeners for pre-K students nor provide additional guidance on which screeners they deem developmentally appropriate for pre-K students. This finding, coupled with a lack of federal guidance, means that states must decide themselves which assessment to implement for screening and identification purposes. In the 23 states that require or provide guidance for identifying ELs in pre-K, a variety of methods are used.

In most states, the process for identifying ELs in state pre-K programs is twofold: Prior to administering an English proficiency screener, parents are asked to complete a home language survey and/or an interview to address which language(s) are spoken at home. If a language other than—or in addition to—English is identified, the child would then be assessed for their English proficiency to determine EL identification. Of note, nine states permit using the results from the home language survey and/or parent interview as a screening method for EL identification, requiring no further assessment beyond parental report.

Currently, there are five main English language proficiency assessments approved for use across the states that are designed for pre-K children aged three to five years of age:

• Pre-IPT is an oral preschool language proficiency screener that examines vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, and verbal expression. An examiner guides the student through a story with a story board and pieces, prompting the child to label objects and discuss story topics or the child’s own experiences.
• preLAS is an oral language proficiency assessment, broadly assessing receptive and expressive vocabulary, comprehension skills, grammar, and verbal expression. Students play a series of games that prompt them to follow instructions, label items, repeat words, and tell stories.
• preLAS Observational Assessment that provides an observational approach to the preLAS.
• Oklahoma Pre-Kindergarten Screening Tool (PKST) is a conversational tool in which an examiner asks the student several questions about themself, rating their ability to appropriately communicate in English and with grammatical correctness.
• Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey (WMLS) provides a battery of oral language assessments that examines children’s listening and speaking skills.

While 14 states require or recommend one screener, nine states have approved more than one screener, allowing districts to determine which screener to use. For example, the most commonly used assessments are the Pre-IPT and preLAS; while nine states allow use of the Pre-IPT and nine states use the preLAS, seven of these states authorize both screening instruments. Beyond the five main screeners, two states permit the use of the WIDA Kindergarten Screener for identification of pre-K ELs despite guidance from WIDA not recommending this tool for pre-K.

Conclusion

Given the lack of federal guidance and state-level flexibility afforded by ESSA, states are provided with the opportunity to decide their own policies for EL identification and screening procedures in pre-K. Currently, identification of ELs in pre-K is not a standard practice across states, and among the states that screen pre-K students for EL identification, there is significant variability in the assessments used across—and even within—states.

These findings prompt several questions: How do states decide whether to require English proficiency screening for pre-K students? What process do they use to select screeners and assessments? And for what purposes is EL identification in pre-K used? To address these questions, we are currently interviewing several state leaders, advocate groups, and assessment developers from the two major educational consortiums, who can provide insights into how they are approaching these questions. Stay tuned for our next blog post in the series that will highlight several case examples of how states, advocates, and assessment developers are thinking about EL identification in pre-K.

Endnotes:

1. 38 states responded to our email inquiring about the accuracy of our data for their state.
2. The process for EL screening only applies to state funded pre-K programs. While there are other child care services available (e.g., center based, family childcare), guidelines differ.