For the last two weeks the ELL students at CSE have been taking the ACCESS test, which is a new test the State of Minnesota has adopted to monitor the progress of ELL students accross the state. It is a lengthy process at a school like CSE. We have to test each group of kids according to their ability level, and we can't have more than 22 kids in a test group. We have to test them on three seperate occasions: first for Listening and Reading, then Writing, and finally Speaking. The Speaking test is administered indvididually, which of course takes a lot of time when 80% of the students in the school need to be tested.
The good news is that the ELL staff at the school have been very organized in the way they are administering the test. We hope to be done administering group tests next week, and finish up the speaking tests the week after that. If you have any questions about the ACCESS test or how it is administered at CSE, please send me an e-mail and I will be happy to respond. We expect to receive the results from the test in May.
