Mississippi Awarded $2.4 Million to Lead Multistate Effort to Better Measure Progress of English Learners

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: October 14, 2019

(JACKSON, MS) – The Mississippi Department of Education has been selected as the lead state in a $2,376,010 grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a four-year project to develop and improve ways to measure the progress of English Learner students.

The MDE will partner with national experts and six other states including Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin in this effort. Once complete, the improved methods will be shared with researchers and educators in all states.

“We are proud to lead this national effort that will improve the way states measure the academic progress of students who are learning to read, write, and speak English,” said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education. “The population of English learners is growing in Mississippi and the nation, and this project will support states in their work to advance student learning.”

The project will address four goals:

1. Help states effectively measure English learner (EL) growth towards English language proficiency
2. Help states understand the relationship between English learner progress and EL program implementation
3. Support participating states in improving their own growth models and using English language proficiency assessment data to inform school improvement efforts
4. Inform the field’s understanding of effective measures of growth towards English language proficiency and provide resources that states can customize and use

Partner organizations include the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the California State University Northridge (CSUN), the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at the University of California Los Angeles, and Com-Link, LLC.

Media Contact: 

Patrice Guilfoyle, APR
Director of Communications
601-359-3706

Jean Cook, APR
Director of Public Relations
601-359-3519