ELPT
1. What is ELPT?
2. Who takes ELPT?
Students who take ELPT are those who are enrolled in K-12 and have been identified as an English Learners (EL). All EL students must take ELPT even if they have chosen to refuse services from their school’s EL specialist.
Students take the ELPT until they achieve proficiency and are eligible for reclassification.
3. What grades are tested?
4. What domains are tested?
Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are tested in all grades.
Domain exemptions are available for students who demonstrate a specific disability (i.e. hearing impaired). These should be requested by sending the ELPT Request for Exemption Form to assessment@la.gov no later than 30 days before testing begins.
5. What exactly does the assessment measure?
6. How is proficiency determined?
After taking the ELPT, a student receives scores in the four tested domains as well as one for comprehension (combination of reading and listening). Each language domain score equates to an achievement level. The achievement levels create a profile which is used to determine if the student is Emerging, Progressing or Proficient.
To achieve “Proficient” students should receive Level 4s and Level 5s in each of their domains. More information about performance levels and proficiency can be found in the Performance Level Descriptors ELPT K-12.
7. How is the test administered?
Students taking the ELPT utilize an online platform to interact with content and to submit their answers. The way each answer is entered depends on the item type (e.g., selected response, drag and drop, spoken response, etc.). Each domain is tested separately, and all sessions are untimed.
Tests are administered according to grade band and in the order of the domains: listening, reading, writing, speaking. A school may choose to administer one or two domains a day to a group of students. More information will be available in the ELPT Test Administrator Manual.
8. Will the student be able to receive accommodations on the ELPT?
This depends on the kind of accommodations. Accommodations are a change in the test administration environment, timing, scheduling, presentation format, and/or method of response to the assessment. Accommodations are for students for whom there is documentation of need on an IEP or 504 accommodation plan, so that these students show what they know and can do on the ELPT.
Test accommodations provided to students on other statewide assessments due to limited English proficiency are not allowed on ELPT. Such accommodations would subvert the purpose of ELPT to measure the student’s proficiency in English. More information is available in the ELPS/ELPT Accessibility and Accommodations Manual.