Description:

In January 2016, Montgomery County Public Schools introduced a redesigned referral process for language dominance assessment and special education determination of students who are eligible for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services and may have an educational disability.  This process involves referrals to the centrally-based Bilingual Assessment Team (BAT).  A key component of the new process is that each student’s ESOL level affects which assessments the student receives and who (i.e., BAT or school staff) administers each one.  This study evaluated the redesigned BAT process using two questions: 1) To what extent is the new process being implemented with fidelity? 2) Are the strategies and procedures working to achieve the expected short-term outcomes?

Recommendations:

• Provide more training to school-based staff about the redesigned referral process for special education determination of ESOL recipients with a focus on the following topics: Referrals and assessments of ESOL level 1 and 2 students, When to use interpreters, Working with interpreters.
• Given the positive reception of the professional learning opportunities for interpreters about special education assessments, provide such opportunities to more interpreters, beyond the initial cadre of 25.  For the initial cade of interpreters, provide additional and detailed professional learning opportunities about special education assessments.

File Name: Report BAT Final PDF.pdf (623.1KB PDF)