The Relationship between English Language Proficiency and Academic Achievement for English Language Learners

The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to test the threshold hypothesis as it applied to the performance of English language learner students on the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (OCCT) in third grade reading and the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State for English language learners assessment, also known as the ACCESS for ELLs. The OCCT assesses student performance on third grade reading content and the ACCESS for ELLs assesses the English language proficiency levels in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This study specifically proposed to analyze the relationship between the ACCESS for ELLs reading proficiency level and the student performance on the OCCT third grade reading assessment. Additional analysis was proposed to determine if the relationship in student performance on the assessments was influenced by the number of years in which the student had been receiving English language development services. The participants in the study were third grade English language learner students enrolled in a large school district in Oklahoma for the 2014-2015 school year