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Confounded And Compounded By Language: English Language Learners And High Stakes Testing, Elizabeth Park

Occasional Paper Series

As her students prepare to take their tests to exhibit English proficiency, the atmosphere, writes Park, "becomes military at best, prison-like at worst. Regulations are distributed. Teachers are warned that state examiners may appear unannounced to look for infractions of the myriad rules..." Scare tactics are used to try to assure that the testing activity remains uncontaminated by human desire, fear, or simple boredom.