STELLA Accommodations Decision-making Tool

What is STELLA?

STELLA is a decision-making tool designed to assist educators in selecting appropriate testing accommodations for English learners (ELs) on standardized assessments. STELLA includes decision-making tools or ‘rules’ for determining the specific accommodations individual students should receive on large-scale tests for accountability purposes. STELLA-recommended accommodations are intended to support and guide–not replace–the decision-making processes of educators involved in assigning accommodations to individual English learners on large-scale assessments.

How Does it Work?

STELLA collects data about student background characteristics through a set of questions designed to efficiently elicit the most relevant student factors related to access to standardized testing, including familiarity with standardized academic assessments, formal and informal English language proficiency (ELP) data, primary language (L1) proficiency data, similarity of schooling system in native country to U.S. schools, and time attending school in the United States. Based on this information, the STELLA decision-making tools provide recommended accommodations customized for individual students based on their particular background characteristics along with targeted pre-test support designed to provide orientation to large-scale and other assessment in the U.S. context, if needed. STELLA recommendations consist of a customized package of accommodations selected from a set of approximately twenty promising research-based and practitioner-recommended testing adaptations.

How Can I Learn More?

Browse the tabs included here for more details about the STELLA system and how it works:

purpose of STELLA;
student background factors most relevant to accommodations decision-making;
questions designed to collect information on students’ background and experience;
descriptions of common proficiency levels in English and the student’s native language (L1) derived and used by STELLA;
research-based accommodations recommended by STELLA; and
a glossary of relevant terms and concepts.

STELLA was created to provide a systematic, research-based method for determining appropriate testing accommodations for individual English learners on large-scale assessments. The overall purpose of STELLA is to support consistent, research-based, and fair decision-making processes that benefit both students and the educators who instruct them. STELLA collects and analyzes relevant student background information to match individual learners with valid accommodations for participation in state and district tests. These accommodations represent changes in the testing environment, procedures, or presentation of items or tests that do not alter the targeted content or rigor measured by the items, and thus yield valid scores that are comparable with non-accommodated scores. In this way, STELLA can help encourage the meaningful inclusion of EL students in large-scale assessments for accountability purposes.

Growing research indicates that utilizing valid, fair, and effective accommodations leads to more accurate test scores that better reflect what ELs know and can do in regard to state content standards–rather than the extent to which their emerging English language proficiency may impede their access to the test and/or their ability to demonstrate their content knowledge and skills. Having accurate results for these and all students is essential to ensure the accountability of the educational system, determine how to best meet students’ educational needs, and track student progress over time.

One of the challenges associated with selecting accommodations for individual English learners is identifying what the most important student background information is. There are a multitude of student factors that impact the educational experiences of ELs. The STELLA system is based on extensive research designed to parse out the most relevant student factors that impact ELs’ access to large-scale standardized assessments. The STELLA student factors or characteristics deemed most salient to making valid accommodations decisions that will ensure individual English learners’ access to large-scale assessments are identified in the graphic below.

Place your cursor over the terms in the table to view tooltips with more information about STELLA student background characteristics.

STELLA Student Background Characteristics

Language proficiency refers to a person's ability to use a language for a variety of purposes, including speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Cultural Proximity gauges the influence the student’s native educational culture and U.S. educational culture have on the student. There are three levels of cultural proximity: High (3: very similar to U.S. culture), Medium (2: somewhat similar) and Low (1: not similar or very dissimilar).

US Schooling refers to the student’s experiences, including their classroom and assessment accommodations, in the U.S. School System.

English Proficiency levels reflect the student’s ability to effectively use English relative to students at the same grade level. There are five English language proficiency levels: Beginner, Low Intermediate, High Intermediate, Advanced, and Bridging/Grade Level Learners.

L1 levels reflect the student’s ability to effectively use his or her native language relative to students at the same grade level studying in full-time academic programs in the student’s native country (even if this student has never attended school in the native country). There are four levels of L1 proficiency: Well Below Grade Level, Below Grade Level, At Grade Level, and Above Grade Level.

Time in US Schools is a measure of how familiar the student is with the U.S. school system.

If the student has attended school in the native country, the Native Country Schooling variable is a measure of how similar this schooling system (including academic assessment) was to the U.S. school system.

If the student has attended school in the native country, the Native Country Assessment Experience variable is a measure of the types and purposes of assessments in their native country.

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STELLA Common English Proficiency Scale and Descriptions

The STELLA system consistently uses the following English language proficiency (ELP) levels for analytical and descriptive purposes. These are used to create a common language for understanding within the system and among its users. There are five English language proficiency levels: Beginner, Low Intermediate, High Intermediate, Advanced, and Bridging/Grade Level Learners.

Beginner: Beginners range from having no English to demonstrating a very minimal understanding and use of English. Their comprehension is limited to understanding simple isolated high frequency words and possibly short phrases. Beginners are only able to comprehend very basic grammatical structures such as subject-verb-object sentences. They have extremely limited knowledge of how words, morphemes, and word order convey meaning in English.

Low Intermediate: Low intermediate level learners can comprehend some short simple written phrases and sentences in familiar/social contexts that contain high frequency terms. However, they are not proficient at comprehending academic language or complex sentence structures. Also, their very limited vocabulary range necessitates frequent repetition and rephrasing for these learners’ understanding; they frequently use contextual and visual cues to derive meaning and also rely largely on guessing.

High Intermediate: High intermediate level learners understand non-academic English without much difficulty. However, they only understand some academic language and are just entering the initial stage of learning to comprehend complex sentence structures. They understand frequently used regular verbs and simple tenses but may be confused by irregular verb formation and non-simple tenses. Further, high intermediate learners have significant gaps in their range and use of vocabulary.

Advanced: Advanced learners understand non-academic English very well and academic English moderately well, but noticeably less well than native speakers of English. Specifically, they are often missing cultural language competences such as comprehending idioms, colloquialisms, and phrases and structures that require students to make inferences. These learners are able to understand most below grade level texts in content areas if care has been taken to remove problematic language components such as those identified above. However, they are not entirely proficient at understanding complex language structures.

Bridging/Grade Level: Bridging learners are able to comprehend and employ structures, vocabulary, and overall organizational patterns that approximate the speaking and listening of many native speakers of English in the classroom. Bridging learners are usually rather comfortable with both familiar and unfamiliar topics. However, they may still require teacher support to achieve and maintain the pace of grade level reading and writing activities. Also, the bridging learner may lack grade level vocabulary terms that are specialized or infrequent.

STELLA Common Native Language (L1) Proficiency Scale

The STELLA system uses the following systematic definitions of native language proficiency for analytical and descriptive purposes. These are used to create a common language for understanding within the system and among its users. L1 levels reflect the student’s ability to effectively use his or her native language relative to students at the same grade level studying in full-time academic programs in the student’s native country (even if this student has never attended school in the native country). There are four levels of L1 proficiency: Well Below Grade Level, Below Grade Level, At Grade Level, and Above Grade Level.

Well Below Grade Level: Student has little or no proficiency in his or her native language or has proficiency substantially below the typical level of L1 proficiency observed at the same grade level in a full-time academic program in the native country.

Below Grade Level: Student’s L1 proficiency is somewhat below what one would expect of same grade-level peers enrolled in full-time school in the native country.

At Grade Level: Student can communicate in L1 at a level that is competitive in meeting grade-level expectations in the native country.

Above Grade Level: Student demonstrates an advanced level of proficiency in his or her native language as compared to his or her peers in the native country.

The set of STELLA-recommended accommodations included in the decision-making system are listed below. These accommodations are based on the domain of best practice testing accommodations as indicated by the current accommodations research literature as well as multiple state and district surveys to collect information on accommodations policies. It is important to be aware that some of these may be referred to using different terminology in different states/districts.

Administration Accommodations
Administration accommodations are often necessary but not sufficient on their own, as the content requirements of items must be accessible to students before these accommodations are useful. The types of administration accommodations are described below.

Oral L1: In addition to the traditional means of having an adult administrator read test questions aloud in the student’s language, this accommodation can be administered by tape/CD or by video to a group of students, or by computer with voice capability.

Oral English: In addition to the traditional means of having an adult administrator read test questions aloud in English, this accommodation can be administered by tape/CD or by video to a group of students, or by computer with voice capability. It is generally not considered a valid accommodation for tests that evaluate student’s reading ability.

Small Group: Most large-scale academic content tests are typically administered in a large-group setting. For some ELL students, this setting is problematic to the point where it interferes with their ability to perform adequately on the test. For these students, a small-group administration, usually with the student’s bilingual/ELL teacher or another known adult (for instance a classroom aide) is a viable accommodation.

Individual: On a case-by-case basis, for reasons such as distractibility or when an oral response is necessary, ELL students may need to be provided an individual test administration. This option should be limited and reserved for students who cannot take the test adequately in a small-group setting. Often this accommodation will require the consent of an administrator.

Extra Time: Because ELL students take extra time attending to language and contextual issues in items, and often because of fatigue or other factors, extra time is frequently an essential accommodation, especially in timed test administrations

Forms Accommodations
Forms accommodations include test forms that have been developed specifically for English learners in order to increase their access to testing without changing the rigor or content of what the test is measuring on parallel traditional/standard forms. Some of these specialized forms include native language exclusively and/or partially in conjunction with English. Others may be only in English but with language that has been carefully edited to remove linguistic and cultural barriers to ELLs and with additional graphics and other supports. Still other forms may include computer-based instruments, which opens up many avenues for making testing more valid and accessible for ELLs but are still in a fledgling state in the field. The following are the main types of forms accommodations:

Dual forms: In a side-by-side form, questions from the standard test form are printed on one side of the page and the same questions in L1 are printed on the other side of the page.

L1 forms: This form is a translation of one or more standard testing forms used in a particular testing system or a transliteration or other native language form developed to be parallel to the standard test form in English. The grade-level reading load should be the same for the L1 version as for the English form.

Sheltered English forms: This is a form accommodation that markedly reduces the language load and provides compensatory support through the use of formatting, visuals, and access to tools.

Response Accommodations
Response accommodations are intended to allow English language learners access to demonstrating what they know and can do on assessments. Specifically, these accommodations provide avenues for demonstrating content knowledge and skills for students who may be able to answer part/all of the question but might struggle with the required response demands. An additional response accommodation is allowing a student to demonstrate or model his or her response in an individually administered or interactive computer-based assessment. The following are the types of response accommodations:

Explain answers using written L1 (or code switching): Responses can be in L1 or code-switching between L1 and English and are scored by L1 or bilingual content experts.

Explain answers in oral L1/Code-switching: Students may need to respond orally in L1. Their responses can be captured on tape or with computer voice recognition. It is important that L1 readers/listeners be available for scoring. Student responses may be in L1 or in a mix of L1 and English (code-switching) depending upon how a student is best able to articulate his or her knowledge.

Explain answers in oral English: Students may need to respond orally using English. These responses can be captured on tape or with computer voice recognition.

Demonstrate Response: Sometimes, if a student is new to the U.S. and testing conventions, and if the student is a low- to non-speaker or writer of English and an L1 reader is not available, he or she may need to demonstrate or model responses. This must be implemented in the context of an individually administered or interactive computer-based assessment.

Tools Accommodations
Tools accommodations include specialized glossaries and dictionaries as well as tangible in the form of physical objects or computer-based phenomena. These can be handled and manipulated by students in figuring out and/or demonstrating their answers. Full definitions of the types of tools accommodations are listed below:

English glossary: A list of selected key words in English with their English synonyms.

L1 glossary: A list of selected key words in a student’s L1 with their L1 synonyms.
Picture dictionary: The picture dictionary contains words, specific to each content test, with a pictorial representation of the term.

Bilingual wordlist: A test-specific word list includes selected test words in English with the L1 word equivalent. This list does not include any content area words that are being measured on the exam, or any examples or definitions.

Highlighter/Template: Students may highlight passages of printed material in a soft, transparent color and/or use a template to isolate specific sections on the test page.

Manipulatives: Concrete/tangible or computerized objects that can be manipulated by the student for the purposes of problem solving.

Following is a list of key STELLA terms and concepts along with corresponding definitions, explanations, and examples. The information provided provides an overview of major concepts related not only to STELLA but also accommodations decision-making for English learners in general.

2-way immersion: Students from two language groups receive integrated instruction in English and a second language.

Achievement tests: Tests having to do with a specific subject area, such as math, social studies, science, etc., that measure a student’s content knowledge.

Administration Accommodations
Oral L1: In addition to the traditional means of having an adult administrator read test questions aloud in the student’s language, this accommodation can be administered by tape/CD or by video to a group of students, or by computer with voice capability.

Bilingual Dictionary: A dictionary or list of English words used on the test and the translations of those words in the student’s native language.

Bubbling in answers: Some standardized tests require that students indicate their answer to a test question by filling in a circle or oval that corresponds to their chosen answer. A computer can then read the pattern of marked responses to score the test.

Developmental bilingual: The student receives instruction in the content areas in his or her native language and learns English as a second language. This is also known as maintenance education.

ELP Levels
Beginner: Beginners range from having no English to demonstrating a very minimal understanding and use of English. Their comprehension is limited to understanding simple isolated high frequency words and possibly short phrases. Beginners are only able to comprehend very basic grammatical structures such as subject-verb-object sentences. They have extremely limited knowledge of how words, morphemes, and word order convey meaning in English.

Low Intermediate: Low intermediate level learners can comprehend some short simple written phrases and sentences in familiar/social contexts that contain high frequency terms. However, they are not proficient at comprehending academic language or complex sentence structures. Also, their very limited vocabulary range necessitates frequent repetition and rephrasing for these learners’ understanding; they frequently use contextual and visual cues to derive meaning and also rely largely on guessing.

ESL-specific test or Sheltered English test: A less language-intensive alternative to the standard form of a test. The ESL-specific form of a test presents items using simplified grammar: short, simple sentences, few pronouns, and high-frequency vocabulary. Additional features of an ESL-specific form may include emphasizing important words in the text or conveying some information using visual images in addition to, or instead of, text.

ESL/ESOL, contained: Students study English and content areas in a classroom with other ESL/ESOL students and a teacher specially trained in ESL/ESOL instruction.

ESL/ESOL, pull-out: Students receive ESL/ESOL instruction for one or two periods a day, or in some districts, two or three periods a week, and participate in the regular English-language classroom for the rest of the time.

Fill-in-the-blank questions (Parent Form, Question 16d):
Example: The Earth is the ________ planet from the sun.

Forms Accommodations
Dual forms: In a side-by-side form, questions from the standard test form are printed on one side of the page and the same questions in L1 are printed on the other side of the page.

L1 forms: This form is a translation of one or more standard testing forms used in a particular testing system or a transliteration or other native language form developed to be parallel to the standard test form in English. The grade-level reading load should be the same for the L1 version as for the English form.

Sheltered English forms: This is a form accommodation that markedly reduces the language load and provides compensatory support through the use of formatting, visuals, and access to tools.

Glossary: An alphabetical list of English words and their definitions in English. The glossary may be general or may only contain words that are used on the test.

L1: The language a student learns first and/or uses most frequently at home; or the language spoken most frequently by the student’s parents or other adults in the home.

L1 Levels
Well Below Grade Level: Student has little or no proficiency in his or her native language or has proficiency substantially below the typical level of L1 proficiency observed at the same grade level in a full-time academic program in the native country

Below Grade Level: Student’s L1 proficiency is somewhat below what one would expect of same grade-level peers enrolled in full-time school in the native country

At Grade Level: Student can communicate in L1 at a level that is competitive in meeting grade-level expectations in the native country.

Above Grade Level: Student demonstrates an advanced level of proficiency in his or her native language as compared to his or her peers in the native country.

Multiple-choice questions (Parent Form, Question 16b):
Example: Which planet from the sun is the Earth?

Native language: When used with reference to a person of limited-English-speaking ability, means the language normally used by that person, or in the case of a child, the language normally used by the parents of the child.

Open-ended questions requiring the student’s ideas:
Example: If you were going to move to another planet, which one would you choose and why?

Oral administration: The test is read aloud to the student or the student is provided with an audio taped version of the test.

Oral response: The student is allowed to say his or her answers to the test questions out loud, and the test administrator records the answers

Picture dictionary: An alphabetical list of English words and corresponding pictures illustrating each term.

Questions where students are asked to write more than one sentence:
Example: Explain where the Earth is in reference to the sun.

Response Accommodations
Explain answers using written L1 (or code switching): Responses can be in L1 or code-switching between L1 and English and are scored by L1 or bilingual content experts.

Explain answers in oral English: Students may need to respond orally using English. These responses can be captured on tape or with computer voice recognition.

Schooling Proximity: If the student has attended school in the native country, this variable is a measure of how similar this schooling system, including academic assessment, was to the U.S. school system. There are three levels for cultural proximity: High (very similar to U.S. culture), Medium (somewhat similar) and Low (not similar or very dissimilar).

Showing/modeling the response: The student is allowed to demonstrate his or her answers to the test questions nonverbally and the test administrator records the student’s answers.

Standardized testing procedures: Tests that are given according to specific guidelines (for example, time limits, same directions read to all students, etc.) that are meant to ensure that the testing is carried out in the same way for all students across different classrooms and schools.

Time in the U.S.
High: If the student has been in the U.S. more than 3 years AND has missed less than 2 months of school for less than 2/3 of the year OR If the student has been in the U.S. between 2 and 3 years AND has attended school on a consistent basis.

Medium: If the student has been in the U.S. between 1 and 2 years AND has attended school on a consistent basis OR if the student has been in the U.S. between 2 and 3 years AND has missed two months of school in one school year. OR If the student has been in the U.S. more than 3 years AND has missed more than two months of school per year for 2/3 of the year or more.

Low: If the student has been in the U.S. less than 1 academic year OR if the student has been in the U.S. between 1 and 2 years AND has missed more than two months of school per year for 1 or more years OR If the student has been in U.S. between 2 and 3 years AND has missed more than two months of school per year at least two of the years.

Transitional bilingual: The student is taught to read and write in the native language, with subject matter also taught in the native language. English is initially taught for only a small portion of the day, but as the child progresses, the amount of instructional time in the native language is reduced and English is increased until the student is proficient enough in English to join the regular instructional program.

Tools Accommodations
English glossary: A list of selected key words in English with their English synonyms.

Highlighter/Template: Students may highlight passages of printed material in a soft, transparent color and/or use a template to isolate specific sections on the test page.

Manipulatives: Concrete/tangible or computerized objects that can be manipulated by the student for the purposes of problem solving.