Research Mini Proposal: Why do more than half of the Mexican children not pass the STAAR test?

Research Mini Proposal

I. Introduction

Since the STAAR test was implemented in Texas, bilingual children, especially those of Hispanic origin, have not fared well. In fact, according to the statistics put out by the Kids Count Data Center, approximately 32% of third-grade students pass the reading test, and 37% pass the mathematics test (2022) which means that not even half of the children tested in the third grade pass the minimum requirements for the state.

We need to find out why Mexican children score so low on standardized tests, and schools need to assess to see if these tests help. If the STAAR test aims to give teachers a paradigm for future lesson plans, why do the Hispanic children stay in the same bracket and not move up?

I want to conduct this research study for several reasons. First, I believe that bilingual children, when they take the STAAR test, think in their native language. If English is not the primary language spoken at home, then that could be why the children are having trouble with the test. The children may have to translate the questions from Spanish to English while being tested. We think the children should score better in math; however, many problems are word problems, which are the same as reading. The child is being tested on reading and comprehension on two tests. The child's brain is working twice as much.

Since the STAAR test is timed, the children run out of time and could panic. This year the test is going from paper to computer, which adds stress, especially if the children are not as familiar with computers. If the child has to think in two or three languages and translate while trying to come up with the correct answer, there is not enough time for the child to do the test and to do it correctly.

Also, I do not believe that the people in charge of designing the STAAR test have considered how a child that must think in more than one language must feel, and I believe the test is geared toward monolinguist children.

The questions that I want to address are what are the advantages or disadvantages of bilingual third graders taking the STAAR test? Considering the low performance that Hispanic children have shown in the past years, was the STAAR test designed to evaluate multilingual third graders? And why do more than half of the Hispanic children not pass the STAAR test?

Is being multilingual a factor in low scores? And does being multilingual make the child think in another language than the one used on the STAAR test? What accommodations do multilingual children have when taking the STAAR test, especially the reading portion? Considering that School administrators and lawmakers portray the STAAR test as vital in the student's education, it would be essential to explore the area of the children not meeting the standards of these tests.




II Literature Review

This paper aims to determine the advantages or disadvantages of the STAAR test on multilingual children. The answers we are looking for are if multilingual children's brain works twice as hard because the child has to translate the questions from English to their native language. When the child takes the test, is the child given enough time to process that information? At the same time, does being multilingual hinder the child's success? Research conducted in 2009 showed that by eighteen months, the monolingual child should know at least fifty words; however, bilingual children, on average, knew fewer words between the ages of eight and thirty months old. Regarding word association, bilingual children scored lower in word association (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009); if a Hispanic child can achieve lower word association, he already has his work cut out for him.

Again, is being bilingual the cause for so many low scores, especially in reading, among Hispanic children? Barac and Bialystock concluded that bilingual children usually perform poorly regarding linguistic tasks compared to monolingual children (Barac, & Bialystok, 2012). However, Bali and Alvarez did an investigation comparing Texas schools to those in California, and what they came up with regarding school policy was worth looking into. They concluded with caution that Texas did much better than California based on the diversity of Texas teachers and the positive influence on the students (Bali & Alvarez, 2003). This raises another question. It could be the teacher's role in the children scoring higher. Why is the teacher not able to help her students succeed? Hispanic children in Denton Independent School District have not improved much in the past decade.

According to the Assessment Central website, the reading portion of the STAAR test is based on the Lexile difficulty level. A text requires one hundred and twenty-five words to determine the Lexile level. The way that the third-grade STAAR reading test is administered is the children have four hours to complete the test. Forty questions consist of five paragraphs between five hundred to seven hundred words ranging from texts, articles, and poems. After each section, there will be eight questions that the child will have to answer, all multiple choice, which means that the child has a total of two hundred and forty minutes to answer forty questions, giving the child a six minutes time frame to answer the question. (2023) In that time, the bilingual child has to be able to read the text, translate the paragraph of five hundred words, and understand the content, then in return, read and translate each question and assert the correct answer. The government website gives an example of a typical query the child would be asked, and parents can have a copy of a mock test that the child can practice at home with an answer key. Given the bilingual child's work, six minutes to answer a question is not enough. Llabre and Cuevas argued that the use of English as the language of the test is one reason for low test scores by Hispanics (Llabre & Cuevas, 1983).

According to Bialystock et al., what is interesting is that both languages are activated simultaneously in the bilingual child and that collective activism creates a unique need for selection in bilinguals. Researchers have shown that bilingual participants take longer and make more mistakes than monolinguists on naming tasks. In the Boston Naming Taks test, bilinguals produced fewer correct responses. There is a concern that bilingual children have a smaller vocabulary, as stated before, and less frequent use of each language. The brain seems to be competing against itself in selecting words (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009) because the brain competing can be one reason why Hispanic children test so low on the STAAR test.

In her study, Gathercole raises the meaning of the words in different languages. For instance, the word cup in English can also mean mug; however, in Spanish, it is only a one-word taza. When you say the fly is in the jelly in English, you are referring to a location within a container, but if you say the fly is on the wall, you are referring to a place that is not contained. In Spanish, you would only say one thing 'está" is a location in meaning contained or not. (Mueller, 2010). This can be a problem when the child is ready to translate the text. Many factors are in play, and the child has to be able to think quickly because the clock is ticking, and it knows it.

The strength of the research literature is that most of the studies had groups of children within the age group for the study. The information on how bilingual children's language developed was clearly explained in many of the articles, and not only children learning English Spanish, I found some comparing other languages. There is also an extensive explanation of how bilingual children develop language; for instance, in the case of infants, Mueller explains that every child is affected by the language they hear because it needs to organize its world according to what it hears (Mueller,2010). Bilingual children also can manage and think in two languages. Bialystok et al. emphasized that every day the use of language requires cognitive control; however, she makes it clear that bilingual children do not develop two separate language systems controls.

The studies show several tests conducted to analyze how bilingual children process language. In the Verbal, the basic procedure is to ask the participants to come up with as many words as possible in sixty seconds, separating the words into categories and initial letters. This measures the child's word retrieval ability (Oren, 1981). Another variance would be having bilingual children alternate the words between languages. The Stoop Effect is considered the "gold standard'. This test places black letters with names of colors, for example, pink, green, or blue; then the letters are in colors with different words, for example, letter color pink, letter name blue, letter color black, letter name yellow, etc (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009).

The weakness I noticed in the studies was that while they did give us an extensive amount of information. None of the tests were done in schools except for the one comparing the Texas and California school districts (Llabre & Cuevas, 1983). The test dealt with the study of language but did not explain how to help children scoring low on a test or how to help them. It was difficult to find studies to focus solely on Mexican children and how language use affects them. When a study says Hispanic, it could mean a whole array of nationalities, and even though I may say that I speak Spanish, it is not the same as someone in Honduras. I think that researchers need to be careful when doing their research not to label everyone in the same category because not everyone within the same culture uses words in the same way.

Another weakness in the studies is the lack of information on the effects that being bilingual has on these children. I would like to have found empirical research on children from kindergarten to High School and seen the progress they made along their career path and how many actually graduated or even went to college. When I emigrated to the United States, there was no bilingual education, and I was immersed in the language; within a year, I knew enough English to do my homework and translate for my parents. I heard some parents tell me that it has taken their child five years in the bilingual program just to read proficiently.

The first gap I found in the literature was that no one had studied the STAAR test. Over the past ten years, only 37% of the children in the Denton Independent School District Hispanic community have passed the reading test, meaning that sixty-three percent have failed. What is happening to those children? Who are the children that passed? I could not find any information regarding plans set in motion to assist the children other than the ESL, which is a different set of children because these children can take the STAAR test in Spanish if they are not fluent in English yet.

The second gap was that there is no study or research on the educators' qualifications or the process of designing the STAAR test. There is no public information on the demographics of the panel of teachers doing the test. I would like to see a committee of parents, a group of parents, or school council members involved in the process. It all seems a mystery; why is this information not made public? I feel that if there were an equal representation of teachers based on the district's cultural demographics, those teachers would be able to catch those problem areas. For instance, I saw a sample mock reading test, a story about a porcupine, and several questions on "quills." At the same time, the encyclopedia says they are indigenous to some parts of Mexico, but I have never seen one. Nor would I know how to translate the word "quill" within six minutes. While doing my practicum, I noticed something interesting: all the bilingual class children would not eat blueberries when served as snacks; why? Blueberries do not grow in Mexico, so children threw them all away because they were unfamiliar with this fruit.

The third gap did not mention the homes the children tested came from or their families. Do children hear more than one language at home, or is it only Spanish? How about the children that did pass the STAAR test? Was it because they are more fluent in English, or maybe they do not speak Spanish? Some Hispanic children will be assumed that they are bilingual because of their last name. When my son was in kindergarten, the second day, he came home very confused because he could not understand his teacher, so I went to the school; as it turned out, he was in all Spanish-speaking kindergarten classes; however, my son did not speak Spanish. My son was placed in the bilingual program even though I tried to get him off yearly simply because of his last name. It wasn't until Jr. High that he was finally taken off the system.

III Statement Problem Section

Hispanic children have been failing the reading STAAR and math tests in the DISD for the past ten years. There is no information on what is being done to help the children improve. There is not enough time for bilingual children to do the STAAR test; six minutes per question is insufficient to translate the question in their minds and answer it. If you do the math, it is not six minutes; it is much less than that because the child must also translate the text.

Some of the methods that I would like to propose is having children do a mock STAAR test. I want to see several Hispanic children represented in those children selected for practicing the test by the people designing the test and the schools providing copies of the free test for Hispanic parents or more information about where they can get copies so that the children can practice at home. Parents will have an idea of what their child is doing. I want to see more testing out of the controlled areas and in schools where researchers can see how children function in the classroom. Most of the test I could find in the research was not in schools or classrooms. I

Teachers must be given better tools to help Hispanic children prepare for the STAAR test. I spoke with some of the third graders in my church, and they told me that all their teachers tell them is that it is an important test. I asked them if they had practiced for the examination, and they said no, that the teacher tells the child to guess the question. If you are running out of time, it is better to think than to leave it blank; however, what does that mean to a third-grade mind? Does the child believe it to be a free pass, and he will soon get out of this unfortunate situation, or does it mean he will be somehow rewarded for his efforts? I asked the children at the church what they believed "guessing" told, and their response was an opportunity. I thought it was an interesting answer and said, "Opportunity for what? To get the answer right was their answer; however, they do not realize that there are four answers to the questions; they do not have a fifty-fifty chance, and the odds are much higher.


Some of the methods used were interviewing children; in this case, I would like to see the third graders interviewed regarding the use of language at home and school. I know the schools send out a survey to the families at the beginning of the year to get information on the language that the child is exposed to and the preferred language the child speaks. I want to keep a record of the bilingual children exposed to both Spanish-English and whose families speak primarily English at home. I also want to keep a record of the children whose primary language at home is Spanish.

Sometime before the STAAR test, I would like to have The Stoop Test (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009). performed on the children and see what the results would be, as well as have an account of the amount of vocabulary the children possess. The argument has been that bilingual children have less vocabulary than monolingual children, then how are they expected to do a reading test if their language is limited? The problem with bilingual children is that most do not know enough Spanish to take tests in Spanish and lack the English to pass the English portion of the test.

IV Purpose of the study

This study aims to discover why more than half of the Denton Independent School District Hispanic children fail the STAAR test. The district has been testing children for the past decade, and no significant improvement has occurred. There is very little public information other than statistics on the results of the tests, and it has made me wonder why no one has considered this a problem. Other than the child being able to retake the test in hopes of a more satisfying score and some tutoring, the results are the same year after year. Also, many of these children are coming out of bilingual classes and immersed in English-speaking classrooms. Perhaps something else to consider in the future is a look at the way. Bilingual education is preparing the K-Second grade students to be proficient in English.

Children, as well as teachers, need better tools to get over this problem; what are those tools? As it is, teachers already have a lot on their plate, perhaps parents don't do their part either, and the one that gets left in the middle is the child that can speak two languages but cannot pass the STAAR test. Ignoring the problem and crossing our fingers, hoping it will be better next year, will not solve it. In the meantime, these children continue being in the education system without purpose other than just getting over the year.

The study will give educators and administrators an accurate view of what is happening. Until now, no information tells them what is happening and the meaning behind these failures. Is it because children need more time? Is it because more vocabulary needs to be implemented throughout the year? After ten years of failed tests, no one has said anything about it or done a study about it.

Why do more than half the Hispanic Third-grade children in the DISD fail the STAAR test?

Is being bilingual a factor in low grades?

What are the advantages or disadvantages of Hispanic third graders taking the STAAR test?

What accommodations for Hispanic children have been considered by administrators and educators to help them succeed in the test?

Hypothesis

a. Children will do better if they are allowed extra time.

b. Children will do better with questions that are relevant to them.

c. If children are provided information and practice mock STAAR test trough out the year, they will become familiar with the process and be ready the day of.

d. Teachers must provide more vocabulary so Hispanic children can succeed in the STAAR test.


V. Subjects and Sampling Section

I want to include the Hispanic children from the third grade that will be tested that year. I want to have them stretched to see how much their vocabulary is developed before and after the test. I want to test the children in the bilingual program and those Hispanic children who have never been.

We will have the third graders from a local Denton school that would be willing to participate in the testing. These will be the Hispanic children coming into the third grade from a full-day bilingual program. Those children identified as Hispanic origin by their parents or guardians and who are exposed to both languages of English and Spanish.

Different categories are to be defined because Mexican children will come from only Spanish-speaking homes. These children speak Spanish fluently and are learning English at school, which means that the people that the child lives with do not speak English at home not to the child. These children were most likely enrolled in the bilingual program when they started kindergarten, meaning they have had approximately three years in the school environment and the language.

Then you have the bilingual Mexican children because they can speak both English and Spanish and are fluent in both. Some of their families will speak English, and some may speak both fluently at home and to the child, alternating between languages. There is probably not a definite language preference at home. These children may also be learning to read and write in Spanish.

The third category is the Mexican child exposed to Spanish and English; however, the family only speaks English at home and to the child. At the same time, although the child may speak Spanish, he probably does not know how to read or write in Spanish.

Another category is the Mexican child. Spanish and English could be spoken at home or around the family to the child, but they are constrained. The child has the knowledge and identifies as Mexican but does not speak Spanish, nor can they read or write in that language. This child must be included in the study because they will be identified as Mexican in the paperwork.

This research is selective because we are trying to investigate why this group of children is failing the STAAR test. We would like to see if language and using language by the test is problematic for these children since they are having such difficulties.

We believe that this is an important test for this age and ethnic group since no investigation has been done recently or at all. I also think this study could provide valuable information for the school district regarding what happens to these children when tested. It is a problem that has been ignored and needs to be addressed.

The sampling method that would be the most logical is to use children already in the school district. To acquire a school that would allow us to test the Hispanic children in their environment because, at present, it has not been done. To try the children in the third grade who will be taking the STAAR test in May. Children who are fluent in Spanish and English and those who are only fluent in English identify themselves as Hispanic.

VI. Data Collection Methods Selection

I want to suggest that the children participating in the study be categorized as 1) Bilingual/ Fluent, 2) Bilingual/ Somewhat fluent, 3) Bilingual/ Exposed 4) Bilingual/ Not Fluent. This would give us an idea of how much language they are exposed to and which is the dominant language the brain has selected to use (Bialystok, 1999). I would also use questionaries because I need to know how the child is exposed to language. At the same time, we observe the children as we conduct our studies.

Some of the questions the children would be asked are, for instance, what language does the child think when he reads? Does he prefer one language over the other? What is easier for the child to understand? Asking these questions gives us an idea of how much the child understands language and what role language plays as it reads a story or a book. Then I would like to test the children on the amount of English vocabulary that they have.

I believe that by analyzing how the child is reading and how it processes the information, it can be determined that there is not enough time for a bilingual child to answer questions like the ones in the STAAR test in such a small amount of time. How are children expected to understand a test if they have limited vocabulary? They already feel pressured by time. A child should not be penalized for speaking two languages, and I think the STAAR test is because, in the ten years that it has been administered, this ethnic group's progress has been overlooked.

We will use quantitative measures to help us determine how Mexican children think while doing an important test like the STAAR. Some of the measures implemented will account for the amount of English vocabulary the children have. I want to take some of the words from the actual mock test and see if the children understand their meaning. All the children will be separated by their English fluency.

We know a quantitative measure is reliable; several study participants will record and review the information. Each child will be asked the same questions regardless of fluency in English. We will have several people observing the children as they are tested on their vocabulary to ensure that all the data is recorded accurately.

The information will be gathered at the beginning of the year, starting with the questionnaire the schools have already sent out regarding language preference. We would request that information from the school, and then we will conduct our questionnaire with the children. We will then set up a time when we can come in and start testing the children on their vocabulary. That vocabulary would be taken from the mock sample of the STAAR test once we gather all the information. The children would be divided into their respective groups, and a mock STAAR test would be given with no time restrictions. Each child's time will be calculated, and the test will be graded. Then that information will be recorded.

VII. Data Analyses

We will use experimental research to establish group relationships for the quantitative data. We need to select the cause-effect relationship of the variables in the study. We can use ANOVA because it will determine if the groups created by the levels of the independent variable are statistical by calculating the overall mean of the dependent variable (Bevans,2022). Once the calculations have been made, this will give us the data, and we can prove our hypothesis.

We will collect the data and mathematically analyze the results of the hypothesis. We will have others review the results to ensure the accuracy of our findings. We will ask an independent researcher to review the results and our data to maintain the integrity of the study (Depoy & Gitlin, p. 45, 2020).









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