State standardized test scores for English learners may not always capture the full picture of a student’s academic knowledge when the tests are written in English, a language these students are still acquiring.
Native language assessments can help states and schools better understand what English learners actually know, especially as more districts pursue dual-language immersion models featuring instruction in both English and another world language, experts say.
That is why researchers at the Migration Policy Institute think tank analyzed which states offered native language assessments for English learners in 2025. Their analysis, published in March, found 35 states and the District of Columbia offered them, an increase from 31 states in 2020.
The analysis also looked into how many states’ native language assessments match all significantly used languages identified by a given state. In that analysis, only 28 states and the District of Columbia met that benchmark.
“We’re in this era with high stakes tied to assessments. We want to give [English learners] a chance to really demonstrate what they know, what they can do in these academic subject areas, and a native language assessment can support that,” said Lorena Mancilla, the associate director for K-12 partnerships and policy at the Migration Policy Institute.
Procuring native language assessments proves challenging
Mancilla noted that states are not federally required to offer native language assessments as an accommodation for English learners.
However, in the consolidated plans states must file under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states are asked a series of questions about what non-English languages are prevalent and what assessments are available in those languages. It implies states are or should be offering native language assessments without explicitly mandating them, Mancilla said.
Part of the challenge is the cost. Even purchasing interim native language assessments can prove difficult and expensive, Mancilla said.
Then there’s the issue of alignment between instruction and assessment. In most states and most districts, English learners primarily receive instruction in English, which strengthens the case for testing in English, said Leslie Villegas, a senior policy analyst at the left-leaning think tank New America who worked with the Migration Policy Institute in its 2020 analysis of native language assessments.
That English-dominant model creates a deficit-oriented view of English learners, Villegas said.
“We’re only assessing what they don’t know rather than what they do know in their home language,” Villegas said.
English learners also take separate English-language proficiency tests that over the years have shifted to become more rigorous and rooted in academic context.
Other accommodations exist
Mancilla and Villegas acknowledged that native language assessments aren’t the only option states and districts have for more holistic data of English learners’ academic knowledge.
Schools can also rely on translators for testing or grant these students extra time as they process the language, Mancilla said.
Villegas acknowledges blanket mandates for states to offer native language assessments can be challenging since instruction is so context- and locality-specific that what works in one state may not work in another. It’s also possible that when states identify a significant language used by students other than English, those students may be concentrated in some parts of the state.
Yet she and Mancilla both see opportunities for states to lead the way in promoting districts’ use of various testing accommodations for English learners.
Mancilla is encouraged that more states have expanded both dual-language immersion programming and native language assessments since 2020.
She’s also heard more preliminary discussions on the potential use of artificial intelligence in testing accommodations for English learners.
