IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, MD - April 20, 2010 - At the American Education Research Association’s (AERA’s) Annual Meeting in Denver on May 1, Ebony L. Walton will present her research on how the language used at home and length of residence in the U.S. relate to the identification of English Language Learners (ELL) status and student performance on NAEP mathematics, reading, and science.

Walton’s paper, coauthored with Optimal Solutions Group’s colleagues from the NAEP Education Statistics Services Institute and Dr. Salvador Rivas of the American Institutes for Research, is entitled “Looking to the Past to Help the Future: Using Retired NAEP Variables to Improve ELL Identification.” The paper is part of a four-paper symposium, Understanding the Dynamics of the ELL Student Population and their Academic Achievement Using NAEP Data. The larger scope of the symposium will inform NCES researchers about the validity of their background questionnaire pertaining to ELL students.

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Founded in 2000, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC is a non-partisan public policy research firm dedicated to rigorous and evidence-based research. Optimal's clients are local, state, and federal governments; non-governmental organizations; and corporations and foundations. Located in the M Square Research Park, Optimal has grown quickly by building on a reputation of exceptional services and products. Our clients benefit from our innovations, value, and efficiency, which we have been able to establish through a robust technology-based infrastructure, uncompromising and documented quality-control procedures, and effective employee recruitment techniques. Optimal has four research centers: health, education, workforce development, and housing.

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