Large-scale assessment of ELL students

[COCHOA]

One of the issues I have seen with some of the ELL students in my school district is connected to large-scale standardized testing. Many of these students came to this rural area in the state of Maine when they were very young children. They are already mainstreamed and perform well in many of their core curricular subjects. Moreover, their English proficiency is high. However, they have a difficult time attaining the required score in their high stakes assessments in order to exit out of the ELL program. Therefore, they must remain in the program. Have other people experienced this phenomenon?

[Tdol]

Are there issues with the test itself?