Measuring ESL program effectiveness through longitudinal study design

¶ … alteration is made by the researcher to the environment; rather he or she constructs a study to observe current conditions and changes in the conditions which result organically. Common designs include cross-sectional comparative studies between different groups or longitudinal studies in which the same group of people are observed over time. "Descriptive studies in which the researcher does not interact with the participant include observational studies of people in an environment and studies involving data collection using existing records" (Nebeker 2015). These types of studies are often used as initial phases of research, after which an intervention can be put into place. One possible intervention for the new ESL program at Huntspoint would be a longitudinal study; i.e. a study which measures the progress of the students over time. "A longitudinal study is more likely to suggest cause-and-effect relationships than a cross-sectional study by virtue of its scope" and there is a lower likelihood that extraneous variables not specifically under study could affect results ("What researchers mean," 2015).

For such a study, the descriptive research question might be: Did the implementation of the new ESL program improve test scores of the students involved in the program on the Stanford English Language Proficiency Test (Stanford ELP) (or other standardized test designed to measure language proficiency)? (Stephenson, Johnson, Jorgenson, & Young 2003). The independent variable would be the implementation of the new program and the dependent variable would be test score results on the standardized assessment. The testable hypothesis would be that students involved in the program would improve their proficiency on the test.

A standardized assessment would be selected versus grades, given that grades could be influenced by the personal feelings of instructors. Also, grades include subjects not strictly related to English classes and ESL students often come to the classroom with vastly different levels of academic proficiency, based up their country of origin and family situation. A before-and-after analysis would allow the program to assess improvement in students in all levels and also to determine if the program was equally effective for students of different levels (beginner to advanced).