November 17: Maria Martiniello
Associate Research Scientist
ETS Center for Validity Research
Language and the Performance of English Language Learners in Math Word Problems
12:30-1:30
Barnum 116
pizza and drinks provided
Guidelines for the assessment of English language learners (ELLs) on academic content tests recommend conducting statistical analysis and empirical studies to investigate the validity and fairness of assessments for ELLs. This session presents an example of such studies in mathematics. The literature claims that excessive linguistic complexity of math word problems is a source of construct-irrelevant difficulty for ELLs. This presentation will examine the impact of linguistic complexity on the relative difficulty of items for ELLs and non-ELLs with equivalent mathematics proficiency. Through students’ responses to think-aloud protocols, this presentation will illustrate linguistic characteristics of math word problems that pose disproportionate difficulty for Spanish-speaking ELLs.
As an Associate Research Scientist at ETS, Maria Martiniello leads the English as a Second Language subinitiative under the Research & Development Division’s Strategic Initiative of English Language Learning. She is primarily involved in research on validity and fairness for English language learners (ELLs) in grades K–12.
A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Martiniello was a founding member and project coordinator for Harvard University Project Zero’s Latin American Initiative toward Understanding and Development (L@titud). While at Harvard, she studied the impact of linguistic complexity of math word problems on differential item functioning for ELLs. Martiniello’s dissertation research received the 2009 Exemplary Dissertation Award from the Spencer Foundation and the 2009 Outstanding Dissertation Competition from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Martiniello is a native of Venezuela where she taught at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello. She was a member of the committee that developed the first admissions tests administered nationally by the Venezuelan National Council of Universities. Martiniello’s research interests are in the educational experiences of Latino ELLs.
