Abstract
As accountability becomes increasingly important to schools and society, greater emphasis is placed on students test scores. To assess the possible relationship between English proficiency and success on the mathematics section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), data was collected from students in a southwest school district in Florida and comparisons were made between students of various levels of English proficiency and their total math scores. The sub-categories of the math FCA T were examined to see if particular types of math skills are more dependent on English proficiency than perhaps, other areas. Results show that students with the lowest level of English proficiency (i.e., those currently in active ELL instruction) earn significantly lower achievement scores on the Math FCA T than students with higher English proficiency (i.e., those in follow-up ELL, former ELL, or mainstream students never requiring ELL assistance). From this information, it is suggested that improvement plans for mathematics instruction include greater ELL emphasis.
