How language proficiency standardized assessments inequitably impact Latinx long‐term English learners

Abstract Latinx students make up 77.8% of the English learner (EL) population in the United States (Department of Education, 2017). However, there is a subpopulation of Latinx ELs who are: English‐dominant, born in the United States, and identified as long‐term English learner (LTEL). ELs who are not reclassified after 6 or 7 years are categorized as LTEL (Clark‐ Gareca et al., 2019). The focus of this paper is how language proficiency standardized assessments inequitably impact Latinx LTELs. We use Flores and Rosa’s raciolinguistic ideologies (2015) to analyze the inequitable language opportunities Latinx LTELs experience because of standardized tests. A raciolinguistic perspective “shifts the focus from the linguistic practices of the speaker/writer toward the perceiving practices of the listener/reader” (Flores, 2020, p. 24). We argue that standardized assessments serve as both the listener/reader and the institutional mechanism that causes Latinxs to be overrepresented as LTELs and underrepresented in dual‐language (DL) and Seal of Biliteracy programs. We conclude that language proficiency standardized assessments do not reflect the actual language abilities of Latinx LTELs (Brooks, 2018). Instead, we propose the use of EL portfolios to demonstrate proficiency in English (Winke & Zhang, 2019).