Re: another example of NCLB madness - this for ELLs

[aburke5054@aol.com]

This is inconvenient, no doubt about it.  But what would be mad would 
be formalizing second-class citizenship for some children by holding 
schools to lower standards for them.  Getting past that is one of the 
best things Americans have done.  That's why MALDEF and La Raza have 
argued for continuing NCLB's testing and accountability requirements 
for "ELL" students and that's why NAACP and other civil rights groups 
are petitioning the courts to toss those phony "unfunded mandate" 
suits.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Monty Neill <monty@fairtest.org>
To: arn2-strategy <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>; ARN-L 
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Sent: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 1:21 pm
Subject: [arn-l] another example of NCLB madness - this for ELLs


SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/354493_bilingual11.html

WASL: Take it without a bit of English?
Last updated March 10, 2008 11:00 p.m. PT

By JESSICA BLANCHARD
P-I REPORTER

He could rail against the unfairness of it all, but Robinsson Franco is
resigned.

The 18-year-old Honduran immigrant is among the hundreds of Seattle 
public high
school students taking the reading and writing WASL tests this week, 
even though
he puts his chances of passing the 10th-grade tests this year at slim 
to none.


    Mike Urban / P-I
     Junaidi Robale helps tutor a student at the Secondary Bilingual
Orientation Center on Friday. Federal law requires the same test-score 
targets
there as students who speak English fluently.
"I feel a little bit scared," he admits. "But we have to try, you know?"

The Washington Assessment of Student Learning tests have become a 
frustrating
annual exercise for both students and educators at Franco's school, the
Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center in Queen Anne.

The 263 teenage students there are all recent immigrants and refugees 
who don't
yet speak or read well enough in English to transfer to one of Seattle 
Public
Schools' traditional middle or high schools -- meaning that even if 
they
understand the material covered on a section of the WASL, there's still
virtually no way they'll pass.

Still, federal law requires the school to make sure its students meet 
the same
test-score targets as students who speak English fluently -- no 
exceptions. None
of the students at the Bilingual Orientation Center in recent years has 
passed
the WASL, landing the school on the federal "needs improvement" list -- 
an
embarrassing label that comes with new sanctions each year.

"We have excellent, motivated students, great teachers, high attendance 
rates,"
English teacher David White-Espin said. "By all other indicators, we're 
a
thriving school. But our test scores don't show it."

In Washington, all students must take the math WASL, regardless of how 
long
they've lived in the country or whether they have the English skills to 
be able
to understand the text-heavy questions.

Students who have been enrolled in U.S. schools for less than a year 
get a
one-year reprieve before they're expected to take the reading and 
writing WASL.
But for most of the state's 12,000 or so high-school students who are 
classified
as "English language learners," it will take far longer than a year to 
develop
the language skills necessary to pass the 10th-grade tests.

Students at the Bilingual Orientation Center are typically enrolled for 
a year
and a half or less before they have a solid enough grasp of English to 
transfer
to a traditional school. Even then, "they're advanced beginners when 
they leave
here," White-Espin said.

Watching students struggle to take the WASL is heartbreaking, counselor 
Lilia
Goldsmith said. Every year, she sees students who are able to do high
school-level academic work in their native language and who have dreams 
of
graduating and going to college. They have yet to master English, but 
are
determined to attempt the WASL.

Many are so discouraged after the first day of testing that they don't 
come
back, Goldsmith said.

That's the irony behind the No Child Left Behind law, she said: "You 
are leaving
so many behind. What, as a society, are we going to do with these kids?"

The problems surrounding how English-language learners are tested 
aren't new --
since the No Child Left Behind law was signed in 2002, education 
officials from
several states have unsuccessfully appealed to the federal Department 
of
Education to loosen the rules and requirements for testing bilingual 
students.

With English language learners likely to continue to be required to 
take WASL,
staff members from state Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry 
Bergeson's
office have begun exploring ways to make the test more accessible to 
those
students.

The simplest solution would be to translate the tests, but the costs 
are
staggering. To translate the math and science tests at all grade levels 
would
cost $220,000 to $440,000 per language, and translating just the 
high-school
exams would cost about $60,000 to 120,000 each year per language, 
according to
state estimates.

Among the other possibilities state officials are studying:


a.. Simplifying the language used in WASL questions;


a.. Substituting scores from annual English language-acquisition tests 
for WASL
scores;


a.. Giving bilingual students translated versions of test questions on 
CD or
DVD.

For now, many bilingual students such as Franco plan to tackle the 
WASL, and
hope they'll eventually pass it before they either run out of retake
opportunities or turn 21 and have to leave public schools.

Franco won't know his scores until June, but he's already pretty sure 
of the
outcome: "I have four more chances."



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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P-I reporter Jessica Blanchard can be reached at 206-448-8322 or
jessicablanchard@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Monty Neill, Ed.D.
Deputy Director
FairTest
342 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-864-4810 x 101;  fax 617-497-2224
monty@fairtest.org
http://www.fairtest.org
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