Virginia County Challenges NCLB LEP Testing PRovision

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

> From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>
>
>
> FAIRFAX RESISTS "NO CHILD" PROVISION
> IMMIGRANTS' TESTS IN ENGLISH AT ISSUE
>
> Washington Post -- January 26, 2007
> by Maria Glod
>
> The Fairfax County School Board last night defied the U.S. 
> Department of Education -- and challenged the No Child Left Behind 
> Act -- by declining to force thousands of immigrant students to take 
> a federally mandated test because local educators think it is unfair.
>
> Fairfax school officials said they will continue to test how well 
> those students are learning to read, speak and write English and 
> will report those results. But this year they will not, as the 
> federal government requires, give the students reading exams that 
> cover the same grade-level material as tests taken by peers who are 
> native-English speakers.
>
> "It is wrong for our students to take a test they are predisposed to 
> fail," said board member Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner 
> (Providence). "We will continue to test their proficiency twice a 
> year and continue to move them forward as quickly as possible. This 
> resolution is not, by any stretch, an attempt to shy away from accountability."
>
> The bold step taken in Fairfax, a highly regarded school system that 
> is also the nation's 13th-largest, puts Virginia at the forefront of 
> a growing debate over the best way to measure the progress of 
> millions of students across the country who are learning English as 
> a second language. The Harrisonburg school board passed a similar 
> measure, and Arlington County school officials are considering such a step.
>
> "This will help build political pressure to find a sensible solution 
> where you keep accountability, but you test kids fairly," said John 
> F. Jennings, president and chief executive of the District-based 
> Center on Education Policy. "Schools are saying it makes no sense to 
> test kids who don't understand English. The U.S. Department of 
> Education is saying that they should be tested the same way as other 
> students. There has to be a third way."
>
> The Virginia Department of Education has asked the federal 
> government to allow use of the old test for another year, so there 
> is time to develop an alternative. The state is awaiting an answer. 
> Fairfax and other localities say that a deferral would be the best 
> short-term solution. Across Virginia, about 10,200 students are 
> affected by the change, state education officials said. About 4,000 
> are in Fairfax.
>
> The dispute between Virginia and federal officials, which comes as 
> Congress prepares to debate renewal of the five-year-old No Child 
> law, began last summer when the U.S. Department of Education found 
> problems with the way Virginia and 17 other states test students 
> learning English. Often, they said, the exams were not demanding enough.
>
> Testing programs for English learners in Maryland and the District 
> have withstood federal scrutiny.
>
> Federal officials say that all students in a given state must be 
> held to the same standards regardless of whether English is their 
> native language. An Education Department spokesman said that its 
> mandated test helps pinpoint areas where students are struggling and 
> identifies successful teaching methods. Federal officials also 
> stress that students can be allowed accommodations, such as extra 
> time or the use of a bilingual dictionary.
>
> Supporters of the federal provision also say that it forces school 
> districts to focus on students who need extra help to catch up with 
> their classmates. "We don't want English-language learners to be 
> left out of education," said Peter Zamora, acting regional counsel 
> for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "If you 
> remove this set of standards from the No Child Left Behind 
> accountability system, you are removing the incentive to teach them."
>
> Educators in several states, including Virginia, say they agree that 
> schools should be held to high standards. But they say that children 
> who lack mastery of the language aren't prepared for grade-level 
> exams that could include questions about similes and metaphors or 
> imagery in a poem. The state instead measures progress such students 
> learning English make by using tests that have a range of 
> difficulty. Once students learn enough English, usually after a few 
> years, they take the same reading tests as their peers.
>
> "It's not like we're trying to escape the law," said Arlington 
> School Superintendent Robert G. Smith. "We're trying to escape 
> something that represents, in my mind, a fairly reprehensible 
> practice. If a kid reads with so little understanding, we're not 
> going to take away anything from their responses."
>
> Federal law requires testing every year in reading and math in 
> grades 3 through 8. It also requires schools to show that groups of 
> high school students, including limited-English students and ethnic 
> groups, are making progress toward being 100 percent proficient by 
> 2014. The government exempts immigrant students who have been in a 
> U.S. school for less than a year from taking standard grade-level 
> reading tests.
>
> Prince William County school officials, who passed a resolution 
> expressing concern about the tests, plan to give immigrant students 
> the federally mandated tests. But teachers will be watching each 
> student and will stop those who appear too stumped to continue, said 
> Carol Bass, supervisor of the English for Speakers of Other Languages program.
>
> Last night, Fairfax School Board members said that its decision will 
> likely mean that many county schools won't meet federal standards 
> under the No Child law.
>
> Board member Stephen M. Hunt (At Large), who cast the sole vote 
> against the measure on the 12-member board, said he thinks the test 
> scores can help educators find areas where instruction can be 
> improved. "You get back data on what they are not understanding or 
> not learning," he said.
>
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012502327.html