Posted on 07/27/2006 7:26:00 PM PDT by devane617
McALLEN - School children in Texas who spoke limited English met goals on standardized tests in the 2003-2004 school year.
According to a study which the Government Accountability Office released Wednesday, Texas and 16 other states met at least the minimum standard set under the No Child Left Behind Act that President Bush signed in January 2002.
The study found limited-English students in 30 other states did not meet adequate yearly progress on tests in the same time period. Three states - Arkansas, Illinois and Michigan - did not send information to the GAO.
The study called for the U.S. Department of Education to support more research on how to determine what technical assistance states need to help limited-English proficiency students to succeed; provide specific guidelines on tracking academic work and testing; and allow more flexibility for the state's accountability for student learning.
Of the 5 million students whose English was limited in the 2003-2004 school year, 80 percent spoke Spanish as their main language. Educating these children is a common problem in the Rio Grande Valley, where many students come from Mexico and Central and South American nations, educators say.
Many Valley school districts use bilingual classroom instruction in elementary school but move limited-English students into all-English settings once they get to middle and high school.
Lisa Conner, administrator for school improvement, accountability and compliance at Region One Education Service Center in Edinburg, said the area has an advantage over other parts of the state and nation.
Since the vast majority of the limited-English proficiency students are Spanish-speaking, the area can concentrate on one language, she said. There is also a large pool of bilingual teachers.
Conner said this was the first time the federal government put limited-English students in their own learning category.
"There is frustration for educators in Texas stemming from the fact that we in Texas have had a very strong state accountability system long before NCLB was enacted," she said.
Eric Cisneros, a third-grade teacher at Garza Elementary School in McAllen, said it was a challenge working with students at all types of English mastery levels. He said students who need help with English get extra tutoring - on the subject being tested and in English - for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
Cisneros encourages students to practice English each day.
"If you set the expectations, they will meet them," he said.
Education watchers in 11 states said the U.S. Department of Education should provide more guidance on how to measure the students' test scores, according to the study.
The study also found testing for limited English students is inconsistent across the nation.
In Florida, for example, school districts choose their own standardized tests, while Oregon and Michigan use portions of different tests to gauge student knowledge. Florida and Oregon students did not meet standards, while again, Michigan education officials did not turn over results of their tests.
Texas' limited-English students take the Reading Proficiency Tests in English and Texas Observation Protocols.
Conner said state and federal testing systems could be aligned to better meet students' needs.
U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, was one of four in Congress who asked the accountability office to conduct the study, titled "No Child Left Behind Act: Assistance From Education Could Help States Better Measure Progress of Students with Limited English Proficiency."
At an afternoon press conference in Washington, D.C., Hinojosa said the findings proved states were not prepared enough to test limited-English students.
"Some arrive with strong educational backgrounds in their native language," Hinojosa said. "Often these students find themselves placed in lower-level content courses, or in (some) they have already taken in their home countries because LEP is their defining characteristic for the school."
Hinojosa called for the Educational Reform Subcommittee, of which he is a member, to hold a hearing at which the accountability office and federal education department can discuss what must be improved to help the students. He said at an afternoon hearing on Capitol Hill that the federal government needed to focus on what to do to help children learn English.
The subcommittee and the hearing panelists discussed English becoming the nation's official language.
"I understand the personal effects of such policies and sentiments," Hinojosa said. "In my home state, children would be punished and beaten for speaking Spanish in school. For those who think this is past history, sadly, it is not."
The federal education department will announce today its solutions for helping young limited-English speakers.
It will partner with the National Council of La Raza and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to help assess a plan for students. Federal education leaders will also reach out to states by offering technical assistance and experts to help students perform better.
Raul Gonzalez, legislative director for the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C., told the Educational Reform Subcommitee that making English the nation's official language would weaken No Child Left Behind and leave non-English speaking students behind in school.
He said accountability is tied to test scores. Right now, states have the option of offering English or native language-written standardized tests for limited English speaking students.
If that were to change, the students would not do as well, he said.
It will partner with the National Council of La Raza and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to help assess a plan for students..."
Sometimes I do not believe this is the United States of America.
Because crippling people for life is exactly the purpose of an "educational system..."
We, as a nation, are lost.
Not only are "We, as a nation, are lost, but we as Republicans are lost. I have watched our elected officials allow our country to be overrun long enough.
"Government Accountability Office "
Well, there IS no Govt. Accountibility, so this deal is DOA : )
This is exactly the wrong approach. The younger kids are, the easier is it for them to learn a second language. They should be totally immersed in English in elementary school, when they can take better advantage of the opportunity. Middle and high school is too late.
Every dog has its day.
And one of these days US citizens will come to understand the constitution as it was written..not as it is now defined by politicians.
And we will act.
Which can only mean that the standards have been so compromised that to score well means next to nothing. The hoop has been lowered so everyone can make a basket, so to speak.
How can you do well on a test written in English when you aren't fluent in English? Isn't this painfully obvious????
"He said accountability is tied to test scores. Right now, states have the option of offering English or native language-written standardized tests for limited English speaking students."
From the article. Maybe the tests were given in Spanish.
Public schools have standards?
ping
Agreed. The more I think about it, the more I see the dangers of government funding/collaboration with any NGO that represents specific ethnic/religious groups.
Locally, our county has basically "outsourced" the governing of latinos to a local nonprofit that is fast becoming an unelected shadow government and major power broker in the community.
The government contracting with "charities" to provide services it should be delivering itself is one of those things that may sound reasonable until you see the consequences.
Might I suggest...
a "take heart, blood pressure, and other necessary pharmaceuticals
before reading" alert for these sorts of posts?
The story is maddening.
Sounds like the Los Angeles Unified School Distric is now running some
of the schools in Texas.
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