US study Learners of English left behind
Arizona Daily Star
7.27.2006
State cites AIMS headway, points to Nogales experience
A new report says many of the 5 million English-language learners in the
United States are not getting the kind of education they need to succeed on
the assessment tests that make or break their schools.
The report, commissioned by the federal Government Accountability Office and
released Wednesday, contends that two-thirds of states, including Arizona,
do not provide teachers and students with the right tools to achieve success
as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act.
"If the goal is to get non-English speakers proficient in English, put some
special effort into that initiative," said U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, one of
the four congressmen who requested the report. "They need to learn English;
the school districts need to have the capacity and the resources to teach
English."
The report analyzed data from the 2003-04 school year and found that the
percentage of ELL students who passed their state's language-arts and
mathematics tests was lower than the state's progress goals in nearly
two-thirds of the 48 states studied. New York and Tennessee did not submit
data.
In Arizona, only 32 percent of ELL students in grades three through eight
passed the math portion of the 2004 test, according to the report. The
national average was about 46 percent.
But changes have been taking place since that test was administered, said
Tom Horne, Arizona superintendent of public instruction, using the Nogales
Unified School District as an example. In 2002, 5 percent of ELL high-school
students in that district passed at least one section of AIMS, according to
the state Department of Education's Web site. In 2006, that rose to 20
percent.
Some of the solutions that worked in Nogales, Horne said, include 90 minutes
daily of math instruction, detailed instructional goals for all ELL students
and an end to promoting students to the next grade if they haven't earned
it.
It's also working in the Sunnyside Unified School District at Gallego Basic
Elementary School, where 84 percent of ELL students passed all sections of
AIMS, Horne said. That school has been the focus of some state studies of
its practices, including a recent one by the Center for the Future of
Arizona. The school uses a consistent curriculum and has high accountability
for student performance.
Horne said his team has been working to pass those techniques to struggling
schools in the state so the education gap can be bridged quickly.
But it still boils down to the AIMS test and the scores that are used to
determine a school's place in federal and state accountability systems.
Since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, the first three
years of an ELL student's scores in Arizona are allowed to be discarded
because "they are not reliable," Horne said. After the third year, though,
ELL students are expected to be able to take — and pass — the test in
English. Arizona's rule is more lax than most states, which allow scores to
be thrown out only for one year, Horne said.
The wording of the act, however, suggests that most ELL students might be
able to take the test in their native language after the third year, a move
some officials support.
"Students with limited English proficiency are to be assessed in a valid and
reliable manner," the law states. "In addition, they must be provided with
reasonable accommodations and be assessed, to the extent practicable, in the
language and form most likely to yield accurate data on their academic
knowledge."
Some school officials believe ELL students should be given the test in their
native language, in order to better show what the student has learned.
"I think it'll give you a more accurate read on their proficiency," said
Steve Holmes, director of language acquisition for the Tucson Unified School
District.
Grijalva, a Democrat, said many ELL students are much smarter than they
appear on tests because they have too much trouble getting over the language
barrier.
"If No Child Left Behind is true to its principle, then we need to deal with
the language issue, and English learners need to be factored in," he said.
U.S. Education Department spokesman Trey Ditto said the Bush administration
recognizes the problem identified in the report and plans a conference in
August of state officials and education experts to figure out better ways of
testing students who have limited English abilities.
The department conducted its own study, involving 38 states, which found 25
are not providing sufficiently reliable test results for such students,
Ditto said.
"We have said to the states, we will provide any of the tools necessary to
bring you to the level we deem as the standard," he said.
On StarNet: Find statewide test scores, school
profiles and more education-related coverage at azstarnet.com/education
● Bloomberg News contributed to this story. ● Contact reporter Jeff
Commings at 573-4191 or at jcommings@azstarnet.com.
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