Friday, March 30, 2007
English language learners gain ground
From the RoundTable blog
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Raymond Simon
Simon is deputy U.S. secretary of Education.
It's ironic that your editorial calling for changes to the No Child Left Behind Act is titled "Failing a language test" (March 4).
You paint a picture of classrooms full of children unable to comprehend the test placed before them. The facts tell a very different story.
According to the Nation's Report Card, reading scores for limited-English proficient LEP fourth-graders increased by 20 points from 2000-05.
This is more than three times greater than their English-speaking peers. In Virginia, achievement gaps for Hispanic fifth-graders in both reading and math have narrowed significantly since 2002.
This progress was made possible by hard-working and talented educators, and by mothers and fathers who want their children to achieve the American dream. But it was also aided by the No Child Left Behind Act.
The law calls for English language learners to be held to "the same challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet." As your editorial acknowledges, "schools cannot statistically hide underachievers and ignore them, a most worthy goal."
We agree. But a few Virginia school districts have called for the law itself to be ignored or even repealed. They argue that limited English proficient children are vulnerable because most are recent arrivals to the U.S. This is simply untrue; studies show about eight in 10 have been in the U.S. for five years or longer. Students who have been here for a year or less are exempted from testing.
We do not want to see schools endanger their federal funding by ignoring the law.
Last year we announced a partnership with Virginia and other states to help them develop valid and reliable assessments for LEP children.
We are eager to find ways to make the law work for educators -- just as it is working for their students.
