Feds loosen language test standards

A 9-year-old Hispanic boy arrives from Mexico two days before a local elementary school is scheduled to administer annual state assessments in communication arts and math.

The boy doesn't speak or write English, but he's still required to take the tests. If he doesn't perform well, his scores count against the school in meeting federal standards.

That scenario is one that schools across the nation have dealt with for the past two years under requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

But two new policies announced by the U.S. Department of Education Thursday provide greater flexibility to schools with limited-English proficient (LEP) students -- those who were not born in the United States or whose primary language is not English.

The first policy allows LEP students in their first year of enrollment in U.S. schools to take an alternative test instead of the regular communication arts tests given by each state.

In Missouri, students that fall into that category would have the option of taking the English Language Acquisition Assessment instead of the Missouri Assessment Program communication arts test beginning with the upcoming tests this spring.

"That's been a real sore spot for school districts," said Jim Morris, director of public information at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. "It didn't seem to make sense for students who can't speak or write the language to take this test."

Missouri has around 13,000 students who qualify as LEP.

The second policy announced Thursday allows states to continue counting students who have become English-proficient in the LEP subgroup for two years so that more improvement can be shown among that subgroup.

Little regional impact

Most Southeast Missouri school districts are little affected by the NCLB requirements for limited-English students. For that subgroup to be counted in adequate yearly progress, a school must have 30 or more students within a particular grade qualify, and most local districts do not have that many LEP students.

Across the state, 11 schools had enough limited-English students to count as a subgroup last year on the communication arts and math tests.

The Jackson School District has seven LEP students this year. Dr. Rita Fisher, assistant superintendent, said her district is not impacted by that portion of No Child Left Behind, but feels it is a better option for those that are.

While Cape Girardeau School District has a growing LEP population -- the number more than doubled in the past two years from 20 to over 40 -- there aren't enough located at one school to form a subgroup of 30.

But any LEP students who move from a foreign country to Cape Girardeau or other local schools will now have the option of taking the alternative assessment instead of the MAP communication arts test.

Cape Girardeau assistant superintendent Dr. Betty Chong said she feels the policies changes are positive.

"Even native speakers do not always score on grade level on MAP tests," Chong said.

Scores on the annual tests have become significantly more important to school districts since the implementation of NCLB.

Under the legislation, schools and certain subgroups within each school -- broken down into groups such as race, low-income and disabilities -- must meet annual student performance goals, known as adequate yearly progress, set by the state. The end result is that all schools are required to have 100 percent of students in all subgroups scoring proficient or higher on annual state tests by 2014.

The MAP consists of tests in five subjects -- math, communications arts, science, social studies and health -- given at various grade levels each year. Under NCLB, however, only the math and communications arts tests count toward adequate yearly progress.

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, ext. 128