Guest Column
Test Newcomer Kids, But First Give Them a Break
- By Cecilia Muņoz
- New America Media, Commentary
- Mar 09, 2006
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Cecilia
Muņoz My
mother, who came to this country in the 1950s from Bolivia speaking little
English, tells stories about those early years when people made the
assumption that she didn't know very much of anything because she was still
struggling with the language.
Decades later, my mother's astonishing vocabulary in English, not to mention
the breadth of her knowledge in a dizzying array of subjects, still draws
comments from acquaintances who hear her accent and are amazed that she
turns out to be so smart. Perhaps it's human nature -- we could be standing
in the presence of a Nobel Prize winner, but if his English wasn't perfect,
we'd find ourselves confusing that with lack of ability overall.
My mother tells these stories with amusement. She laughs that people can be
so unaware that they confuse language ability with the ability to think. But
that's the kind of erroneous assumption being made every day about kids in
classrooms all over this country.
Children who are in the process of learning English are labeled "uneducable"
when they are tested in subjects like math, history and science using a
level of English that they cannot yet comprehend. The problem is widespread.
For example, only 22% of the approximately 1.6 million students who are
learning English in California tested as English proficient in 2005.
So, when we give them a test to measure how much math or science they know,
we never find out the answer, because the test is in a language they're
still learning. A child may be making real progress in math or science,
where the concepts transcend language, yet many children are labeled
"underachievers" simply due to a language barrier. And since the ability of
schools to meet federal targets under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law
depends heavily on the test results of children learning English, schools
could be judged as "underperforming" and could face penalties under the law.
The purpose of this testing is a good one. It provides the only real
mechanism to hold schools accountable for making sure all children are
moving forward. The law requires that schools show "adequate yearly
progress" for all students. But in some school systems, such as the one
where my daughter goes to middle school, well-meaning parents and teachers
are beginning to say that we should just stop testing immigrant kids because
they keep scoring low on the tests, making the entire school look bad. That
would be a mistake. It would eliminate the only thing putting pressure on
schools to invest in the education of English-language learner (ELL) kids.
My colleagues at the National Council of La Raza are about to publish a
report that shows there is a common-sense remedy to this problem. The law
allows states to test students in easier-to-understand English or in their
native language. If states spent the time and energy to create these
alternative assessments, they could begin to measure how much math and
science immigrant kids know, rather than how well they understand the
instructions on the test. This is a more practical and just way of testing
children who are learning English. It would help schools meet NCLB standards
and help educators more effectively target precious educational resources.
This is not to say that learning English should not continue to be of
highest priority for children not proficient in the language. Schools can
and should be held accountable for how well they are meeting the needs of
these students. And these children should continue to be tested on an annual
basis to measure their progress and help them and their schools meet high
standards.
It wasn't so long ago that Mexican American students in the Southwest and
Puerto Rican children in the Northeast were routinely put into special
education classes because they were not proficient in English. It took years
for many of these children to realize that they could be and were, in fact,
good students. But tragically for some, that realization never came.
Who knows what contributions, discoveries and inventions we lost due to
ignorance and neglect? Who knows how many kids are just like my mother when
she first got here, brimming with knowledge and enthusiasm, but not yet able
to express herself fully in English?
We should not subject another generation of students to that kind of
treatment. States should stop complaining about their ELL students and start
the process of educating them.
Article at: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=0c8523ed8696b88d6ba76adc97598ff6
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