Always searching for inspiration…

With a recent stream of immigrants into the United States, those who will become English teachers will also have to struggle with not only teaching toward a test for fluent, native speakers of English but those foreign from this country without similar language capabilities. In an article found in the Washington Post, Virginia schools are being “threatened” by the government due to not testing immigrants on reading and writing because of difficulty in testing at the same level as those who are native speakers.

In a sharply worded letter, Deputy Secretary of Education Raymond Simon said he is “greatly distressed” that some school districts, including Fairfax County, might violate the No Child Left Behind Act. Simon urged Virginia to enforce the law. If it does not, he said, federal education officials could step in, possibly withholding funds.

Administration in Fairfax, Virginia believes violating this is unacceptable and educators have had “ample” time to administer an updated test that is geared toward non-native speaking students. However, their teachers continue to vote against this mandate because foreign students are unlikely to pass a traditional test, which eventually would cause schools to lose funding anyway.

The dispute began last year when federal education officials rejected the reading exams that Virginia has given to many students learning English, because the tests don’t cover the same grade-level material as those given to students fluent in English.

“No Child Left Behind says all children will be able to read and do math at grade level,” Simon said. “The whole point of No Child Left Behind is to find out what they know and don’t know and target resources. . . . We want the law to be followed.”

Though I understand that the government is determined to reach 2014’s goal of “proficiency” in English, I do not think that they understand what occurs within a classroom. They have constructed standards for teachers and students to perform on unaware that it is easy to be on the outside looking in saying, “Students need to be performing better. So either they do this and we measure their ability the way we want or we will punish and pull funding.” I can imagine that teaching toward different capabilities among native students is hard enough but now there is a whole other aspect to teach toward. Their educators say they have created a test that measures what students have learned after they know an acceptable amount of English but should not be tested until then.

If the government does not want to allow a new test and still expects immigrants to perform on a traditional test they must come to realize what actually happens in a classroom. Teaching two very different groups of students to a “proficient” performance will take away from all of these students. So in my opinion, the government is creating a losing situation with NCLB. The reality is many factors determine a student’s performance and students not familiar with English will be slower, therefore forcing them into the same testing is just not conducive. Forbid that the government pretended to listen to what actual educators are trying to tell them! All students should be able to learn to be mature readers and writers which I feel can be done through letting them thought-process what they are working on. With non-native speakers most of the teacher’s time will be spent almost completely on instruction in relation to the standardized test, not on becoming mature meta-cognitive learners which I think many teachers will agree is just as if not more important because this actually helps them become better at English. Then helps in future years of education and work as opposed to teaching facts they need to know for a test. Being prepared for the workforce when they graduate? Funny, I thought the government had already realized “children are the future.”

Va. Is Urged to Obey ‘No Child’ on Reading Test

Maria Glod, Staff Writer

Washington Post

February 1, 2007

Complete Article