9486 in the collection  

Spanish-speaking students must take school tests in English

Child Abuse 101.

By Carlos Sadovi

Spanish-speaking public school students will have to take standardized tests in English beginning Tuesday, after the state rebuffed a last-ditch effort by Chicago Public Schools to delay the testing.

Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan blasted the state Monday for moving forward with the Illinois State Achievement Test, even for students who are more fluent in Spanish.

State officials have said they have no choice, since federal education officials said that a Spanish-language alternative, the IMAGE test, is not adequate.

Duncan said that as a result of the state's refusal to delay the test, the district will not use the results of the ISAT exams as a condition for students to advance to the next grade. Students instead will be evaluated on their attendance, course work and test grades during the school year.

Duncan said that on Friday, U.S. Department of Education officials gave Illinois State Board of Education officials the permission to delay the ISAT exam for the English language learners, but state officials refused.

"We don't want to duck accountability, we want our students tested ... but they have to be tested fairly," he said. "This is an invalid test for students who have trouble reading it. It makes no sense whatsoever."

Matt Vanover, a spokesman for the State Board of Education, said that a delay is not feasible, because it would take so long to have the ISAT translated that it would not be ready to be administered until the middle of June.

"They essentially would have to come back to school to take the test," Vanover said.

In a letter dated Feb. 29 to the state superintendent of education, federal education officials said that although State Board of Education could provide the test at a later time, they had additional concerns about a delay.

— Carlos Sadovi
Chicago Tribune
2008-03-04


---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>