No Rich Child Left Behind (language)

[Andre Cramblit]

01/24/2004 - JUNEAU AK
By Mike Chambers, Associated Press Writer

Some western Alaska schools that for decades have taught and helped
preserve the Native Yupik language are in a quandary over meeting new
federal testing requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act.

In the Lower Kuskokwim School District, third grade children taught
almost exclusively in the Yupik language may be required to pass
federal tests written in English.

In Alaska, where Natives speak 20 aboriginal languages and dialects,
meeting a uniform federal law could ultimately be too expensive,
conflict with Native cultural traditions as well as the local control
that the rural villages treasure.

"Not many states face the issues that we do," said state Education
Commissioner Roger Sampson.

Under the federal law, students would be tested annually from grades
3-8 and again in high school.

States could make accommodations for language barriers, but after
three years in U.S. public schools the children would be required to
take English-only tests.

Aside from the Heritage Language programs in more than 30 rural
public schools, Alaska's largest city of Anchorage has more than 93
languages spoken by students, Sampson said.

Already cash strapped, the state can little afford to translate tests
into more than 100 languages, education officials said.

And even if it could, the Yupik language, though spoken by thousands
of Alaska Natives from Norton Sound to Bristol Bay, does not
translate as completely as Spanish or other European languages.

For instance, mathematics to American children is based on units of
10, where increments of 20 are used in Yupik math and numerous
English words have no Yupik counterparts.

The Lower Kuskokwim School District, which oversees schools in Bethel
and surrounding villages has had an intensive Yupik language program
for about 30 years, said Superintendent Bill Ferguson.

A similar program instituted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in
earlier years was seen as a progressive way to assimilate Native
children into English fluency.

Since then, it's become a way for Yupik-speaking Natives to sustain
their language and culture just as other Alaska Native languages
dwindle.

"I feel strongly that our kids should speak Yupik fluently," said
state Rep. Mary Kapsner, of Bethel. "I really feel this isn't just an
academic issue about benchmark tests, but about cultural and social
well being."

Beginning in kindergarten and extending to third grade, students
enrolled in the Yupik language program are taught a Western
curriculum similar to those found in Lower 48 classrooms.

But teachers speak Yupik and students read from Yupik textbooks,
produced by the district by permission of their English-language
publishers.

While most children speak some English, those enrolled in the
programs don't begin formal academic training in the language until
fourth grade.

Sampson wants permission from federal education officials to delay
testing these Heritage Language students until sixth grade. At that
time, the students would have had three years of English-speaking
instruction.

Already, schools in the district are failing to meet "adequate yearly
progress" set out by the federal law, and much of that is attributed
to the language barrier, Ferguson said.

Alaska educators hold little hope that Yupik-speaking students will
fare well in third-grade testing in the 2005-2006 school year when
all schools are expected to have such tests in place.

Ultimately, Alaska may seek a waiver under the federal law to
accommodate its language barrier, Sampson said. The state Board of
Education will to take up the issue Jan. 29.

Winning an exemption from some parts of No Child Left Behind from
Education Secretary Rod Paige will be difficult.

"Secretary Paige has made some very strong statements regarding the
fact that he doesn't anticipate the state's being exempted from any
requirement under NCLB," said U.S. Department of Education spokesman
Zollie Stevenson.

States could seek federal funds to pay for translating testing
materials, Stevenson said, but he acknowledged enough money may not
be available to meet Alaska's varied dialects.

On the Net:
No Child Left Behind: http://www.nochildleftbehind.gov/

State Department of Education and Early Development:
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/

Lower Kuskokwim School District: http://www.lksd.org/

Copyright by The Associated Press.