Educators rally to allow testing to be in Spanish

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the San Diego Union-Tribune,

Educators rally to allow testing to be in Spanish

By Chris Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 30, 2005

CHULA VISTA South County educators who have sued to have Spanish-language
exams included in state testing appeared at a rally and news conference
yesterday in support of a bill on the governor's desk that would do just
that. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until Oct. 9 to sign or veto a bill
by state Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, to create a Spanish-language
equivalent of the California Standards Tests. All second-through
11th-graders take these tests in English/language arts, math, science and
social studies.


The governor has not yet taken a position on Ducheny's bill. Neither has
the state superintendent of public instruction, Jack O'Connell. Chula
Vista Elementary, San Ysidro and Sweetwater Union High school districts
are among 11 districts statewide that have filed suit seeking to force
Spanish-language testing. They cite a clause in the federal No Child Left
Behind Act that mandates testing non-English-speakers "in the language and
form most likely to yield accurate data on what such students know." The
state administers California Standards Tests only in English.

"When you give a test in a language that the person taking it doesn't
understand, you're really not getting reliable data" on what students
know, Ducheny said yesterday at Mueller Charter School in Chula Vista.
Such test results only reveal whether students speak English, not whether
they've mastered the content of their classes, she said. The state Board
of Education set the policy requiring testing in English.  A spokeswoman
for the state education department, which implements the policy, said it's
important to test in English because part of the content is the English
language itself.

Ducheny's bill, like the lawsuit, not only calls for developing
Spanish-language tests but for those tests to count in the federal grading
system for schools. No Child Left Behind orders a school with repeated
high failure rates to offer its students a desk at a higher-performing
school and a ride to get there. Schools that continue to fall short can
eventually face replacement of the entire staff or takeover by private
management. An attorney for the school districts called Ducheny's
legislation "a major accomplishment toward the objectives of the lawsuit,"
but stopped short of saying the suit would be withdrawn if Schwarzenegger
signs the bill.



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 Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran at uniontrib.com