No Child Left Bilingual Part I & II

[Harold Schiffman]

Teacher Critiques Testing of ELLs in New York State

They're not "new" any more, but under the "What's New" section of the
*Institute
for Language and Education Policy site
*<http://www.elladvocates.org/index.html>are
two videos produced by a teacher decrying how New York state was required by
the U.S. Department of Education to stop using its
English-language-proficiency test instead of the regular reading test for
some English-language learners. If you've been following this blog, you know
that Virginia was also required to make the same change in testing policy.

Christian Solorza, who says on one of the videos that she is a native of
Argentina and a dual-language teacher in the state, doesn't think it's fair
that English-language learners have to take New York's regular reading test
after they've been in the country for only one year. She believes it takes
them five years to acquire the English skills that would give them a fair
chance to do well on the test. She says she's "having some difficulty with
the accountability portion of the formula" for ELLs under the No Child Left
Behind Act.

*"No Child Left Bilingual Part I"
*<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlUEEdj6lkw>was
created in January and previews the change in testing policy, and "*No Child
Left Bilingual Part II" * <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRemrjlF6zo>was
produced in March and relays how students fared with the switch in tests
used. Though the videos present only one side of the debate, they contain
catchy commentary, and I got the impression that Ms. Solorza reads widely
about education policy affecting English-language learners.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2007/06/teacher_critiques_testing_of_e_1.html

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