Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking standardized testing in Spanish
By: Associated Press - | ∞
SAN FRANCISCO -- A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by eight school districts that demanded that students be allowed to take standardized tests in Spanish, their native language.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court in June 2005, claimed that testing students only in English does not accurately measure the academic abilities of students still learning the language.
The plaintiffs argued that the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to assess English learners in a "valid and reliable manner" that could include offering tests in their native language.
But Judge Richard Kramer disagreed, ruling on Monday that it would be impractical to translate tests into all the different languages spoken in California. He said it was appropriate to test in English given the state's duty to make sure students speak the language and that voters approved English-only instruction in 1996.
Many of the schools in the districts that sued are under sanctions from the No Child Left Behind law because their nonnative English speakers scored poorly on standardized tests. Those schools could eventually be taken over by the state or a charter school organization.
The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, mandates schools to show academic improvement among their students each year. It requires that all students to be proficient in math and English by 2014 and allows states to test students in their native languages for up to three years.
California requires Spanish-speaking students to take the tests after one year. This year, it began testing kids in Spanish, but has no plans to use those tests to rate school performance.
The case is Coachella Valley Unified School District v. California.
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When I was in the wrote on May 23, 2007 7:17 AM:Netherlands, I had to learn to speak and write Dutch, why not the Hispanics?
Carl: wrote on May 23, 2007 8:39 AM: Why are they wasting my money testing in Spanish? What good does it do? The idea is to prepare students to conduct business and support themselves in the United States. We are not doing anybody any good when you give them a way out from learning English. As children they need to learn it fast and prepare fast for their future. Don't waste my money!
Espanol No wrote on May 23, 2007 11:15 AM:It would be interesting to know how much extra it costs the taxpayer to test a child in Spanish and how many children we are testing in Spanish each year.
esteban wrote on May 23, 2007 11:33 AM:WOW!!!! I can't believe this ruling came out of a SF court....the most anti USA place in the world!!!!
To esteban wrote on May 23, 2007 5:03 PM:I was also surprised. The courts, however, aren't anti-America, they are anti-un-Constitutional. They are also anti-stupid. As hard as it is to agree with many of their decisions, they are looking at case law and Constitutional law, they don't have the luxury that we have (at least they're not supposed to) of deciding with our feelings.
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