<p>After some thought I agree with this young lady. I mean seriously just talking with her and some of her teachers would have shown that she is fluent in English. It’s good she’s taking a stand against unnecessary bureaucracy…</p>
<p>Something like this happened to me once. I was applying to take classes at the local CC. Because I was an immigrant or something they forced me to take an English test. I sat through it and took it. When I finally got my scores I saw that I had passed into the highest one. They could’ve seen my grades in English, talked to me, or seen my scores on a state English test where I had gotten 100/100…</p>
<p>I think the US is much more concerned about those ‘pieces of paper’ than other countries. In the UK we don’t get a diploma for finishing school - it is just something you are expected to do. We do have some pretty tough exams when we are 16 and 18. I did not go to university but worked as an accountant for over a decade. Back then you could join the accounting associations and work and train and study for the exams at the same time. I did not finish the exams because we moved out of the UK and then I had kids and was raising a family. Fast forward to last fall and the empty nest and the realization that, between his high medical expenses (just wait till you meet Medicaid D when you retire) and the crashing stock market, my husbands retirement savings are going to be enough to support us unless we die young, which I hope to avoid. I try to apply for a job at a local call center answering phone queries, and where they hire high school students. I discover I cannot get a job - answering phones - unless I take the GED! I think it is fairly apparent that I am not illiterate. But oh well. To take the GED here you have to take some classes at the local vo tech. So I read through some algebra (ok I had forgotten all of that). Took the GED (My kids thought it was hilarious as I was always the go to person for homework help. At 22 and 19 they still pick up the phone and call me to ask the meaning of an obscure word or the spelling of less obscure words.) and scored perfect 800s in all the sections except, ironically, English. </p>
<p>Did I get the phone answering job? Actually I decided to go to college in the hopes of eventually getting a job I might enjoy more than answering phones. I would never have expected to be back in school in my 50s. But at least 2 of my 4 teachers are older than me.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the fed government is not good at giving general guidelines for organizations to receive funding, nor is our country good at just using those. In our litigious society I have no doubt that someone would do poorly in college and blame it on their not having ESL support (despite being very fluent in English). Thus the reason for requiring all ESL students be tested and supported. She is standing on her principles but I think it just makes her look silly (can’t think of a better word at the moment).</p>
<p>Who’s looking silly? Not the young woman who qualified for National Honor Society and has a near-perfect grade point average and was already admitted to two colleges!</p>
<p>I think all of the school officials are the ones looking silly for moronically adhering to regulations.</p>
<p>When I was applying to college, a certain school did not want to consider my application without a TOEFL score (I am foreign born but raised here). I got a phone call from admissions. I refused and basically said if my 99%ile score on the verbal SAT was insufficient for them, they can just deny admissions. I was accepted.</p>
<p>Clearly, the girl is fluent- but I wonder at the wisdom of taking such a stand over such a small issue. The school may be required by law/district policy to adminster the test to EVERY student listing a language other than English as their first language.</p>
<p>She is paying a big cost for the benefit of not taking an hour long test.</p>
<p>I am afraid the school administrators and the tax payers pay more than this student paid.</p>
<p>My children were only required to take the English test when they started elementary school. Why did this school ask Phanachone to take the test when it has all records about her English ability? It is not only a waste but also a humiliation.</p>
<p>It is only a “humiliation” if she were singled out to take the test, that doesn’t sound like the case. I am not defending the school-- obviously the policy is silly; what I am questioning is the wisdom of giving up so much for the small victory of not taking a simple test.</p>
<p>I’m still sympathetic toward the student, but it seems that this was more an attempt to force the school’s hand and precipitate a crisis rather than a good faith effort to address the issue proactively or constructively. If the school truly faced the loss of federal funds, plus the obvious slippery slope issue, I’d criticize them mainly for how disproportionate the punishment was.</p>
<p>If you put yourself in her seat you will feel the humiliation. I think there are students who have low grades, low english ability, and are rejected by colleges but they are not required to take the test.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad is correct that this is most likely based on a requirement for federal or state money. With so many students in the system, using for a non-standard way for an ESL student to show mastery of a subject would cost the school, government, and taxpayers a lot more time and money than if she had just taken the test.</p>
<p>Obviously, she is not in ESL classes. That being the case, she should not be tested in order for the school to receive government ESL money-- that would be fraud on the school’s part.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the underlying policy issue is whether or not it’s “silly” for a student who qualifies for, but either does not need or does not want ESL instruction to be subject to testing. On it’s face, one-time testing seems perfectly reasonable. What seems silly in this case is that she had to take the test repeatedly when her scores were already off the charts.</p>
<p>Applied to this particular student, the requirement for the test seems silly. But lots of rules and requirements are silly when applied across the board. You can’t fight them all. While I sympathize with the student involved, this is not a battle I would have chosen to fight.</p>
<p>I don’t blame her one little bit. Our district signed a consent decree with the US Office of Civil Rights, and as a result every child entering school fills has to have a home language survey. (What language(s) are spoken in the home, what was your child’s first language,…) – that’s fine. </p>
<p>What isn’t fine is how the answer of anything but English to the “first language” question directs the child into evaluation for ESL services and time-consuming ESL testing even if the child is solidly fluid in English. Worse, families have to jump through hoops and sign all sorts of legal waivers in order to get their child out of this idiocy, and the default is that perfectly fluent kids get put into ESL programs.</p>
<p>Just say “No” is a reasonable response, and I’m with her all the way.</p>
<p>The problem is that when student in question was registered for school, the schools ask what is the home language. She has probably been registered as an ESL student. Regardless of how she has done in her other classes, she must test out of ESL. If she has not tested out, the school is actually in violation if they are not servicing her by giving her ESL classes for which the school receives Title III funding from the federal government.</p>
<p>I agree with Erin’s Dad, that the student is literally cutting her nose to spite her face, because the school is mandated, to insure that she test out of ESL. At the end of the day, the only person that Lori is hurting is herself.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it happens a lot; students are fluent in english, however, the parent fills out the home language survey form stating what their home language is and if it is other than english, students are placed in ESL. </p>
<p>In NYS, no matter how proficient the student is in enlish if they are designated as an ESL student they must pass the NYSESLAT (New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test ) to place out of ESL. </p>
<p>I have students who have passed the NYS regents exam with flying colors which is much harder than the NYSESLAT and are still in ESL because they either have not shown up for the test, which is given once a year or they have done what the young woman in the article has done; showed up and blown off the test. As a result, they are in need of ESL services and we are out of compliance if we do not place students in ESL classes.</p>
<p>I know my high school recently had an audit and all student who had not testing out of ESL had to be placed back in ESL classes. This resulted in a slew of program changes and a lot of unhappy campers, who like Lori, felt they do not need to be in ESL, but we as the department of ed must be in compliance when it comes to servicing these students.</p>
<p>If her actions bring notice to the idiocies in the way these programs are handled, then they’re not in vain. She’s already accepted to college, and she seems willing to risk HS activities to make her point. I wish more folks would just say no to nonsense; it would make rule-makers examine their programs to see what makes sense, and what doesn’t. It ought to be easy enough to write into the rules that if the student can pass the tests everyone else passes, then he/she should be waivered from having to take another one–which seems patently discriminatory. </p>
<p>That something is, doesn’t mean that it is right.</p>