<p>Unfortunately, it is not that cut and dry. In NYS students must pass 5 regents exams (U.S. history, English, Math, Science and Global History) in order to graduate from high school. </p>
<p>If you are a bi-lingual/ESL student, with the exception of the English regents, which is given in English you can take every other regents in your native language if the exam is given in your native language. You also have extended time to complete the exam.</p>
<p>Example: You can take the U.S. History regents in Spanish. I take the U.S. History regents in English.</p>
<p>We both pass the U.S. history regents exam with a 95. On our transcripts it states that we passed the history regents exam with a 95, as all it will reflect the NYS regents exam grade. It does not differientate that you took the exam in spanish and I took the exam in English. So while you have passed the exam that every student is required to pass in order to graduate from high school, it does not necessarily demonstrate that you are proficient in english.</p>
<p>Iowa is working on issues that many more diverse states struggled with in the past. It has seen a huge change in its demographics and is trying to figure things out, sometimes not in the best way. They mean well but aren’t doing it in a very graceful manner.</p>
<p>Storm Lake is a meat processing area, probably poultry. Storm Lake has had many different immigrant groups move to it for the jobs that would otherwise go unfilled. I know of Sudanese refugees living there. Other meatpacking towns have large numbers of latinos. Occasionally we hear of large scale raids, making the refugees a better hire.</p>
<p>She didn’t do this for herself. There are a lot of hoops the immigrant kids are having to jump through including having their college applications in limbo while the universities try to figure out if a refugee is a legal resident and giving additional tests at the university, no help with transportation. Others probably gave up. I know a couple of kids who were frustrated and went through the expense of becoming citizens earlier than they would have because of this. This was money the family really needed.</p>
<p>For YEARS schools have been using this as an excuse for poor performance. The school officials say, “But we have children speaking twenty-three-bajillion different languages at home; how can we keep up?” This has always been a phony excuse, because immigrant families generally learn English rapidly–often enough, they immigrate because they want to learn English. </p>
<p>Now the federal government calls school districts on their excuse. The girl in the story reported here, as sybbie719 correctly points out, simply has to take a test to show English proficiency and take care of one more excuse the school district claims. (The assumption that anyone who speaks another language at home, as my own children do, can’t know English is a STUPID assumption, but that has been the assumption.) Just take the test and show you know English. No big deal for the student, less excuse-making on the part of the school.</p>
<p>She is classified as an ESL student because she stated that her first language is Lao. Because she is classified as an ESL student, she must take the exam to demonstrate proficiency in english (as mandated by the government). </p>
<p>The student has had 3 years to resolve this and has made a conscious decision not to take the test because she found it demeaning. She has allowed this to be the hill that she is willing to die on and how is her stand working for her?</p>
<p>The school especially now that the press is involved is not going to yeild and have a case of non-compliance on their hands nor are they going to break the law, because she doesn’t want to take the test. This perdicament is one of her own making and nothing more is being asked of her than any other student in this classification.</p>
<p>As Sybbie points out so well, students whose first language is not English, are required to test out of ESL. I have students in my school who speak English beautifully but have not tested out because of lower performance on the reading and writing portions of the test. My school is not trying to make excuses as to why students are not doing well on standardized tests. We are trying to identify those students who need support in English and provide them with services. When a new student registers, they fill out the home language survey. If they indicate that English was not their first spoken language we need to either test them or get evidence from their previous school that they have passed the ESL requirements. If they do not demonstrate proficiency in speaking, reading, writing and listening on the test, I am required to write an ESL plan for them within 30 days of their enrollment. </p>
<p>I am not crazy about the law. It is difficult to write a comprehensive plan for a student who has only been attending for 4 weeks, to try and guage there strengths, weaknesses and need areas. But I do know that we are doing more for our ESL students now than we were a few years ago. I understand that the girl was feeling that it was beneath her to demonstrate her English proficiency, but the school was only trying to do what it is required to do by law.</p>
<p>She took the test in California before moving to Storm Lake. She took the test at Storm Lake during her sophomore year and she said the test was easy. She has near perfect GPA which must include English during her senior year. And after 3 years the school and her English teachers could not figure out she did not need the test? Did the school see her performance at all? Did the school see what Mr. Bob Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing sees?</p>
<p>It looks to me that her stand is working quite well for her. She *will *graduate, she *will *go to college, and she has brought attention to an issue that is important to her.</p>
<p>But by the same token, she is not being allowed to participate in senior activities, she cannot participate in her sport and she risk being taken out of the national honor society.</p>
<p>While she may have passed the test previously, Iowa requires that she be tested annually.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>it seems as if she has to take the test annually.</p>
<p>What a tempest in a teapot this situation is!</p>
<p>Let’s see, the girl is going to college and has a great GPA. Depending on where she’s going to college, she probably had English testing on:</p>
<p>1) SAT and/or ACT
2) SAT II
3) AP tests
4) Other state NCLB tests
5) A HS exit exam, depending on the state</p>
<p>Let’s see, did I miss anything here? From a selection of the above, there’s no way to make an assessment that her English skills are sufficient?</p>
<p>Let’s try another example. I asked my GC to clarify why my S’s transcript said he needed to complete 10 credits in Algebra I. Here’s my S’s story. He’s lucky to have a father who’s a math professor. So, the summer between 6th and 7th grade, his father taught him Algebra I. He went to the MS, passed a test and went into Geometry in 7th, honors Algebra II in 8th, honors Trigonometry in 9th, AP Calculus B/C in 10th and is currently taking an online class for credit in Linear Algebra this year (doing very well) and next year will do same with Multivariable Calculus. He’s also a peer math tutor for classes up to and including Calculus. Oh yes, and he’s passed the HS exit exam.</p>
<p>I was informed the Algebra I requirement would be removed from the transcript.</p>
<p>Thanks for the research, sybbie! After reading the policy, I have a couple of questions: Was she required to take the test because she refused ELL status? And did the student or parents communicate with the school before she refused to take the test? Reading the policy, it seems possible that the student, relatively new to the district, was simply misclassified.</p>
<p>It’s hard to know whether this was a righteous protest, an act of self-indulgent defiance, or a simple lack of communication without knowing more about the context.</p>
<p>It looks like the school ignored this guideline. This student did not “struggle in the classroom” under the guideline “Who Should be assessed with the Iowa-ELDA (2008)”.</p>
<p>At our school when a new student comes into the school system as part of the intake process, the parent fills out the home language survey. If the parent states that the home language is not english the student is tested for placement in Bilingual/ESL services. </p>
<p>Students are grouped for ESL classes based on their proficiency level. Students are offered six terms (three years) of ESL instruction in order to boost their English language skills and to prepare them for the exams they have to take. Annually, students have to take the NYSESLAT (NY State ESL Achievement Test) that establishes the students’ placement on certain proficiency levels, and serves as exit criteria from ESL classes.</p>
<p>English Language Lerners can be placed in the following categories:</p>
<p>Transitional bilingual education, where academic instruction is in both English and the native language.</p>
<p>Dual Language, where academic instruction during the school day is 50 percent in English and 50 percent in another language.</p>
<p>English as a Second Language (ESL), where all academic instruction during the school day is in English.</p>
<p>Beginners receive three 45-minute ESL classes per day. One class would be designated as L1T, L2T and the student would receive the equivalent of one (1) English credit. The would also be placed L1R class that would meet for a double period. Each period is the equivalent of .5 credits and the credits are usually categoried as elective credits.</p>
<p>Intermediate students receive two 45-minute ESL classes per day. One course is an LT course (1) english credit and the other course is an LR course which is .5 elective credit.</p>
<p>Advanced students receive one 45-minute ESl class per day. The course is an LT cours which is the equivalent to one english credit. Sometimes the student can be placed in an english class where the teacher is dually licensed to teach both English/ESL, so the student can be in a “traditional” english class and still be serviced for ESL.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is that no one has an adequate definition of the terminology used. What’s at issue here is the concept of “first language.” The OP is obviously interpreting “first” as the order in which she learned languages. The question she answered was probably interpreting “first” as “main” or “principle.” There’s a big difference. A lot of people have a first language (the one they learned as infants or children) that is not one they are fluent/literate in. (The OP doesn’t say whether she has equal ability in English and the other language, but I would guess English is her dominant language). That’s quite often the language you did your schooling in. As a parent in a bilingual household, I know firsthand how difficult it is to raise children who have more than functional ability in the non-school language. It can be done but a lot of things have to come together to make it happen (and I was not successful at it–twice!). </p>
<p>The same issue arises with the term “native” language and “bilingual”. I have seen articles that provide 8 or 9 levels of bilingualism from recognition (ie. understanding grandparents in another language but responding to them in English) to full professional ability in two languages. Some people are fluent speakers of a non-school language but are virtually illiterate in it or unable to write intelligibly. </p>
<p>I am bilingual in two languages, my native language and a learned language. I function professionally almost equally well in both, and, in fact, do some things better in my non-native language. I have been told that my voice and body language change entirely when switching from one language to the other. Were it not for my name, I can usually go undetected in the other culture as a “foreigner.” It sometimes irks me in professional situations when people who have “studied the language in college” claim to be “bilingual” also, but I realize it’s question of semantics. Most people use “bi-” “tri-” “multi-” lingual to mean someone who has any capacity to use two or more languages.</p>
<p>It was honorable of the OP to take a stand, but as other posters have suggested, I’m not sure the consequences are worth it. Wouldn’t it be possible to go ahead and take the test, and then try to work with administrators to change the policy (or the wording on the questionnaire)?</p>
<p>I think she did the right thing. You need to fight the system to change it.
I did not approve of my school using a standariized test for a class grade, because i felt the test was b.s.( i test in the 99th percentile, why bother?) so i left it blank and got detention for it…if you believe in something…you gotta do it</p>