Education Law Helps Schools Offer English Proficiency Help
by Jim Brown
February 25, 2004
(AgapePress) - Students with limited English skills are going to get a break in the classroom thanks to a new federal policy.Consistent with provisions of President George W. Bush's signature education law, the U.S. government has eased testing and progress requirements for public school students who have limited proficiency in the English language. In their first year at a U.S. school, these students will not have to take achievement tests to measure their academic reading and writing ability.
These tests will now be optional, and these students with limited English ability will be allowed to take only a diagnostic test in how well they know the language. The change is expected to take pressure off schools that get poverty aid and face penalties for failing to show enough gains among minority students.
Secretary of Education Rod Paige says the goal of the new policy is to give teachers more time for language instruction with less English-proficient students.
"Like all children, they're capable of academic success and should be held to high standards. At the same time, we recognize that English language learners have some unique instructional needs," Paige says, "and under 'No Child Left Behind' we're taking meaningful steps to improve education for them."
The education secretary also notes that the policy guidelines are designed to provide flexibility for schools while still ensuring accountability for students. "Every child must be measured. What we provide here is a different way that they can be measured; but we need to know where they are in order to know how much work we've got to do to help them get where we want them to be," Paige says.
The new "No Child Left Behind" provisions will allow schools time to provide supplemental or remedial language instruction for students who need such measures, and to consider students as having limited English skills for as long as two years after they have achieved proficiency and left the language instruction program.
