Devoted Reader and homeschooling pundit Daryl sends along more lawsuit news, this time about the angry "bilingual" teachers in Massachusetts who can't speak English very well, and don't see why they should have to:
Fifteen Lawrence bilingual teachers who have been on unpaid leave since failing the state's new English fluency test asked a Superior Court judge yesterday to order the district to reinstate them on grounds that the test is flawed. The teachers' lawyer, Jennifer Rieker, filed a request for an injunction in Essex Superior Court to stop the school district from firing them. She said the test, an oral interview, is too broad to measure any correlation between ability to speak English and teaching effectiveness...
Oh, yeah, I'd expect an oral interview to be completely unrelated to one's ability to speak English, given that it's a real-life test of English oral skills. I'd also expect that to be completely unrelated to one's ability to teach kids English effectively as well. Um-hmm.
If the test had been multiple-choice, the flunking teachers would be complaining that the test was too artificial and not enough likereal-life, I bet.
I don't blame them for being pissed off at Superintendent Laboy, who's named in the lawsuit, since he couldn't pass the test himself, and no one seems to be holding him accountable for it. But they're wrong to be attacking the test itself.
Rieker acknowledged that the petition faces an uphill battle in court. Four Lowell teachers who lost a similar bid two weeks ago. But she said the Lawrence case is different because it will focus on the validity of the fluency test. She said she has retained James Lantolf, a professor of applied linguistics at Penn State University, to give evidence about the test in court.
Noting that the test was originally used to gauge the English-speaking ability of the country's diplomatic corps, Lantolf said the state must do more research to prove that it is the best way to measure the skills of classroom teachers.
Lantolf is all but admitting that we can't expect teachers who are responsible for teaching kids how to speak English to be able to speak English at an advanced level. Hey, all that's necessary is for the teachers to be at least one step ahead of the kids, right? No need for them to be able to speak English like a professional, or educated, adult.
Shameful.
Posted by kswygert at August 26, 2003 11:36 AM