Recent results from the California English Language Development Test show that 43% of the English Language Learners in the state are performing at an early or fully advanced level in English, up from 25 percent two years ago. But officials are in no hurry to reclassify these students as "fluent" in English:
Yet even as nearly half the state's English learners tested at advanced levels, districts across the state were less than eager to officially reclassify them as fluent. Last year, just 7.7 percent of English language learners were re-labeled as "fluent English proficient"...
Across the state, each district is responsible for setting criteria for determining when a student would be redesignated fluent. State guidelines say students reaching an advanced level on the state test would be candidates for fluency consideration. Other criteria could include teacher evaluations, parent input and performance on standardized language-arts tests.
Districts do have some incentive to keep kids classified as English learners. There are pots of money -- public and private -- available for districts with large numbers of English learners. And districts with a significant percentage of English learners are not expected to score as high on standardized tests.
Posted by kswygert at March 19, 2004 10:02 AM