BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist


59,000 children left behind

When I was a high school math teacher, I remember learning about a standardized test the state would soon be giving all students to measure their yearly academic growth in reading and math. A teacher known for teaching her bilingual classes strictly in Spanish raised her hand and asked, with a tone of horror, "In English? There's no Spanish?"

Nope.

Fast forward six months to the day I -- Satan incarnate for having insisted on speaking and teaching in English all year -- administered a similar English-only standardized test to students who preferred their Spanish-only-speaking teachers. The look of defeat, shame and in some cases complete incomprehension on their faces at not being able to answer grade-level questions was incredibly sad.

So now that the feds are enforcing the No Child Left Behind statute that says non-English speakers have to take the same tests as everyone else -- and not the English-only but far more simplistic one they take now -- school districts across the state are wondering how the sure-to-be-abominable scores from this spring's Illinois Standards Achievement Test will hurt their adequate yearly progress and the funding that comes with it.

On the face of it, yes, the new testing situation is bad because if a kid can't read and write English, they'll come off like idiots, even if they're Einstein in Polish, Urdu or Korean.

But this could have a positive long-term effect if -- in the name of blunting the hit from this sudden shift -- every district superintendent and school principal in the state insists that from now on, bilingual teachers teach in English for the time mandated by the state by grade-level.

It may be a little painful at first for Illinois' 59,000 students in special classes because they don't speak English -- though clearly not so much for the non-Spanish speakers because they rarely have native-language classes -- but way better overall.

Less all-Spanish, all-day instruction will surely translate into fewer English-learning children left behind.


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