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Article Last Updated: 11/01/2005 03:17 AM

Judge rules testing suit can proceed
Plaintiffs allege discrimination against immigrant children by not giving exams in their native language as law allows
By Katy Murphy, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area

A legal attempt to reform how California tests English-language learners will go forward.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay on Friday denied the state's motion to throw out the lawsuit, which was filed in June by the Hayward School District and a number of other districts and advocacy organizations.

The ruling was heralded as a "major victory" by the plaintiffs and downplayed by the state attorney general's office as an unsurprising dismissal of an "ambitious" motion.

Quidachay's decision came shortly after a San Francisco federal judge sent the case back to state court, denying the defendants' motion to have the case moved to the federal jurisdiction.

"This ends the procedural games," said Marc Coleman, an attorney representing the school districts and advocacy groups behind the June 1 complaint.

The lawsuit contends that California discriminates against students and school districts with large numbers of immigrant children by not testing them in their native languages as allowed by The No Child Left Behind Act. While the first-year scores of those students aren't included in California school assessments, the plaintiffs argue the state needs to go further.

Fourteen other states, including Texas and New York, test children in other languages, according to the complaint. Those who favor such reforms say such tests more accurately measure a student's understanding of the material, rather than simply their mastery of English.

While the Hayward School District is no longer a plaintiff in the case â€â€