Board of supervisors of Fairfax County endorses school board's decision to defy Department of Education
In an 8-1 vote, the board of supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia, has endorsed the Fairfax school board’s decision to defy the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) directive to give English language learner (ELL) students the same reading exams given to native speakers. Instead, the school system will continue to use tests it says are better tailored to those learning English as a second language. Federal officials have threatened to withhold funds, saying the old tests are not rigorous enough. Board of supervisors chairman Gerald E. Connolly and board member Lynda Q. Smyth characterize the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as "a classic unfunded mandate" that has cost Fairfax taxpayers more than $120 million to date, for which the school system has been reimbursed $16.6 million. In a written statement they say ED’s "tin ear" on the testing issue and the failure of the federal government to fully fund NCLB "raises profound questions about the very validity of this legislation." Ms. Smyth, who has worked as a substitute teacher in Fairfax schools, says the issue is more complex than a matter of immigrant students learning English as a second language. Some children, she says, come from war-ravaged countries and are barely literate. While educators agree that schools should be held to high standards, others question the wisdom of forcing children who haven't mastered English to take exams that might include questions about metaphors or poetic imagery. At the meeting, Mr. Connolly took exception to a letter from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, published in the Washington Post, accusing Virginia school systems of dragging their feet in meeting what she called the "Standards Clause" of the law, which she called a key tool in efforts to counter what President Bush has described as "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Supervisor Michael Frey, the sole dissenter, said he supports the principle of not forcing immigrant students to take tests they are not prepared for but called the school board's defiance "flamboyant" and said both sides should sit down and talk.
Washington Post
By Bill Turque, with Amit R. Paley
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: Background on the face-off, with NSBA’s recommendations on ELL testing, is available starting at the first link below. Secretary Spellings’s letter, at the second link, argues that NCLB’s insistence that ELL students "meet the same challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet" is critical to the progress schools finally are making in serving these children; that Virginia’s preferred test "does not measure grade-level proficiency, creating an incomplete picture of academic progress" and is not peer-reviewed; and that NCLB allows for accommodations such as additional time, oral translation, or the use of a bilingual dictionary. Virginia State Board of Education president Mark E. Emblidge and a former local PTA president, Phyllis Payne, respond in letters at the third and fourth links below, arguing that the requirement is unrealistic and that the accommodations are impractical or inadequate given the diversity of the student population in terms of languages and educational backgrounds.
Similar discussions are occurring on other Virginia school boards. The Potomac News reports that the Prince William County school board has unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the federal requirement and is considering refusing to comply. "On the one hand we're expected to abide by the law, and on the other hand we have a moral and ethical responsibility and a professional responsibility to test our students in an appropriate manner," board member Donald P. Richardson is quoted as saying. The Charlottesville Daily Progress reports that Charlottesville City and Albemarle County school officials have taken notice of a resolution adopted by the Harrisonburg school board, and that in December Charlottesville’s board had adopted a resolution asking the state to allow the city’s low-level ELL students an additional year before taking the state reading test. Charlottesville Mayor David Brown has visited Washington to meet with federal officials to voice his concerns about the testing of refugee students in his community, who reportedly comprise 48% of the ELL population in city schools and often come to the U.S. having had only basic or interrupted schooling. Finally, the debate on the Loudoun County school board is covered in Leesburg Today at the last link.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Virginia ELL rebellion]
[Spellings letter]
[Emblidge letter]
[Payne letter]
Potomac News
By Amanda Stewart
[Full story]
Charlottesville Daily Progress
By Matt Deegan
[Full story]
Charlottesville Daily Progress
By Matt Deegan
[Full story]
Leesburg Today
By Charlie Jackson
[Full story]