Wonder which one of the Editorial Board must be on vacation?
UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Teach English
Testing in native language hurts us all
October 3, 2007
We are witnessing a new movement for Latino students in San Diego’s schools, and it comes complete with a translator.
On the front lines are English-language learners. These are students like any other except that they speak little or no English and thus terrify our public schools. Teachers and administrators worry these students will test poorly and make schools look bad by bringing down test scores. The consequences go beyond image. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools can be penalized for poor performance.
So, predictably, schools are trying to hide the football by fighting like mad for the right to test English-language learners in their native language (usually Spanish) as long as they can. They would test these kids in Spanish in perpetuity if they could get away with it.
And since the state requires testing in English, that means going to court. And that’s just what three South County school districts have done. Chula Vista Elementary, San Ysidro Elementary and Sweetwater Union High School districts have joined six others in suing California to stop English-only testing. The districts are asking for the option to give tests in Spanish to students who don’t understand English.
That is such a wrong-headed approach. The tests are there to help students by identifying who is learning and who isn’t. It doesn’t do any good to keep us all in the dark by testing students in their native languages.
We have a better idea: Schools should teach students English. Then they’ll have nothing to worry about. When students are tested, they’ll be able to give the answers – in English. Otherwise, we’ll continue to segregate them in bilingual classes, cripple them with low expectations, and deny them educational opportunity.
And we’ll do all this in the name of defending their rights? Their right to what – a low-wage job and a dead-end to the American dream?