Summary

On Feb. 19, 2004, Sec. Paige announced two new policies for assessing Limited English Proficient (LEP) students.

First, states have the option to exempt from taking the reading test any newly arrived immigrant student who has been in the U.S. for less than one calendar year.

Such students must still take the math test. However if they have been in the school for less than a full academic year, their score already did not count for measuring AYP.

Such students must also take the required assessment of their English Language proficiency.       The second change allows states the option to count in the LEP subgroup for AYP purposes, "exited" LEP students for up to two years after they become proficient in English.

This change is necessary since otherwise as soon as students become proficient in English they leave the LEP subgroup, which prevents that subgroup from ever achieving the ultimate goal of 100 percent proficiency in reading.

NEA's Concerns

NEA believes these newly arrived immigrant students should be exempt from taking the math test as well as the reading test in their first year because most math tests require some level of reading comprehension.

Second, NEA has proposed that LEP students' scores shouldn't count for AYP purposes for the first three years they are in the U.S.

The other major problem is the same as the one cited for students with disabilities: the rules do not apply back to AYP results from the 2002-03 school year. Again, many schools will have been inaccurately and unfairly labeled as failing AYP, when they might make AYP if re-evaluated in accordance with the new rules.

Finally, even though NCLB states that LEP students should be assessed in their native language for their first three years, the Department of Education has failed to provide states and schools with the technical assistance and resources necessary to develop tests in the multiplicity of foreign languages spoken by students.