"Every year I help give the Pennsylvania state test. This year I assisted the ESL teacher. There was a student who had just arrived at our school five days before the PSSA test. She and her family were from Russia. She knew a very limited amount of English.

"She did not need to take the reading test, but she had to take the math test. She concentrated so much, and we did try to arrange for a Russian interpreter, but none was available. Each day she tried to work, and she did work to the best of her ability. As the days ended, she was near tears because she did not understand what to do.

"When the testing was done, she came and told me in broken English that she tried hard to work, but she said some of the things she had not learned in Russia. At one break, she attempted to do some flash cards with me to learn basic English direction words. She worked hard. I had the opportunity to meet her parents.

"The interpreter, who had spoken with them, told me that they had come to America for religious freedom, and they had tried to have their children learn English before they came. I watched the father sit in our school office waiting for his daughter, practicing basic English words with picture cards. This family wanted to do the best for their new country. They wanted to become citizens as soon as possible.

"When I told them that their daughter had worked hard on the state test, they did not understand the need for government tests when they had only just arrived in this country. I hope that I alleviated their fears about this test. Please do not have people new to our country take a test before they have some knowledge of the language."

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