The Department of Education is giving state officials a small break on carrying out the requirements for English-language learners under the No Child Left Behind Act.
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Federal officials announced at a meeting of state officials late last month that the department will hold off for at least 18 months in making a judgment on whether the English-language-proficiency tests most states recently implemented pass muster under the law.
Instead, said Kathleen Leos, the director of the Education Department鈥檚 office of English-language acquisition, in an interview last week, the department will focus on providing 鈥渢argeted technical assistance鈥� for states on the assessment of English-learners.
As of last spring, 44 states and the District of Columbia had administered new, comprehensive tests for English proficiency, leaving a handful of states that have missed the federal deadline for the exams. Ms. Leos had said over the summer that the department was expecting to conduct peer reviews of those tests similar to the kind carried out this past year for states鈥� large-scale mathematics and reading tests. (鈥淣ew Era for Testing English-Learners Begins,鈥� July 12, 2006.)
鈥淭here鈥檚 not a pass-fail yet,鈥� Ms. Leos said last week, referring to the department鈥檚 reviews. Assessing English-language learners, she said, is 鈥渢he newest area of development鈥� in education for the states in complying with the nearly 5-year-old federal law.
The announcement doesn鈥檛, however, change any aspects of the Education Department鈥檚 regulations for English-language learners.
鈥楪reatest Noise鈥�
Robin M. Lisboa, the administrator for English-language learning for the Illinois state board of education, said that while she has some concerns about the NCLB requirements for English-language learners, she was confident that her state鈥檚 English-proficiency test would be accepted by the federal government.
State officials鈥� biggest concern expressed at the recent meeting, Ms. Lisboa said, is 鈥渢hey feel too many English-language learners are being forced to take the content assessments when they don鈥檛 have the English-language proficiency. That鈥檚 where the greatest noise comes from.鈥�
