School Districts Seek Option to Test In Spanish

Leslie Santillan uses English words to describe the animal-shaped hand shadows she casts on the playground pavement at Loma Verde Elementary School in Chula Vista, CA – dog, wolf, butterfly.

But ask her a question in English and it becomes apparent it's her second language, because she'll sometimes answer with a question of her own: “What does mean that?”

Her teacher, Cristina Orin, said she gets variations on that question every spring when the 7-year-olds in her second-grade bilingual education class take mandatory state tests administered in English.

Three South County (CA) school districts are arguing in court that when students don't understand the questions, it is wrong to use their answers as the basis for scoring schools and sanctioning them for poor performance.

Chula Vista Elementary, San Ysidro and Sweetwater Union High school districts have joined six others suing California to stop English-only testing. They are asking for the option to give the test in Spanish to students such as Leslie, just as at least three other states allow.

Chula Vista and Sweetwater each have spent $40,000 on the lawsuit, and San Ysidro has committed to spending $30,000. To make their case, the districts cite the law that requires the testing – the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the 670 pages of rules that govern public education.

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(The San Diego Union-Tribune 10.02.07)