Post by warriorpride on Mar 3, 2008 8:05:06 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/821626,2_1_AU02_ISAT_S1.article
Twist in test may bite into budgets
ISATs this week: Schools fear more failing grades, financial fallout as Illinois requires non-English speakers to take exams in English
March 2, 2008
Heather Gillers hgillers@scn1.com
AURORA -- Ten-year-old Vanessa Campos, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico two years ago, says she understands "poquito" (little) on the practice standardized tests administered to her fifth-grade class.
Vanessa's teacher expects her to do so poorly on the statewide Illinois Standards Achievement Test next week that offering her the one-on-one help the state permits would be a waste of time.
East Aurora schools are bracing for a drop in scores, scrapping lessons in favor of exam preparation and scrambling to offer testing help this year when, for the first time, federal guidelines will force students just learning English to take tests intended for native English speakers.
Close to 60,000 Illinois elementary and middle school students -- including 1,700 in the East Aurora School District and several hundred more across the Fox Valley -- will puzzle over the mainstream standardized tests during the next two weeks after the U.S. Department of Education deemed the tests the state prepared for its English as a second language students too easy.
The decision, said East Aurora Superintendent Jerome Roberts, "has the potential" to provoke punitive federal sanctions on some East Aurora schools. Federal officials last month turned down a request by the Illinois State Board of Education to leave out the scores of non-native speakers when calculating schools' overall performance.
Specialized test scrapped
Since the federal No Child Left Behind law went into effect five years ago, the state has tested the math and reading skills of elementary and middle students who are just learning English with the IMAGE test, which is written in English but relies on pictures, charts and simplified vocabulary to explain test questions.
Those limited-English students must now take the mainstream ISAT test while the state prepares a new exam that would satisfy federal officials -- a process educators say will take at least two to three years.
Prep eats up class time
"Basically, we've had to switch gears and prepare specifically for ISAT," said Beatrice Reyes-Childress, the district's director of bilingual education.
Vanessa Campos' English Language Learner's class at Rollins Elementary School has spent double -- maybe "more than double" -- the amount of time on test preparation this year than they spent last year, said teacher Diane Argueta. Most often, the practice time cuts into time usually spent learning English.
As Argueta's fifth-graders pored over practice tests this week, Francisco Villanueva frowned. He knew the math. But the word "horizontal" was tough to decode. And it was easy to subtract two cheerleaders from four cheerleaders. But what was a "human pyramid?"
"It's a little bit more hard" than last year's test, the fifth-grader judged finally.
Not enough manpower
Federal education officials will permit some testing help for kids like Campos and Villanueva. They can use glossaries that translate test vocabulary into simpler English words. They can have extra time to complete the tests and listen to teachers read instructions aloud. On some sections, they will be able to answer verbally and have their responses transcribed.
But educators believe some aides, like the glossaries, may leave kids confused.
"They'll get bogged down looking up works like 'Zeke,' a kid's name in a math problem," said Rollins Principal Karen Hart.
Moreover, even with 200 teachers and teacher assistants working overtime to transcribe answers, the district will be able to provide the service to only 1,000 of the 1,700 students eligible. To cut its losses, the schools are not offering transcription to those students likely to be baffled by test questions.
Writing down Vanessa's answers, for example, is simply "not worth it," Argueta said. "She'll just really be guessing."
Scores expected to drop
Vanessa's score, however, will still reflect on Rollins Elementary in the eyes of federal education officials.
Under No Child Left Behind, dropping scores could force schools to add services and support teams, restructure curriculums and even send students to other districts.
Cowherd Middle School, which is under federal orders to restructure its curriculum after repeatedly failing to meet national benchmarks, raised scores so much over the past two years it nabbed an academic improvement award from the state. But another year on the state watch list could invite major state interventions.
Cowherd Principal Joan Glotzbach is hoping the extensive improvement programs she has put in place in reading and other subjects will raise test scores more than the new testing rules will lower them.
"We'll see the way the numbers crunch," she said. "That (decision) was not, of course, good for kids."
Twist in test may bite into budgets
ISATs this week: Schools fear more failing grades, financial fallout as Illinois requires non-English speakers to take exams in English
March 2, 2008
Heather Gillers hgillers@scn1.com
AURORA -- Ten-year-old Vanessa Campos, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico two years ago, says she understands "poquito" (little) on the practice standardized tests administered to her fifth-grade class.
Vanessa's teacher expects her to do so poorly on the statewide Illinois Standards Achievement Test next week that offering her the one-on-one help the state permits would be a waste of time.
East Aurora schools are bracing for a drop in scores, scrapping lessons in favor of exam preparation and scrambling to offer testing help this year when, for the first time, federal guidelines will force students just learning English to take tests intended for native English speakers.
Close to 60,000 Illinois elementary and middle school students -- including 1,700 in the East Aurora School District and several hundred more across the Fox Valley -- will puzzle over the mainstream standardized tests during the next two weeks after the U.S. Department of Education deemed the tests the state prepared for its English as a second language students too easy.
The decision, said East Aurora Superintendent Jerome Roberts, "has the potential" to provoke punitive federal sanctions on some East Aurora schools. Federal officials last month turned down a request by the Illinois State Board of Education to leave out the scores of non-native speakers when calculating schools' overall performance.
Specialized test scrapped
Since the federal No Child Left Behind law went into effect five years ago, the state has tested the math and reading skills of elementary and middle students who are just learning English with the IMAGE test, which is written in English but relies on pictures, charts and simplified vocabulary to explain test questions.
Those limited-English students must now take the mainstream ISAT test while the state prepares a new exam that would satisfy federal officials -- a process educators say will take at least two to three years.
Prep eats up class time
"Basically, we've had to switch gears and prepare specifically for ISAT," said Beatrice Reyes-Childress, the district's director of bilingual education.
Vanessa Campos' English Language Learner's class at Rollins Elementary School has spent double -- maybe "more than double" -- the amount of time on test preparation this year than they spent last year, said teacher Diane Argueta. Most often, the practice time cuts into time usually spent learning English.
As Argueta's fifth-graders pored over practice tests this week, Francisco Villanueva frowned. He knew the math. But the word "horizontal" was tough to decode. And it was easy to subtract two cheerleaders from four cheerleaders. But what was a "human pyramid?"
"It's a little bit more hard" than last year's test, the fifth-grader judged finally.
Not enough manpower
Federal education officials will permit some testing help for kids like Campos and Villanueva. They can use glossaries that translate test vocabulary into simpler English words. They can have extra time to complete the tests and listen to teachers read instructions aloud. On some sections, they will be able to answer verbally and have their responses transcribed.
But educators believe some aides, like the glossaries, may leave kids confused.
"They'll get bogged down looking up works like 'Zeke,' a kid's name in a math problem," said Rollins Principal Karen Hart.
Moreover, even with 200 teachers and teacher assistants working overtime to transcribe answers, the district will be able to provide the service to only 1,000 of the 1,700 students eligible. To cut its losses, the schools are not offering transcription to those students likely to be baffled by test questions.
Writing down Vanessa's answers, for example, is simply "not worth it," Argueta said. "She'll just really be guessing."
Scores expected to drop
Vanessa's score, however, will still reflect on Rollins Elementary in the eyes of federal education officials.
Under No Child Left Behind, dropping scores could force schools to add services and support teams, restructure curriculums and even send students to other districts.
Cowherd Middle School, which is under federal orders to restructure its curriculum after repeatedly failing to meet national benchmarks, raised scores so much over the past two years it nabbed an academic improvement award from the state. But another year on the state watch list could invite major state interventions.
Cowherd Principal Joan Glotzbach is hoping the extensive improvement programs she has put in place in reading and other subjects will raise test scores more than the new testing rules will lower them.
"We'll see the way the numbers crunch," she said. "That (decision) was not, of course, good for kids."
