State to adjust test immigrants must take

[stephanie]

March 21, 2008Recommend

BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter/rrossi@suntimes.com
Illinois education officials Thursday agreed to tweak the state achievement test that next year's immigrant high school juniors will face, but local officials said the changes amounted to "putting lipstick on a pig.''

The state School Board's actions came just weeks before public school juniors who are still learning English are, for the first time, being required to take the two-day Prairie State Achievement Exam, a decision that's caused an uproar in many high schools.

The first day of the exam is devoted to administering the ACT, a test used by colleges to decide admissions. It contains questions on everything from grammar to trigonometry and uses words that even some native English speakers might find intimidating.

To give such a test to kids who are still learning English amounts to "educational malpractice. You don't do this to somebody,'' said Anne Roloff, director of curriculum for Fenton High School District 100 and a member of the Chicago Area Directors of Curriculum and Assessment.

"These kids are not on a level linguistically where they can handle college-entrance material.''

Asking teenagers who have only been in this country a year to answer ACT grammar questions is "ludicrous,'' Roloff said. "It's like being in a Kafka novel. You can't believe it's happening, it's so ridiculous.''

Translations into Spanish

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/854313,CST-NWS-lang21.article

[Trigg]

In what other country can a child graduate high school without knowing the language of the country??????????????????????????????????????????

Students should not graduate without being proficient in English in this country. Yes, it may mean they are behind a grade or two, but at least when they graduate they are guaranteed to know how to read and write in English.

Tweeking the rules, in the long run, isn't going to do these kids any favors.

[DragonStryk72]

In what other country can a child graduate high school without knowing the language of the country??????????????????????????????????????????

Students should not graduate without being proficient in English in this country. Yes, it may mean they are behind a grade or two, but at least when they graduate they are guaranteed to know how to read and write in English.

Tweeking the rules, in the long run, isn't going to do these kids any favors.

It's not the language of the country part, it's like the difference between being able to read english well, and being able to read Shakespeare in proper rhythm as fast as you read it.

Now, I've advocated multiple times on this board, yeah, they need to learn English, and I stick to that, but college level english out of high school junior with less than a year in country is asking way to much of anyone.

[LiberalNation]

Reading was my best scoring subject on the ACT, English grammar the worst. It's not about knowing english so much, I even best guessed on some of the crazy words one would never normally hear anywhere else. WHy is a college entrance exam required there for highschool graduation? Not everybodies going to college.

[Little-Acorn]

The ACT is designed to find out how ready kids are for college - AMERICAN college.

Kids who don't speak English very well, are not very ready for college.

What's the problem here?