An Open Letter to Dr. Suellen Reed

The following is a copy of a letter that is going out in the mail this week. Copies are going to state and federal representatives, as well as GW and the Federal Secretary of Education. (The federal letters differ slightly.)

Just some definitions so I bore you less with edu-babble - Dr. Reed is the Superintendent of Education in Indiana. The ISTEP+ is the state exam given every year to all students (now required for graduation), and the ISTAR is an exam formarly given to many students in special education and ENL, which allowed for students to be evaluated at their level. Apparently now that's not ok.

If you're inspired, write a letter to your legislators! You can even copy mine if you want! (Though you might want to take out the bit about having my job....)

Without further ado.....

Dear Dr. Reed:

I am an ENL teacher at West Noble Middle School and High School in Ligonier, IN. I spent approximately one complete school week in September administering the ISTEP+ exam to my students.

As I understand the situation, the ISTAR did not meet No Child Left Behind guidelines, so students who previously used ISTAR (such as special education students and my ENL students) now had to take the ISTEP+.

I am very concerned with the position these students are put in. A small number of students who had been here for less than one year were exempted from the English portion of the test, but had to take the other sections. The rest of the students had to take all of the test, with some modifications, but no translation allowed other than tiny bilingual dictionaries on the approved list, which did not contain many key words on the test. I would have less objection to my students taking a math exam if it was a valid exam for them: i.e. if it really measured what it purports to measure - math. Instead, the number and complexity of word problems mean that it really tests knowledge of English and reading comprehension first, and secondarily math. This is not fair to the majority of my students who have been learning English for far less than the 5-7 years shown in studies to be the time it takes to learn academic English and to catch up with peers in school.

I tested two groups of students, most of whom for which the test was not valid, and they had no chance of passing. Instead, they spent hours desperately trying to understand, but ending up feeling stupid. On top of that, I lost an entire week (1/36 of a school year!) of instructional time during which we could have been working on English skills.

My only comfort in all this was that I could tell my students to do their best, and that next year, they could see how much they could improve their scores, with the goal of eventually passing. Were I a special education teacher, I might have some students to whom, in good conscience, I could not say even this.

I urge you to develop an alternate assessment for ENL and special needs students that allows these students to show what they do know. An English-only exam for students who do not yet have on-grade English skills is invalid, inappropriate, and racist. Giving any student an exam they have no chance of passing is a waste of our state's time and money, a burden on those students, and a detriment to our educational system.

I realize there are federal guidelines with which you must comply, but I urge you to search out creative minds that can develop a valid, appropriate assessment that ensures all our students are receiving a quality education, not cookie-cutter tests.

Thank you for your work and care for the students of our state.

Sincerely,
Lisa Rose Martin