NYSUT is urging the state to seek a federal waiver to halt plans to force newly arrived English language learners to take the same English Language Arts test as their grade-level peers.

In testimony before the state Assembly Committee on Education, NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira said the State Education Department's compliance plan to impose the new testing this January will have a "negative and devastating impact on English language learners, their education, their parents, their teachers and the community."

Neira, who has led the charge against the new testing requirements for ELL students who have been enrolled in school in the U.S. for one year, thanked Assembly Education Chairwoman Cathy Nolan, D-Queens, for listening to advocates and convening the day-long hearing Oct. 26.

Until now, newly arrived ELL students took the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test in lieu of the grade 3-8 ELA exams.

Neira said the federal government rescinded SED's authorization to use the NYSESLAT for school accountability under the federal No Child Left Behind Act after reviewing an older version of the NYSESLAT - not the revised test that will be administered this year.

"SED, in collaboration with the NYSESLAT developer, has redesigned this assessment to more closely align it with New York's English Language Arts and reading standards," Neira said. "The bottom line is that New York is complying with a directive based on a federal finding related to a test that is no longer in use in this state."

If the new testing begins in January as planned, ELLs will be the only subgroup in the state tested twice in English language development, Neira said, because they will still take the NYSESLAT as well. "It's unfair and educationally unsound," Neira said.

The union believes the new testing would be a violation of the 1974 landmark civil rights Supreme Court decision Lau v. Nichols.

"It is our opinion that using the same ELA tests designed for, validated and normed on English-proficient students to measure the ELA performance of their ELL peers is to blatantly deny them the civil rights protected under this decision," Neira said. "It is our opinion that in the United States using the same test is not equal treatment for our ELL students."

Neira noted that rather than administering inappropriate and useless testing, teachers would prefer to devote their time to quality instruction.

Neira said research clearly shows it takes four to six years for a newly arrived student to become proficient in English. Students who have not had any schooling in their first language generally required seven to 10 years to perform at the average level of native English speakers on academic tests in English.

Growing segment

There are approximately 200,000 English language learners in the state, the fastest-growing segment of the student population. Many ELLs received little or no formal education before they arrived in the country.

Neira, who serves on SED's newly established ELL/ESL Committee of Practitioners, said many advocates are fearful that requiring newly arrived ELL students to take the ELA will wrongly label students as failures and unfairly increase the number of schools designated under No Child Left Behind as in need of improvement. "Assessments must be used as tools for improving progress, not as punishment for struggling schools," she said.

While SED officials insist they must move forward as planned or lose federal funding, Neira urged state lawmakers to push for:

• the U.S. Education Department to allow the state to offer the revised NYSESLAT assessment to comply with NCLB;
• the state Legislature to financially cover SED for any sanctions that may be imposed by the federal agency; and
• SED to develop an improved grade-by-grade NYSESLAT exam to be used as a fair measure for ELLs here less than three years.

Noting she represents both NYSUT and the United Federation of Teachers in New York City schools, Neira introduced UFT District 6 representative Martin Plotkin, whose district has the largest concentration of ELL students in New York.

She also introduced Katie Kurjakovic, an ESL teacher at

PS 11 in Queens, who poignantly told committee members the story of Andrew, one of her sixth-graders who has made tremendous progress since he came to this country a year ago.

"He has learned a new alphabet, is able to have a social conversation, can read a simple paragraph," Kurjakovic said. "What I cannot do, as hard as Andrew and I work, is condense seven years of English Language Arts instruction into one year."

"My colleagues and I are distraught at SED's change of policy," Kurjakovic said. "We are distraught because this policy will turn Andrew and our school from successes to failures. Not because we are, but because - by this policy - SED has created a false measure."

- Sylvia Saunders