VivirLatino

As if New York State students, regardless of home language, didn’t have enough to worry about with the increased use of high-stakes testing that makes or breaks the grade, now the heat is on students with limited English. The rule used to be that if a student was in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program for three years or less, they were exempt from taking the English Language Arts (ELA) exam, one of the tests used for promotion in New York State schools. AP is reporting that this is no longer the case. Now any student who has had at least one year of ESL services will be required to take the ELA. I can hear the English only crowd cheering. The sad fact is that the ESL program in New York State doesn’t work.

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