Wrong Way to Boost Scores
Good feelings don't mean good policy. The legislature decided this year that scores of third- and fourth-graders who took Colorado's statewide reading and writing tests in Spanish should count toward their school's rating when school report cards come out in the fall. As a gesture of inclusion, it's well-meant and no doubt appreciated. But as a matter of long-term educational policy, it is likely to be harmful. First, because it masks deficiencies in English-language skills, and second, because it reduces the incentives for schools and districts to remedy those deficiencies as expeditiously as possible. The precise figures can't be calculated until all the Colorado Student Assessment Program results are released, but fortunately, effects will not be widespread.The News' preliminary analysis of third-grade scores, which were released in May, found schools where more than 15 children took the reading test in Spanish.Scores rose in 27 of those schools and fell in 14. In a handful of cases the gains, or losses, were dramatic. At Denver's Valdez Elementary, for example, 12 of 43 students who took the test in English scored proficient or advanced, the top two levels on the test. But 30 of 37 who took it in Spanish did that well. Counting both groups together boosts Valdez' passing percentage from 28 to 53. Welcome news for Valdez administrators, and parents too. At a stroke, their school climbs to above average in Denver (which had 49 percent passing overall). But in the long run the news may not be so good. After all, Valdez students are almost all Hispanic. The ones who took the test in English are, presumably, those whose English skills are strongest. If so, then the others will have an enormous gap in English proficiency to bridge in subsequent years, despite their performance on the Spanish test now. Administrators may be tempted to keep their children in Spanish-language classes for an extra year, or two, in order to improve the school's ratings, thus delaying their transfer into English. That's going in entirely the wrong direction. Moreover, the higher scores are cited by advocates of stretching out the English-acquisition process as long as possible, and that's bad policy too. A study last year by the University of Colorado, the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education and the Associated Directors of Bilingual Education found that native Spanish speakers did better on the fourth-grade Spanish-language tests than they did on the English-language ones. The study's authors concluded that the Spanish-language testing program should be expanded. On the contrary. It's evidence that the schools need to focus more intensively on teaching English skills. If the inclusions of Spanish-language test scores interferes with that goal, it will prove to be a regrettable error. |