The Board of Education yesterday decided to end the automatic testing of all children with Spanish surnames for proficiency in English.

Parents, teachers and some administrators had described the 22-year practice as discriminatory.

Starting in the fall, the board will use a state Home Language Identification Survey to determine whether English proficiency testing is needed.

The testing is used to determine who belongs in bilingual education, which provides instruction in students’ native languages while they’re learning English so they don’t fall behind academically.

“This is a win-win reform for all concerned parties, especially our children,” said board member Luis Reyes. “Those students who are entitled to bilingual and English-As-a-Second-Language classes will be protected, and those students requiring no such programs will not feel trapped.”

The board’s decision required the consent and help of ASPIRA of New York Inc., a nonprofit group for Hispanic youth that filed a 1974 lawsuit that led to the current rules under which every Spanish-surnamed student is tested. ASPIRA officials felt the approach was outdated.

School officials said the blanket testing was ending because of complaints from educators, Hispanic parents and testers who did not think it was necessary to test every Spanish-surnamed child.

In September, a group calling itself the Bushwick Parents Association filed a lawsuit charging that tens of thousands of students had been permitted to languish in bilingual education programs for up to six years. About 180,000 (almost one-fifth) of the city’s 1 million public-school students are in bilingual-education programs, which cost more than $ 300 million.



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