Testing in Spanish Shows What Kids Know and Can Do

More than 400 Denver third-graders, their parents and teachers can feel good about themselves this week. From now on, they’re going to count.

They’re going to count, that is, in the assessment of the successes as well as failures of the Denver Public Schools. It turns out they’re pretty smart after all – even if they aren’t yet proficient in English.

The newspapers recently reported test scores from the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), a state-mandated program aimed at judging how well public schools are doing. Denver, for various reasons, didn’t do well in the top two categories, “proficient” and “advanced.”

In schools on the west side of town, some of the published scores went like this: Cowell, just 20 percent either proficient or advanced; Valdez, 28 percent; Cheltenham, 29 percent; College View, 32 percent; Castro and Fairmont, 34 percent each; Newlon, 37 percent, Godsman, 38 percent, Schenck, 43 percent, and Bryant-Webster, 69 percent.

But as Gully Stanford, a member of the State Board of Education, says, figures may tell the truth and nothing but the truth without telling all the truth.

The truth is, those figures include only the scores of kids who took the CSAP test in English, an administrative decision.

Yet if you add in the youngsters who took the test in Spanish, the figures are: Valdez and Schenck, 53 percent; Cowell, 34 percent; Cheltenham, 33 percent; College View, 35 percent; Castro, 35 percent; Fairmont, 45 percent; Newlon, 35 percent; Godsman, 46 percent, and Bryant-Webster, 80 percent.

See? Except at Newlon, English-speaking kids dragged down the scores of Spanish-speaking kids. At Bryant-Webster in the Spanish test, 94 percent scored in the upper two categories. At Valdez, 81 percent. At Cowell, Schenck, Godsman and Cheltenham, well over 50 percent. Something to be proud about.

Citywide, 749 kids took the Spanish version. Some 57 percent scored well. For the 5,442 who took the English version, it was just under 50 percent.

But all that didn’t count in the official numbers. It will apparently count in the future, however, as a result of a bill the legislature approved in the final day of the regular session. It should count.

Okay. I know what you “English-only” folks are saying – that it was correct to count only the English scores, that English proficiency is a must in American society, that bilingual education only postpones the time when a student must demonstrate that proficiency.

Sure. Even backers of bilingual education agree that fluency in English is necessary for anyone to participate fully in our society. Those who lack it will be crippled, in a way, all their lives.

The other day two fellows who seemed to speak very little English planted a tree for me. They came on time, did good work and seemed anxious to please. No problem there. Yet they were hesitant to say much of anything, and I was never sure how well they understood what I was saying.

This sort of thing is becoming serious. Company recruiters may find it necessary to hire sales people with impenetrable English and little understanding of retail practices, but if they do they should know they’re turning off some customers.

Companies that hire solicitors who can barely be understood (whether of Latino, Asian or other origin) should know they’re not only antagonizing people who hate solicitors’ calls. They’re also wasting chances to communicate with people willing to listen.

Now, as for the matter of bilingual education, I think I’ve heard all the arguments against it. I certainly agree it shouldn’t go on too long. There has to be a cutoff, maybe at year three or so. I also know, though, you can’t expect a little kid who knows only Spanish to learn much – or be inspired to learn much – if suddenly engulfed in an all-English classroom.

Denver’s CSAP scores demonstrate at least two things. First, Spanish- speaking kids can be plenty smart when they have a fair chance to show it. Second, DPS has a lot of work to do to raise all youngsters, of whatever ethnicity, to an acceptable level of proficiency. In English.



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