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Arizona goes back to blackboard over English-learning students

english learning arizona semptember 2006

One of the most important state races in November will be the competition for superintendent of public instruction.

Specifically, English language learners will be an issue in the campaign, as well as one of the priority issues for the eventual winner between Republican incumbent Tom Horne and Democratic challenger Slade Mead.

Horne was on the hot seat recently when a July East Valley Tribune article in revealed the education chief – a champion of the AIMS graduation tests – has been withholding tests scores of tens of thousands of non-English-proficient students from the federal and state accountability systems.

In the article Horne claimed a verbal, special deal since 2003 with the federal Education Department to exclude the scores. Chad Colby, a U.S. Education Department spokesman, denied any special agreement. Horne has filed a lawsuit against the department to override’s the feds regulation that English learners are included with all other AIMS scores. All the while Horne was claiming that Arizona students were performing above the national average.

Other states have been required to report the scores of English learners. The number of Arizona schools sanctioned for failing to meet federal standard doubled when the English learner scores were added to AIMS totals.

On the national front, a recent report says many of the 5 million English-language learners in the United States are not getting the kind of education they need to succeed on the assessment tests that grade their schools.

The report from the federal Government Accountability Office says two-thirds of states, including Arizona, do not provide teachers and students with the right tools to achieve success as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act.

"If the goal is to get non-English speakers proficient in English, put some special effort into that initiative," says Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva, one of four congressmen who requested the report.

Meanwhile, state officials have appointed four Latinos to a new panel to improve Arizona public school programs for students learning English.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, state Senate President Ken Bennett, House Speaker Jim Weiers, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne each appointed members to the nine-member panel. The group comprises an English Language Learner task force created under a law enacted last spring to answer a court order requiring the state to remedy its English Language Learning programs.

Napolitano has appointed Scottsdale Unified School District Superintendent John Baracy and an Arizona State University education expert, Eugene Garcia.

Horne picked state Deputy Superintendent Margaret Garcia Dugan, Nogales elementary school Principal Anna Rosas and Karen Merritt, Glendale Union High School District ELL coordinator.

Bennett selected economist Alan Maguire and retired teacher Johanna Haver.

Weiers’ appointed former Paradise Valley Unified School District administrator Jim DiCello and Yuma County Schools Superintendent Tom Tyree.