Monday, February 1, 1999
L.A. district requires test for kids to go to next grade
PROMOTION: Teachers say non-native speakers at disadvantage in
plan
By Karla Y. Pleitez
Daily Bruin Contributor
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) superintendent Ruben
Zacarias announced last week that the district will end "social
promotion" – the practice of moving students to the next grade
level, even if they aren’t prepared – in the 1999-2000 school
year.
Zacarias said that students will not be promoted unless they can
successfully pass the Stanford 9 test, a standardized reading exam.
Students already take the test annually. This will be the first
year in which the test will affect whether students will advance to
the next grade, however.
In addition to the Stanford 9 test, teachers will decide which
students advance based on their classroom work, according to draft
guidelines of the proposal.
But school officials worry that the Stanford 9 test, which is
given only in English, will be weighed more heavily than classroom
performance when determining if a student should be promoted to the
next grade level.
"The Stanford 9 test cannot possibly determine whether a student
will succeed or not, especially in Los Angeles, where we have the
most diversity in language," said Lauren Valez, a second-grade
teacher at Langdon Elementary in North Hills.
LAUSD is the nation’s second-largest school district.
"It would be impossible for some of my students to pass this
test because they have not yet conquered the English language,
(even though) my students are intelligent and academically prepared
for third grade," she said.
Other LAUSD teachers say that it is time to stop promoting over
60 percent of the student population in the district who are in
danger of failing their classes when social promotion ends.
"In the past I have promoted students who I knew were not ready
for the next level," said James Solomon, a teacher at Sepulveda
Middle School.
"It’s a difficult decision, especially when the parent wants
their child to pass or when the student has given up on themselves
and can no longer be reached," he said.
Some educators argue that the new proposal sounds fine in
theory, but in practice, the students who will be most hurt by this
program are those that need the most attention. There is high
concern for students who are learning English as a second language
and who will not perform as well as native speakers.
"Politicians need to start analyzing and really thinking about
what they are saying," said Concepcion Valadez, an associate
professor of education at UCLA.
"The new proposal is saying that if a child is having problems
with one subject, he or she should be held back. That is absurd,"
she said.
The proposal will hold back thousands of students unless
significant academic progress is made by June, 2000. Zacarias,
however, has offered $140 million from the LAUSD budget to improve
school performance by students.
The money will be used for summer school classes, Saturday
sessions and after-school tutoring programs to help bring up the
skills of struggling students. LAUSD estimates that 40 percent of
students in the district will attend these programs.
Despite the funds and efforts put into the proposal, some
educators say that the real issue is not being addressed.
"The real problem is that the bad students are put with the bad
teachers and the good students get the good teachers," Valadez
said.
"The solution would be a program that makes it attractive for
good teachers to want to teach the students who take a little
longer to adjust to school. We need to get good teachers for all of
our students," she said.
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