All-English Tests May Get O.C. Approval

While California’s largest school system is heading to court to stave off state-ordered testing in English, Orange County’s 28 districts appear ready to comply with the new mandate for foreign-language-speaking students.

Los Angeles Unified School District this week became the first in the state to opt for a legal challenge to the standardized testing program scheduled to take effect this spring.

Although specifics on the legal strategy of the 680,000-student district remain to be determined in coming weeks, attorneys said they would probably rely on laws protecting civil rights and equal opportunities.

The state mandate could have a big impact on Orange County schools. Three out of 10 public schoolchildren in the county have limited English skills, an obstacle to performance on an all-English test. Statewide, about one out of four students are not fluent in the language.

But Orange County educators so far have not raised the sort of objections heard elsewhere. Ronald Wenkart, general counsel for the county Department of Education, said Wednesday that he did not know of any districts here that are considering legal action.

In Los Angeles Unified, by contrast, school board members voted 6 to 1 Tuesday in favor of a proposal by Supt. Ruben Zacarias to challenge the policy. But they made it clear that they want to change the law, not break it.

“It’s important to note that this motion does not advocate that we violate any laws,” said Los Angeles Unified trustee Jeff Horton. “‘It’s unconstitutional and illegal to give a test to students in a language they cannot read.”

Board President Julie Korenstein asked: “Can you imagine a little child, a second-, third-, fourth-grader, who’s . . . taken the test and their parents get the results back and they’re zero?”

Dan Edwards, a Wilson spokesman, accused the district of using the court battle as a last-minute delaying tactic.

“Quite frankly, we see it as a very clear indicator that in this era when everyone says they are willing and ready to have more accountability, that certain people and certain educators will go to any length to avoid that,” Edwards said.

The superintendent of San Francisco’s school district has threatened to take the more extreme measure of civil disobedience, while San Diego city schools are lobbying the state to report the scores of the non-English speakers separately.

Representatives of Santa Ana Unified and Garden Grove Unified districts--the two largest in Orange County and both with more than half of their students classified as “limited-English” --said that all students from grades two to 11 will take the English-language skills test.

“It’s the law,” said Alan Trudell, spokesman for Garden Grove Unified. “We’re going to follow the law. And we believe in the importance of student assessment.” But Trudell said the district had concerns about whether the structure of the test unfairly penalized limited-English students.

Santa Ana Unified officials said the district plans to offer a supplemental test in Spanish, subsidized by the state, to students who need one. Alfonsina Q. Davies, an assistant superintendent in Santa Ana, where seven out of 10 students have limited English ability, said the district will try to “make the best of it” with the all-English test. But she said the district shares the concerns of its Los Angeles counterpart.

“How valid are these test scores going to be when we’re giving a test to children that don’t speak the language and are not instructed in the language?” Davies said.

The new statewide testing law, with its English-only provision, was passed by the Legislature last year in a compromise to win Gov. Pete Wilson’s release of other education funding, including a cost-of-living boost. The state intends to post the test results on the Internet, increasing the sensitivity of some districts about how they will compare.