The Struggle of English Language Learners

I've been reading some journal articles about different topics in education, and one article really set itself apart from the rest. It is called Testing Tension: Weigh Proficiency, Assess Content. I found it through the Rod Library's website on the University of Northern Iowa webpage. It came from a journal article in Education Week. Here are some of the interesting things I read from this article.

One good point that the article made was standardized tests that are required by the No Child Left Behind act are not fitting for some students. Since they are mandatory, teachers must require all students to complete them, even ELL students. Some think that this is creating a test anxiety since they are not prepared to complete them. Also, since standardized tests are given in English, ELL students are reviewed on how well they can explain themselves in English, and not their mastery of the material.

Another thing this article talked about how diverse the United States is, and how many ELL students are attending school. In Tennessee, within a typical year, there are 115-130 native languages represented by people that live there! Also, it takes a person around 5-7 years to learn lanauge. If we put this in the context of ELL students attending American schools, they might not fully comprehend English while going to school. And yet, these tests are incorporated students who can't even understand the questions. Isn't there a better way to assess all students, whom all learn differently and express themselves in different ways? This is something that each teacher must ask themselves. Are they willing to go the extra mile to differentiate instruction for each student with needs, even if it's a language barrier?

The National Association for Gifted Children's website shows a bar graph of the amount of funding that each program gets within an average school. Even this graph shows how an ELL program does not get an adequate amount of funding because of No Child Left Behind.