State Testing of English-Learners Scrutinized

11 States Use Tests in Native Languages to Meet ‘No Child’ Requirements

State efforts at carrying out requirements to test English-language learners under the No Child Left Behind Act are receiving increased scrutiny, as hundreds of schools across the country fail to meet goals for adequate yearly progress at least in part because of such students’ scores.

This month, 10 school districts in California charged in a suit that their state is not complying with the federal law’s mandate to test English-language learners “in a valid and reliable manner,” as the law says. The law elaborates that states must provide accommodations for such students and, “to the extent practicable,” test English-language learners in a “language and form most likely to yield accurate data on what students know and can do.”

The June 1 lawsuit filed in state superior court in San Francisco argues the state is breaking the law because it hasn’t produced mathematics and reading tests in Spanish or other languages commonly spoken by English-language learners, nor does it have...