‘No Child’ Effect on English-Learners Mulled

Teachers welcome attention, fault focus on test scores.

Clifton, N.J.

Educators who specialize in teaching English-language learners are of mixed minds about the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

They agree that the 4-year-old law has brought unprecedented attention to those students by requiring schools to isolate test-score data for English-learners. The growing awareness of the challenges such students face, they note, has spurred an increase in professional development, particularly for teachers of regular classes.

They disagree, though, on whether changes in instruction spurred by the law have been positive or negative overall. And many of them say it’s wrong to penalize schools whose English-learners’...