Ed. Department Backs English-Proficiency Tests for Common Standards

The federal government plans to pay for states to work together to create English-language-proficiency tests for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, according to a notice for proposed grant priorities published in the Federal Register on Friday.

The plan calls for a minimum of 15 states to join together in each consortium that applies to create an English-proficiency test, prompting some observers to speculate that federal officials favor the idea of having a very limited number of such tests, if not one national test.

“It’s going to start looking like a single national assessment for English-language proficiency, which it should,” said Robert Linquanti, a senior research associate for WestEd, a San Francisco-based education research firm. “To the extent we have common standards and a common definition for [English-language learners], it’s...