Three months after the Fairfax County, Va., school board passed a resolution permitting administrators to defy a federal requirement to give the regular reading test to some beginning English-language learners, school officials have announced a turnaround on that position, according to an article today in the Washington Post. [Update follows.] Spokesmen from the Arlington and Loudoun County school systems in Virginia told me today that their school districts, which had also resisted the federal mandate, have also decided to comply with it.
Fairfax County Superintendent Jack D. Dale told principals that they should follow federal requirements and use the test for English-language learners who have been in U.S. schools for one year but also allow students to stop taking the test if they can’t continue and say they are finished, according to the Post article.
Earlier posts about this topic: “Bill About Testing ELLs Is Introduced in the U.S. Congress,” “Virginia Backs Down on Testing Showdown,” and “Testing Showdown.”