Thursday, January 29, 2004

The new regulations, announced by the Pennsylvania Department of Education last week but not yet finalized, allow those still learning English to use bilingual dictionaries and permit translators to translate test questions as well as instructions.

But some are concerned that not all students will have access to translators, and that even if they do, cultural unfamiliarity may hinder their performance. And some wondered whether the students ought to be allowed to give answers in their native languages. ...

The use of translators and bilingual dictionaries for the PSSA would be voluntary, Wong said, adding that "the state is not about to mandate that every student have a translator." Nor, at least this year, will the Education Department set proficiency standards for translators, she said.

That troubles some observers. Len Rieser, a lawyer with the Education Law Center in Philadelphia - which filed a 2002 civil-rights complaint alleging that the lack of accommodations for students with limited English is discriminatory - said the new provisions would create a whole new set of problems.

"What if four different translators translated things four different ways?" he asked. And if the state doesn't mandate translators and dictionaries for all non-English speakers, he said, "I don't know if you can have a valid test; there are obvious questions about whether you can have a uniform system that way."

The issue of accommodations for non-English speakers became a hot topic with the 2002 enactment of the federal No Child Left Behind law, which mandated that every student, regardless of his or her level of English proficiency, had to be tested during his or her first year in the United States. Previously, immigrants who did not speak English well were excused from the tests for as long as three years.