Court: U.S. high schoolers should speak English
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 8/4/2009 6:40:00 AMBookmark and Share

English onlyAn English language advocacy organization is praising the decision of a California appeals court, which upheld the right of the state to administer academic achievement tests and high school exit exams only in English.

 

Last week, the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected arguments that English-only exams violate a federal requirement that limited-English-speaking students "shall be assessed in a valid and reliable manner." Nearly 1.6 million students in California have limited command of the language.
 
The appellate court's three-to-zero ruling upholds a 2007 decision by a San Francisco judge, who also ruled against the bilingual-education groups and nine school districts that sued to overturn the state's English-only testing methods.

 

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Aloysius Hogan, a spokesman for English First, says there is no excuse for graduating high school students not to be proficient in English.
 
"The schools haven't done a very good job if you can't even speak English well enough to take a test. So I question why it would be a good idea to increase the Aloysius Hogan (English First)costs to California's citizenry and government at this point when California faces such a deficit," he notes. "I also question the 1.6 million limited command of the language. Their number -- 1.6 million -- I question that as well."
 
Marc Coleman, a lawyer for the school districts and advocacy groups, says they are considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court. But Hogan believes the solid three-to-zero appeals court ruling will be tough to challenge.

 

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2/9/2010 2:43:45 PM