Testing Suit Gains Support
More Groups Challenge Enforcement of No Child Left Behind

By CHRISTINE MAHR

Two statewide organizations announced Monday they are joining the Coachella Valley Unified School District's planned lawsuit challenging the way California is testing students with limited English ability.

The California Association for Bilingual Education and Californians Together said they would provide full details of the suit at a press conference Thursday in Los Angeles.

Coachella Valley Unified School District officials do not plan to attend the press conference, but they said the two groups' involvement in their suit will strengthen their position.

"These two organizations looked at this closely and agree with what we're trying to do," said Foch "Tut" Pensis, Coachella Valley Unified's superintendent.

The district's seven-member board voted last month to retain three law firms to prepare a suit challenging the way the state enforces the federal No Child Left Behind Act with respect to academic testing of English language learners.

The state requires English language learners in grades two through 11 to be tested in English.

"There is no sound educational or legal basis for this practice," the California Association for Bilingual Education and Californians Together said in a joint statement Monday.

They said the objective of the lawsuit is to compel California to assess the progress of English language learners as required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

That includes testing those students in a valid and reliable manner that involves "reasonable accommodations" and "to the extent practicable, assessments in the language and form most likely to yield accurate data on what students know and can do in academic content areas until such students have achieved English language proficiency," the two organizations said.

California has about 1.6 million English language learners, they said.

Valley demographics

The district, which includes Coachella, Thermal, parts of Indio, and other nearby east valley cities, has been labeled a Program Improvement district subject to sanctions because too few of its schools and students measured up to progress goals required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

The district contends that its students can't be successful because they must take required proficiency tests in English before they have learned the language.

District schools have improved their standardized test scores but not enough to meet federal goals.

The California Association for Bilingual Education is non-profit organization with 5,000 members and 55 chapters. It works to promote educational equity and student achievement for students with diverse cultural, racial and linguistic backgrounds.

Californians Together is a statewide coalition of parents, teachers, education advocates and civil rights groups committed to securing access to quality education for all children.

Representing the district and two other organizations in the suit are Pasadena-based Hadsell & Stormer, Inc. and the Law Offices of Marc Colemen of Long Beach, which specialize in civil rights litigation, and Burke, Williams and Sorensen, which specializes in education law and has offices in several California cities.