English-speaking students misidentified as 'English learners'

[RandySF]

A mother, who asked not to be identified, told KTVU problems for her two youngest children started when she filled out a parent survey before her kids entered kindergarten in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. The questionnaire asked about languages spoken in the home.

"They also ask if there's a second language, so we marked 'Spanish,'" said the woman, who came to the United States from El Salvador in 1980.

The mother says that answer prompted the school district to give her children the California English Language Development Test (CELDT). Their scores fell short of qualifying them as proficient in English. They were labeled "English learners" and placed in the English Learning Development program even though English is their first language.

Now in fourth and fifth grade, the brother and sister have been unable to get reclassified. Parents cannot opt out of having their children tested.

"I feel like a hostage to the system. Because you really don't have an out. Once they're labeled, they're labeled," said the children's mother.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/2-investigates-english-speaking-students-misidenti/nhnpG/