Pierce Reading

Pierce, L.V. Assessment

As I was reading chapter 8 of Pierce, I thought of our immersion school and its struggle with the state tests that students have to take beginning in the 3rd grade. When benchmark test first came out I remember our principal and some parents were against 3rd graders taking the tests. One reason was that students are immersed in Yugtun from kindergarten through 2nd grade all day with no English, then English is introduced for part of the day beginning in 3rd grade. The subject of translating the tests came up but for one reason or another that never happened. Now because of NCLB (I think. Correct me if I’m wrong) we have ELL classes beginning in kindergarten.
For many years we’ve been telling parents that because their children were learning a new language that they’ll be behind a grade but that they’ll eventually catch up in the upper grades. When the benchmark test results first came out parents were informed that the scores were low because students were just introduced to English in 3rd grade. There are some parents (including me) that are saying that it is more important that my child acquire Yugtun language. It’s okay if my child doesn’t pass the state tests because he’ll do just fine when he exits out of immersion.
One comment I found interesting in the chapter was to test the students in reading and writing to see if they're ready to take the standardized tests. I wonder if it would work for our program.