infundibulum

Here’s a story I found pretty frustrating:

Democrat & Chronicle: Students speak out on ‘too easy’ — English test State exam for foreign-born called ‘weak’

In Austin, Texas, students were complaining about how moronic their ESL (English as a Second Language) exams were. I actually went and found the sampler for the test that the article refers to: NYSESLAT Test Samplers-2005. And it is pretty shocking that they’re giving high-school age students “questions” like this one:

So the deal is, if the students pass the test, they pass out of the ESL program. And unsurprisingly, the number of students in the program determines how much funding there will be:

Districts routinely go out of their way to help students who have completed the ESL program, even though they no longer get state money to do so. But if the proficiency test proves so easy that many students exit the program, “then it’s going to drastically reduce the state aid we get in the coming year,” said Kim Ganley, who coordinates ESL programs for the Webster district, where students speak about 20 languages.

This is the kind of thing that makes me doubt the motivations of the “English Only” movement. Their argument goes that the only way to really help students adapt is to move them into an all-English environment as quickly as possible. But tests like this are almost pointless. They prepare students for precisely nothing, let alone for moving into high-school level classes. The students are complaining because they know this perfectly well.

If one were really cynical, one might guess that tests like these are actually designed to submarine students’ honest attempts to integrate into the English-speaking world. I’m pretty cynical, myself.