Arne Duncan may allow Rick Scott to look very good to teachers and parents.

And that really worries me.

Arne's education department requires that all ELA (English Language Learners) be tested immediately, not allowed time to become more proficient in the English language. This is the testing that will determine grades of schools and whether teachers survive or get fired.

Rick Scott is taking a stand against this edict apparently.

Gov. Scott: Delay Counting Some Test Scores


Gov. Rick Scott, talking with a student, and Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, are asking the U.S. Department of Education not to hold Florida schools and teachers accountable for English language learners until after two years of instruction.
LYNNE SLADKY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAKELAND | Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday the state will review its legal options if the U.S. Department of Education refuses to reverse its decision that Florida cannot exclude test scores from English-language learners.

A Florida law was passed this year that students who are labeled English-language learners would attend two years of school in the United States before their test scores would count toward school grades.

However, the federal government's No Child Left Behind policy requires all students' scores to count. Federal education officials recently renewed Florida's No Child Left Behind waiver but said the state has to count English learners' scores right away.

Scott and Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart called for federal officials to reverse their decision in 30 days.

"This is yet another overreach by federal education officials into the practices of Florida education leaders who best understand the needs of our students," Scott said in a news release Tuesday.

I taught many who could not speak English at all, who had been in this country just a very short time. The school had stopped the service of providing a translator for the parents, so we had to find someone on our own.

Imagine how a teacher will feel to have their job on the line by scoring non-English speakers the same way as those comfortable in the language.

Scott might come out looking good on this one, and we really don't need that for our state right now.

Crossposted in General Discussion on the slim chance it might get noticed.