The Testing Dilemma in Public Schools

Like many participants of the TESOL conference, I’m coming with a barrel full of questions. Here’s one. How do we solve the dilemma of recently arrived immigrant students and statewide standardized testing? I’m not only talking about the obvious lack of language skills for such rigorous assessments, but also the emotional toll it takes on my adolescent students who are sometimes still in culture shock. If only the days spent on standardized assessment could somehow benefit students in their language learning instead of increasing their discomfort, I would be all for it. I feel that there is an increasing disconnect between the needs of ELLs and our public schools and unfortunately, the kids are on the front lines.