Arlington school leaders are likely to lobby the General Assembly to permit standardized testing in languages other than English to determine student achievement.
Allowing a language option would be helpful in jurisdictions, like Arlington, where there is a significant percentage of English-language learners, advocates believe.
The proposal is included in a package of legislative priorities to be reviewed by School Board members this Thursday, Oct. 17. Adoption will come at a later date.
According to a planned staff presentation, more than 30 states permit assessment of students in languages other than English.
In most cases, that testing is available in Spanish. The Arlington proposal calls for testing in languages “present to a significant extent in the student population in Virginia.”
Absent such a change in policy, Arlington school officials plan to support efforts to exempt English-language learners from standardized testing for their first 11 semesters in local classrooms, “to give them the opportunity to master English before being tested [in] it.”
According to data on the county school system’s website, about one in five students in Arlington receives English-learner services. Among other data from the school system:
- APS students come from 149 countries, from every continent except Antarctica.
- The largest percentage of English-language learners arriving from outside the U.S. are from El Salvador (6%), Guatemala (4%), Ethiopia (3%), Mongolia (2%), and Bolivia (2%), according to 2017-18 data.
- Nearly 90 different home languages are represented. Top ones include Spanish (58%), Amharic (5%), Arabic (5%), Mongolian (5%) and Bengali (2%).
The 2025 General Assembly session is slated to open Jan. 8.
APS to Press for Free Meals for All Students: Also as part of its draft 2025 legislative wish list, School Board members plan to advocate for universal free meals for students in coming years.
Arlington Public Schools provides breakfast and lunch service at all schools. In some schools with a significant portion of low-income attendees, all students receive meals at no charge. At other schools, students whose parents earn less than designated amounts can receive free or reduced-price meals.
For the 2024-25 school year, prices for student meals are $2.25 for breakfast and $3.35 to $3.60 (depending on grade level) for lunch.
Parents Whose Children are Held Back May Lose Appeal Route: Parents of students in Arlington Public Schools who are slated to be held back a grade level could soon lose an avenue of appeal.
A working draft of proposed policy revisions would remove the current ability of parents to appeal a staff decision holding back a student to the School Board.
Under the proposal, being considered by the School Board’s legislative subcommittee, the final arbiter of any action would become the superintendent or his designee, rather than School Board members.
Any proposed changes to the policy, last revised in 2019, would have to be approved by the School Board at a later date.
