"They have an exemption for language which I do not support on ethical grounds. Effectively, if your home language is not English (about 30 - 40% of the school district reports a home language in addition to, or other than, English), you don't have to pass the verbal portion.
This creates an unfair advantage among the mathematically gifted, because only some of those children need to be verbally gifted as well, if that makes sense. If mommy speaks French and daddy speaks English, you can put French as the native language. Then the child needs only test in the math portion. But if mommy and daddy both speak English, even if dad"
What you're concerned about re the test is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. The gifted program criteria require a child to test gifted in mathematical ability and verbal ability. *IF* the different entry criteria for ESL students simply reduces the bar for verbal ability (while testing in English), then yes, it's possible a few ESL students who are gifted in math and not in other areas *might* qualify that otherwise wouldn't have. OTOH, do you know exactly how ESL students are tested? It's possible they are given an alternative test which is design to test the same "verbal" types of abilities but without relying on English. This wouldn't enable students who are gifted in math but not other subjects any way to slip into the program.
"just because we don't have complete equity for all groups, we should not try to promote equity for any groups at all?"
aeh I completely agree that there should, in an ideal world, be some way to test bilingual children, but in this situation, in which a large portion of privileged children speak a second language, and economically disadvantaged children are less likely to, what it ends up as is a way for people with advantages to appeal for special privileges.
I don't know anything about the school district you are in, but this would not happen in our school district, and yes, we have a lot of privileged children who speak a second language, and yes, economically disadvantaged children here are less likely to have learned a second language - with the huge exception of when English isn't their *first* language. There's a big difference in a privileged child who's life has been enriched by learning a second language and a child (privileged or not) who's been raised in a bilingual or other-lingual home and not had the same exposure to the English language that the majority of children growing up in the US have daily in their homes. The intent of testing accommodations or criteria differences for *those* children is put in place to take away the bias or the test toward children who've been raised in an English-speaking home.
I can't imagine that a school district grants an ESL-type accommodation to a student who's from an English speaking family and just happens to have learned a second language as enrichment.
[/quote]
polarbear
