Bilingual Students Forced to take ISAT Test

LSNA parents forced a citywide discussion about the unfair use of the ISAT test for bilingual students Feb. 12 when they held a press conference.

ISAT is the state test given to English-speaking students in 3rd grade and above.

In previous years, students who were not yet fully proficient in English were given a test with easier English, called IMAGE.Parents, teachers and principals all said that ISAT was too difficult for most students in bilingual classes.The federal government insisted that CPS give the test.

“The English in the ISAT test is too hard for 3rd grade bilingual students, and the children will just feel stupid if they are forced to take it,” explained Erica Soto, an LSNA Parent Tutor at McAuliffe, where her own child is in the bilingual program. “We want to make sure that students and parents don’t feel its their fault when the children do badly. It’s not their fault or the teachers’ fault.”

Students from Logan Square’s bilingual classes participated.

Patricia Lopez holds up an sample testing booklet as she explains how unfair the test is. Lopez, a CPS teacher assistant, is studying to be a bilingual teacher through LSNA’s Grow Your Own teacher program. “It takes five to seven years for a bilingual student to be academically proficient in her second language,” Lopez said.

Logan Square’s State Senator Iris Martinez joined the parents’ press conference to support appropriate testing for bilingual students.