Not sure if U.S. Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings practices yoga, but she sure is flexible!  On the heels of the SES flexibility comes the announcement that the department is inviting 20 states to participate in a pilot to receive technical assistance in developing assessments for English language learners (ELLs).  The hook--participating states will not be fined for their failure to have assessment systems in place that adequately include ELLs.

It's hard to know what to make of the pilot.  On the one hand, as Raul Gonzalez of La Raza points out in this Ed Week article, advocacy groups have been calling for this type of assistance from the feds for quite some time.  And, frankly, ED should have been more forthcoming in providing this assistance--the inclusion of ELLs has been a juggernaut since IASA.  On the other hand, Gonzalez isn't looking a gift horse in the mouth--La Raza and MALDEF are collaborating with the department on this pilot, which has been dubbed the LEP Partnership.

One thing that worries me about the pilot was reported in the Ed Week piece, but not ED's "fact sheet." (Note to ED: try including the relevant facts in the "fact sheets" and save the, "Yeah rah rah, NCLB!" for the press statement.)  The department is looking at four models for including ELLs in state assessment systems:

1. using content tests in a language other than English;
2. using tests of English proficiency to also assess students’ content knowledge;
3. using simpler, less complex English on state exams; and
4. providing appropriate accommodations to ELL students that permit them to participate in state tests without compromising the accuracy of the results.

Number 2 is a problem.  As the AFT and others have pointed out, if a student has not yet mastered English, she cannot demonstrate her content knowledge in a test that only uses English.  Here's hoping that La Raza and MALDEF will remind the department of this fact.

UPDATE: Read The Education Wonks take on the new flexibility here.