The federal Department of Education has found that New York State's methods for testing the annual progress of disabled students and English language learners do not comply with the No Child Left Behind law and that the state must correct the problems within a year or risk losing $1.2 million in federal school aid.

The finding was issued in a letter late last month to the state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills. In the letter, Henry L. Johnson, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, told Mr. Mills that the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test "is not sufficiently comparable to the regular English language arts assessment" for use as "a substitute language arts assessment."

Mr. Johnson also said that tests for special education students were not suitable for their grade or age.

State officials said they were already working on the problems related to testing special education students. But they said the finding could have serious consequences for the state's nearly 175,000 non-English speaking students, including about 145,000 in New York City, by requiring them to take the regular annual state reading exam.

A large number of these students would likely fail the test and, as a result, hundreds more schools could be branded as needing improvement under provisions of No Child Left Behind. The law requires annual testing and schools can be sanctioned if groups of students, like racial minorities or disabled children, fail to make adequate progress.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/education/11schools.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Published Friday, Jul. 21, 2006