Resumen
La política educativa de los Estados Unidos, primero bajo la ley Que Ningún Niño Se Quede Atrás (NCLB, 2001) y luego bajo la Iniciativa de los Estándares Comunes Estatales (CCSSI, 2010), introduce una definición limitada de competencia lingüística. Esta definición valida la lengua de élites sociales y excluye las variedades lingüísticas de otros grupos socioeconómicos. Si bien la definición oficial de competencia lingüística en leyes federales y estatales actuales reconoce concepciones de bilingüismo tradicionales, sostenemos que fracasa en reconocer el estatus sociolingüístico (Rolstad, 2005) o las diferencias lingüísticas marcadas socioeconómicamente. Como resultado, las evaluaciones de lengua favorecidas actualmente tienden a identificar erróneamente a niños bilingües o competentes en inglés como estudiantes con habilidad limitada en la lengua inglesa. Las escuelas estadounidenses usan las evaluaciones de lengua con el doble propósito de identificación inicial y reclasificación; sostenemos que las evaluaciones de identificación inicial deben evaluar el lenguaje a través de estratos sociolingüísticos, mientras que las evaluaciones de reclasificación pueden estar más conectadas al lenguaje de la escuela (Mahoney & MacSwan, 2005a; MacSwan & Rolstad, 2006). Nuestras conclusiones tienen consecuencias para la evaluación lingüística en comunidades multilingües.
Palabras clave: Evaluación lingüística, Estándares Comunes Estatales, bilingüismo, estudiantes aprendices del idioma inglés
Abstract
US educational policy, first under No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001) and then under the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI, 2010), introduced a narrow definition of language proficiency. This definition validates the language variety of social elites and excludes the varieties of other socioeconomic groups. Although the official definition of language proficiency in current federal and state policies recognizes traditional conceptions of bilingualism, we argue that it fails to recognize sociolinguistic status (Rolstad, 2005) or socioeconomically-marked language differences. As a result, currently 1 Served as associate professor of Language and Literacy and of Early Childhood Education at Arizona State University before joining the faculty of the University of Maryland. Her research interests include language education, language diversity, and multilingualism, in addition to recent work on democratic and alternative education. She has published numerous articles and book chapters; examples of her work appear in Educational Policy,Teachers College Record, Bilingual Research Journal, Bilingual Review, and Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, among other venues. 2 Professor of Applied Linguistics/TESOL in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership, and affiliate professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland. MacSwan‘s applied research program is focused on the role of language in theories of school achievement and on education policy related to bilingual learners in US schools; his basic scientific research program is concerned with the linguistic study of bilingual codeswitching. He is the author of over fifty publications, an editor of the International Multilingual Research Journal, and a fellow of the National Education Policy Center. 3 Doctoral student in Second Language Education and Culture in the College of Education at the University of Maryland. She completed a bachelor‘s degree at the University of Buenos Aires. In addition, she holds a master‘s degree in Hispanic Linguistics as well as in Teaching English as a Second Language from the Pennsylvania State University. Her academic interests include foreign and second language education, classroom-based research, and language assessment. She is also interested in second language acquisition and applied linguistics with a focus on heritage language learners. Natalia has taught Spanish for several years in Argentina and the U.S.
Keywords: Language assessment, Common Core State Standards Initiative, Bilingualism, English language learners