THE Campaign for High School Equity, a diverse coalition of leading US civil rights groups focusing on high school education reform, held a briefing recently for US policymakers to address changes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). These changes will ensure stronger provisions for the more than five million English language learner (ELL) students enrolled in the US public school system, PR Newswire has reported.

　　Proposed by US President George W. Bush, the NCLB Act was signed into law on January 8th, 2002. It reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the main US federal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school.

　　The Campaign calls on the US Congress to provide high-quality assessments and instruction that help to improve students’ reading skills without sacrificing their access to high-level academic subjects. The Campaign also aims to ensure that federal policy provides sufficient resources to serve all students, particularly ELLs.

　　While ELL students represent the fastest growing segment of students, they are among the country’s lowest performing. For instance, in 2007, only 4 percent of eighth-grade ELL students scored at or above a proficient level on the reading portion of the US National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to 31 percent of non-ELL students. In addition, only 49 percent of ELL students graduate from high school on time, with a regular diploma.

　　Phitsamay Uy, Board Chair of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, stressed that the needs of many Southeast Asian students, especially those who are English language learners, are overlooked. She blames this on the model minority myth that stereotypes all Asian Americans as doing well academically.

　　US Congressmen Rubén Hinojosa and Mike Honda showed their support for the Campaign’s recommendations at the briefing. They want to protect the civil rights of those students whose proficiency in spoken and/or written English is not yet strong enough to permit them to succeed in an English-language classroom setting without extra support.