Educator Assessment

Abstract

This analysis examines Arizona’s English fluency evaluation initiative, which aims to address the fluency standards for teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) set forth in the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. The authors deploy a sociolinguistic framework to consider what components of teachers’ language are being evaluated by the policy, illuminating how the policy conflates fluency, accent, and pronunciation. After determining that the initiative does in fact evaluate teachers based on accent, the authors argue that Arizona’s unique interpretation of NCLB’s fluency standard exceeds Congressional intent and has no foundation in the professional standards for teachers of ELLs as established by either the National Council of Teacher Accreditation (NCATE) or the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages organization (TESOL). The authors then interrogate the initiative and the evaluation protocol, discussing implications on the development of democratic school communities, language-based discrimination, and the academic experiences of ELLs. Concluding that the initiative and protocol fail to evaluate fluency, threaten democratic school communities, and risk discriminatory practices, the authors recommend that Arizona revoke the initiative and return teachers affected by the policy to the ELL classrooms for which they were initially hired.