Local schools and school districts with the highest concentrations of children from low-income families are eligible to receive Title I funds. One of the great challenges in creating high standards is developing high quality assessments to accompany those standards. SEAs, LEAs and schools use assessments for a variety of purposes. Thus, standardized assessments are in fact high stakes assessments for all students. Those students with the greatest educational disadvantages must travel the furthest to reach high standards, and English language learners are no exception.
States have the ability to pick the content and format of the assessments they utilize.
Furthermore, according to the legislation, participating LEP students must be assessed to the extent practicable and in a manner that yields the most accurate results. Title I mandates that each state identify the languages other than English present in the student population and make every effort to ensure that yearly student assessments are available in those languages. The purpose of Title VII is to officially recognize LEP students as a significant population and create funding for LEAs and states to move bilingual education reform efforts into the mainstream. Title VII provides grants to support school reform efforts that specifically include LEP students. Limited English proficient children and youth must be provided with an equal opportunity to learn the challenging content and high-level skills that school reform efforts advocate for all students.