Farmington Daily Times
By Mike Chambers - The Associated Press
Jan 26, 2004
JUNEAU, Alaska Some western Alaska schools that for decades have taught
and helped preserve the Native Yupik language are in a quandary over
meeting new federal testing requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act.
In the Lower Kuskokwim School District, third grade children taught almost
exclusively in the Yupik language may be required to pass federal tests
written in English.
In Alaska, where Natives speak 20 aboriginal languages and dialects,
meeting a uniform federal law could ultimately be too expensive, conflict
with Native cultural traditions as well as the local control that the rural
villages treasure.
"Not many states face the issues that we do," said state Education
Commissioner Roger Sampson.
Under the federal law, students would be tested annually from grades 3-8
and again in high school.
States could make accommodations for language barriers, but after three
years in U.S. public schools the children would be required to take
English-only tests.
Aside from the Heritage Language programs in more than 30 rural public
schools, Alaska's largest city of Anchorage has more than 93 languages
spoken by students, Sampson said.
Already cash strapped, the state can little afford to translate tests into
more than 100 languages, education officials said.
And even if it could, the Yupik language, though spoken by thousands of
Alaska Natives from Norton Sound to Bristol Bay, does not translate as
completely as Spanish or other European languages.
For instance, mathematics to American children is based on units of 10,
where increments of 20 are used in Yupik math and numerous English words
have no Yupik counterparts.
The Lower Kuskokwim School District, which oversees schools in Bethel and
surrounding villages has had an intensive Yupik language program for about
30 years, said Superintendent Bill Ferguson.
A similar program instituted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in earlier
years was seen as a progressive way to assimilate Native children into
English fluency.
Since then, it's become a way for Yupik-speaking Natives to sustain their
language and culture just as other Alaska Native languages dwindle.
"I feel strongly that our kids should speak Yupik fluently," said state
Rep. Mary Kapsner, of Bethel. "I really feel this isn't just an academic
issue about benchmark tests, but about cultural and social well being."
Beginning in kindergarten and extending to third grade, students enrolled
in the Yupik language program are taught a Western curriculum similar to
those found in Lower 48 classrooms.
But teachers speak Yupik and students read from Yupik textbooks, produced
by the district by permission of their English-language publishers.
While most children speak some English, those enrolled in the programs
don't begin formal academic training in the language until fourth grade.
Sampson wants permission from federal education officials to delay testing
these Heritage Language students until sixth grade. At that time, the
students would have had three years of English-speaking instruction.
Already, schools in the district are failing to meet "adequate yearly
progress" set out by the federal law, and much of that is attributed to the
language barrier, Ferguson said.
Alaska educators hold little hope that Yupik-speaking students will fare
well in third-grade testing in the 2005-2006 school year when all schools
are expected to have such tests in place.
Ultimately, Alaska may seek a waiver under the federal law to accommodate
its language barrier, Sampson said. The state Board of Education will to
take up the issue Jan. 29.
Winning an exemption from some parts of No Child Left Behind from Education
Secretary Rod Paige will be difficult.
"Secretary Paige has made some very strong statements regarding the fact
that he doesn't anticipate the state's being exempted from any requirement
under NCLB," said Education Department spokesman Zollie Stevenson.
States could seek federal funds to pay for translating testing materials,
Stevenson said, but he acknowledged enough money may not be available to
meet Alaska's varied dialects.