Nine school districts and three statewide organizations have retained three major civil rights and education law firms to pursue a lawsuit against the State of California to enforce the provisions of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act pertaining to the academic assessment of English Learners. The objective of this lawsuit is to compel the State of California to assess the academic progress of its English Learners as required by the mandate of NCLB:
States must assess limited English proficient students in “a valid and reliable manner” that includes (A) “reasonable accommodations”; and (B) “to the extent practicable, assessments in the language and form most likely to yield accurate data on what such students know and can do in academic content areas, until such students have achieved English language proficiency.”