Why would the U.S. Department of Education insist that a kid who has little or no English take his year-end tests in English? There are some 4,000 such students in Arkansas alone. Everybody knows they’re going to flunk the test. Why make them take it? Answer: So we’ll know who these kids are, where they are and just how far behind in English they are. That way, we can concentrate on helping them pass the test in the future.

Why bother? Because it’s important that these youngsters become fluent in the language of their adopted country. Let’s not pretend that they’re being educated (and prepared for citizenship) if they don’t know how to read and write English in this one nation indivisible by language.

Here in Arkansas, such students have been allowed to make notebooks — portfolios — to demonstrate their educational progress. But everybody knows, or should know, that putting together a scrapbook is not the same as being fluent in English.

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