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of the most reliable measures of academic progress. While such tests, either standardized orteacher-made, are clearly a type of language test, note that they are related to normativeexpectations of the types of abilities, skills, and knowledge associated with placement on theacademic scale from success to failure. As such, they do not simply test knowledge of isolatedwords, but rather they are indexical for a larger body of concepts, schemata, and cognitive skillsconsidered central to achievement in the educational enterprise as it is presently defined.ConclusionPerhaps, then, an answer to our search for an adequate and appropriate measure of academiclanguage proficiency has already been found, and all we need to do is adopt some currently usedstandardized reading tests for use with LEP students. Such tests are highly integrative in natureand tap a large proportion of the skills which determine school achievement. While some suchsolution may, in fact, prove to be reasonable, it is not without some caveats and suggestions fornecessary supplementation. As I indicated at the beginning of this discussion, radical changes areneeded in testing procedures and interpretation. For example, Garcia (1987) has shown that LEPchildren may misinterpret English words or reading passages based on erroneous lexical orsemantic associations with their own language, or on different cultural schemata or personalexperiences. This research emphatically showed that scores by LEP students on such tests shouldnot betaken uncritically at face value, but that debriefing interviews afterward are essential tocheck on comprehension and reasons for responses. (This maybe an equally valid point fornative English speakers.) Secondly, we may look to the model of Special Education forassessment and placement procedures, since Federal law and many state plans require thatstudents from non-English language backgrounds must be assessed in their primary language aswell as in English before they are placed into a special program. Despite all of the researchpointing to the importance of the native language in cognitive development, we have failed toinsist that where appropriate (e.g., not where native language loss has occurred or skills aremarginal) all LEP students should have a right to assessment in their native language as well asin English, and that placement judgments should not be based on English performance alone.Further, tests of English language proficiency alone which are not based on or related to standardcurriculum content for native speakers should not be allowed to be used as the basis for academicplacement.© 2008 Dr. Catherine CollierAll Rights Reserved52