Arizona's Superintendent Aims To Repeal Ineffective English Immersion Law

By Steve Goldstein
Published: Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - 12:40pm
Updated: Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - 3:18pm
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More than 80,000 Arizona students are struggling to pass state English and math standards because of a law that is nearly two decades old, and which has been proven ineffective.

That law was the result of a ballot measure in 2000 that forced non-English speakers to only speak English in school, the idea being that they would pick up the language more quickly.

But not only are so-called ELL students passing the AzMERIT test in English as a rate of just 4%, but they are also falling behind their English-speaking peers in math and other subject areas. Now the state schools chief is making moves to change that.

→ Search AzMERIT Test Score Results By School, District

After the Arizona Legislature failed to refer a repeal of the ELL law to the voters last legislative session, Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman is making a repeal her top priority for 2020.

Dillon Rosenblatt with the Arizona Capitol Times has reported on this and joined The Show to explain how we got here.

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