Burke Williams & Sorenson

Burke Williams & Sorensen Law Offices of Marc Coleman Hadsell & Stormer, Inc. 701 “B” Street, Suite 1790 211 E. Ocean Blvd., Suite 420 128 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Suite 204 San Diego, California 92101 Long Beach, California 90802 Pasadena, California 91103-3645

MEDIA CONTACT: Bonnie Osborn 916-212-9110 [email protected] NEWS ADVISORY EMBARGOED UNTIL WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2005 10 A.M. 10 School Districts Sue State for Unfair Testing of English Learners WHAT: News Conference to announce the filing of a lawsuit over the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on June 1 in Superior Court in San Francisco. The suit demands that California test its 1.6 million children whose first language is not English and who are not yet proficient in English in a “language and form” they understand, as mandated by NCLB. WHEN: Wednesday, June 1, 10:00 a.m. WHERE: SEIU Local 660, 500 S. Virgil (near Vermont and Wilshire), Los Angeles REMOTE: To join the conference by telephone, call 888-813-8477 and enter passcode 564696#. Complete instructions on separate page. WHO: Superintendents, teachers, parents, students and school board members from the 10 plaintiff school districts; as well as representatives of three statewide non-profit professional, parent and civil rights advocacy organizations who also are plaintiffs; and their legal team. District representatives and attorneys will be available for follow-up media interviews. MORE: California, in contrast to 14 other states, including Texas, New Mexico and New York, tests limited-English proficient children for academic knowledge in English only— whether they understand it or not. As a result, school districts with large numbers of English Learners are failing NCLB accountability standards unjustifiably and sinking deeper and deeper into more severe sanctions. “The state labels our students and teachers educational failures,” said Foch “Tut” Pensis, superintendent of the Coachella Valley Unified School District. “Our students are outstanding achievers despite the obstacles many face in learning a new language and a new country. We could not accept their label as failures, and we decided we had to do something about it.” The district serves 15,000 students, 82 percent of them English Learners.

Plaintiff school districts are Coachella Valley Unified School District in Riverside and Imperial counties; Chula Vista Elementary School District and Sweetwater Union High School District in San Diego County; Alisal Union Elementary School District and Salinas Union High School District in Monterey County; Terra Bella Union Elementary School District in Tulare County; Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Santa Cruz County; Oxnard Elementary School District in Ventura County; Hawthorne School District in Los Angeles County; and Hayward Unified School District in Alameda County. The three plaintiff organizations are California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE), Californians Together, and California League of United Latin American Citizens. ###