Joint Press Release on behalf of 20 Florida organizations on the urgent need for equity in accountability policy

All children, including Florida’s quarter-million English learners, deserve schools with policies that help them to achieve their highest potential. Forcing children to experience repeated failure on high-stakes tests in a language they don’t understand causes students to feel incompetent and less likely to try. It robs them of their hope, steals their opportunity to achieve the American dream, and drives children away from school. Policymakers, teacher preparation institutions, and instructional leaders are left with inaccurate test results as the only data to guide their planning.

We are disappointed that the 2020 Florida Legislature did not heed the requests of the public or the leadership of the bipartisan and diverse group of sponsors and cosponsors of native language assessment bills. These bills would have required the Florida Department of Education to provide state content assessments in languages that students understand. We request that all newspapers and other organizations conducting interviews for this fall’s elections ask candidates for state office to declare their position on this issue. Voters deserve to know what to expect from those who seek their support.  

We are confident state policymakers will not continue to block schools from doing right by 10 percent of our students. We will be back in 2021 to ask the governor and legislators to give them tests in a language they can understand. Our students deserve legislative outcomes that advance equity and policies that produce improved outcomes for ALL students. Anything short of this fails our students.

Save their hope, help them dream, let them show what they can do.

Mari Corugedo

LULAC Florida State Director

[email protected]

Zelalem Adefris

VP of Policy & Advocacy

Catalyst Miami

Juana Brown
RCMA Director of Charter Schools
RCMA – Redlands Christian Migrant Association

Arlene Costello, Ed.D.

President

Sunshine State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (SSTESOL) of Florida

Maria R. Coady, Ph.D.

President

Florida Association for Bilingual Education (FABE, fabefl.org)

Neyissa Desir

Outreach Paralegal

Southern Poverty Law Center

Manuel Hartman

President

South Florida LCLAA Chapter.

Carla Huck, Ed.M.

President

SWFL TESOL

Linda Kearschner

President

Florida Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

Sadaf Knight

CEO

Florida Policy Institute

James Lopez

Executive Director

Power U Center for Social Change, Miami

Gepsie M. Metellus

Executive Director

Sant La, Haitian Neighborhood Center, Inc.

President Adora Obi Nweze

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 

NAACP FL State Conference

Kathleen Oropeza

Founder

Fund Education Now https://fundeducationnow.org/  

Carmen R. Pedrogo

President

The National Conference of Puerto Rican Women (NACOPRW)-Miami Chapter

Maria Rodriguez

Executive Director 

Florida Immigrant Coalition 

Kira Romero-Craft

Managing Attorney

LatinoJustice PRLDEF

Debbie Soto

President of the Board

Organize Florida 

Marcos Vilar

Executive Director

Alianza for Progress

Marisol Zenteno

President

League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County