"She heard voices in a Charlottesville High School classroom two years ago, but Anelya Mkrtumova could not understand what was being said around her.

The junior, now 18, and her family packed their lives into suitcases one night in 1989 and escaped an ethnic war in Azerbaijan.

The International Rescue Committee resettled Mkrtumova and her mother, father, brother and sister in Charlottesville in 2004, as it has more than 800 refugees. Mkrtumova was part of the first group of Russian speakers to come to city schools, and she said being accepted and understood by teachers and her classmates was difficult.

"We can think and see everything, we just can't impress with words," Mkrtumova said in fluent English. She also speaks Armenian and is learning Spanish.

Refugees such as Mkrtumova, as well as immigrants, take English as a Second Language classes and must overcome the hurdles of a new language. They must meet the same requirements in the state Standards of Learning tests and the federal No Child Left Behind Act as the overall student body.

Educators at both the local and state level say the challenges students face are too complex to apply such simple standards, especially in the Charlottesville area, where 150 IRC refugees are placed each year.

"The research shows that it takes five to seven years to be proficient enough in a language to be able to function in a regular public school classroom," said Ruth Ferree, a professor at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education who teaches future ESL teachers.

"To expect people to accomplish this in one to three years is not realistic for most people. Nobody asked us when they put those standards in and when No Child Left Behind said that those people had to pass these tests within a year or two of arrival in the United States. The expectation that they will get there that fast is not reasonable, is not borne out by empirical evidence."

A minimum of six years is needed for the English of new refugees or immigrants to catch up to peers in their grade, according to federally funded research conducted by Virginia Collier , a former ESL education professor at George Mason University.

Achieving proficiency in English in six years assumes ESL students are enrolled in a dual-language program that offers them content classes in both English and their native language, Collier said. For students enrolled in ESL classes in only English and then gradually mainstreamed, an approach that both Albemarle County and Charlottesville schools use, it takes seven to 10 years.

"We are not the only ones who have done research on this," Collier said. "The research is quite consistent."

Kathleen Leos, the assistant deputy director of English Language Acquisition for the U.S. Department of Education, said the research is not accurate.

"We don't have any idea about the length of time," she said. "We're asking teachers to teach differently, so we don't have those results yet. Researchers know that we don't really know the time."

The new approach to English language learning that was outlined in the No Child act, Leos said, is to teach language skills and academic content simultaneously. She said this accelerates a student's language skills and achievement.

"It's not sequential where you teach oral language skills first and then add academic content," Leos said.

Nationwide, ESL students in grades three through eight must take a federally approved standardized math test after their first 12 months enrolled in public school. A reading test is optional during this period, and the results of both tests do not count toward the evaluation done annually by the federal government, called Adequate Yearly Progress, Leos said.

All test results, however, are counted in a student's second year.

Is this expectation reasonable?

"Very, with good instruction and consistency of program," Leos said. "What we're seeing is that they are proficient after three years. They are still at a basic level, but proficient."

Education officials at the state and local levels disagree.

"Policymakers don't pay much attention to what the research shows," Collier said.

Shelley Loving-Ryder, assistant superintendent for assessment and reporting for the Virginia Department of Education, said: "That is the question we continue to ask the U.S. [Department of Education]. How can we continue to expect students to take a test when they don't have the language proficiency at that level?"

Charlottesville schools Superintendent Rosa S. Atkins said that just as teachers must learn about the backgrounds of their ESL students, policymakers must do the same with the research.

"Have they not read the research?" Atkins said. "Policymakers need to be educated about the research and the development of ESL students and how soon they will be ready to show any sign of mastery of the English language."

The role of ESL expands

As ESL enrollment grows, Virginia schools must prepare ESL students for the SOLs or face penalties from the federal government.

If more than 50 Limited English Proficient students in a Virginia school or school division take the SOLs, their results are evaluated by the federal government as a part of its assessment of the school and its division. LEP students are either enrolled in an English as a Second Language program or they were previously in one and are now mainstreamed.

For the 2006-07 school year, if less than 73 percent of LEP students in a school pass the SOLs in English and less than 71 percent pass in math, the school does not meet federal standards. The same applies to a school division. Passing rates gradually increase each school year to correlate with the No Child goal to have all students passing by 2013-14.

Schools and divisions with student groups that do not pass federal standards for two consecutive years in the same subject must offer their students the option to transfer to another school within the division. Transfer expenses are paid for with federal funds.

Walker Upper Elementary and Buford Middle in the city are both close to the 50-student benchmark and CHS will most likely be evaluated, although that depends on how many mainstreamed ESL students elect to take their courses' final exams, ESL Coordinator Beverly Catlin said. The division as a whole, however, will be evaluated. It has 339 LEP students as of Oct. 31, almost three times as many as in 2000.

Albemarle High was evaluated for the SOL math test results of its LEP students last year, and Walton Middle was four students short of qualifying. The division as a whole was evaluated.

ESL enrollment in Albemarle County has increased from 514 in 2000 to 841 last September, a 64 percent increase.

As more LEP students take the SOLs and more schools count this group's test scores, the importance of educating ESL students grows.

Emphasis on education

Mkrtumova said she is preparing to take the SOLs in the spring. She wants to eventually study science or computers at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Her mother is taking classes to learn English and her father works construction. She said the family's constant moving, from Azerbaijan to Armenia to Uzbekistan to Russia to Charlottesville, has been trying.

"You have to change everything - school, language, friends," she said.

But Mkrtumova likes her latest home.

"I like America because of the school," she said.

Her parents want to stay in America so she receives an education, Mkrtumova said.

Educators at the federal, state and local levels continue to disagree on how she should receive it." (Matt Deegan, The Daily Progress, December 17, 2006)