“Miss, why do I have to keep taking this test every year?” Rosana asked, in perfect English. As an Honor Society member set to graduate summa cum laude, she has been acing state reading tests for years. Naturally, she was confused as to why she still needed to take the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) exam. The truth is, I didn’t have an answer for Rosana because it made no sense to me either. We tell our bilingual students that passing state reading assessments proves their English proficiency. Yet, despite meeting those high standards, these same students remain stuck with a label that no longer reflects what they can do academically or shows that proficiency.
This issue extends far beyond one classroom. Across Texas, 60% of the over 780,000 Emergent Bilingual (EB) students, the state’s term for students learning English while mastering their home language, achieved passing scores on high school English language arts exams. Yet, over 30% (approx. 265,000) of those students will not be “reclassified” (meaning they’ve proven they can speak, understand, read, and write English) because they did not achieve an “Advanced High” rating on the TELPAS exam. This affects more than academics. Long-term EB high school students suffer from feelings of isolation and stigmatization. They are pulled out of core classes, placed in separate instructional groupings, and given additional testing requirements.
Holding students like Rosana in the Emergent Bilingual classification after they are already college, career, and military-ready, limits their future opportunities. When state policy forces students to keep proving skills they’ve already mastered, it minimizes them and ignores their potential. It’s time to revisit the EB reclassification criteria.
The most immediate fix is simple: Texas must count passing scores on grade-level state reading or English tests directly as proof of English fluency, eliminating redundant extra assessments. Doing so would create a more equitable system by ensuring that the same assessment used to validate one student’s grade-level English achievement is also recognized as meaningful evidence for reclassifying an Emergent Bilingual student as English-proficient. For students like Rosana, removing this hurdle frees them to focus fully on advanced coursework, scholarships, college and career planning, and other experiences that prepare them for life after high school.
Additionally, the state should remove the extra requirement of achieving “Advanced High” on the language proficiency exam and immediately update qualifying students’ English proficiency status. Swift reclassification is imperative because high school students have a brief window to pursue advanced coursework and postsecondary plans without test preparation sessions cutting into valuable instructional time. Updating the criteria would align the reclassification process with evidence that students have already produced, creating a more equitable pathway for Rosana to move forward.
For Rosana and students like her, this change would send an important message: We see your accomplishments and we recognize them. Texas can maintain high expectations for all EB students because equity does not mean lowering expectations; it means ensuring that students who meet the same rigorous academic standards on state assessments are afforded comparable opportunities. Let’s pave the way for all our students to a bright future. I, for one, can’t wait to see what Rosana accomplishes after she graduates.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Angelina Jackson, a 22-year veteran teacher, now Dean of Instruction at Weslaco High School in Weslaco, Texas. She is a Teach Plus Texas Policy Fellowship alumna. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author.
