Schools are failing to cope with migrant students, risk accreditation

The U.S. education system’s failure to meet key learning standards with an influx of migrant students may cause some schools to lose accreditation – despite efforts to hide dismal academic performance, warn community researchers.

One example is the Fairfax County school district in Virginia, which passed a sanctuary policy in January 2021 and saw its percentage of English-language learners increase to 1 in 4 students by fall 2023.

“With this rise in migrant students, the school district is facing an intensifying problem with two particular state accountability metrics – chronic absenteeism and drop-out rates,” Stephanie Lundquist-Arora writes for The Federalist. 

“Fairfax County’s public education system is a cautionary tale for school districts across the country. Even the most affluent counties’ school districts cannot perform well when they are inundated with newly arrived English-language learners from other countries.” 

She concludes: “Trying to hide poor performance and refusing to address the root cause of school failure is only doing a disservice to our taxpayers, and more importantly, to our children.” 

‘Affluent area’ under fire 

This failure compounds when considering the county’s history and location, Lundquist-Arora notes – describing it as an “affluent area” with the median household income around $145,000. 

“Within commuting distance to Washington, D.C, the county is home to a high percentage of residents with advanced degrees, has one of the largest public school districts in the nation, and is one of the top per-pupil public school district spenders (totaling about $20,000 per student in fiscal 2024).” 

However, recent data showed Fairfax County English-language learners performing abysmally on learning exams. 

Less than a third passed English reading tests, while only 6% were considered proficient in writing and 17% in history, according to the Washington Examiner. 

“Multilanguage learners account for a significant portion of Fairfax County’s student population and their numbers are growing. Compounding the difficulties is that their age of enrollment is often in high school, where early learning interventions are not an option.” 

Efforts to hide mass migration’s effects in schools 

Lundquist-Arora also says public schools are trying to hide the effects of mass migration through controversial measures such as changing from standardized tests to so-called “performance-based assessments.” 

“In these assessments, teachers and principals have clear incentives for their students to pass. Such measures make it appear on paper that students know more than they actually do so that the district will look better than it actually is.” 

Lundquist-Arora called out school bias in making standardized exams an “opt-in” policy, to the point where she didn’t even know it was available for her son. 

Instead, he was subjected to the “politicized, substandard performance-based learning assessment in 4th grade.” 

“In all other realms where the district’s leadership wants maximum participation, such as in social emotional learning and family life education lessons, students’ participation is the default option and their parents are forced to ‘opt-out’ the students,” she writes. “It is, therefore, clear that the district’s leadership’s ‘opt-in’ policy for standardized exams in history and writing is meant to minimize student participation.” 

Additionally, Fairfax County schools have been employing “equitable grading” policies since as far back as 2015, according to journalist Jeremiah Poff. 

“Proponents of the novel grading practices also advocate the elimination of ‘zero grades’ by using a 50-100 scale,” he explains. “Under that scale, a student cannot receive a grade lower than 50, even if the assignment was never submitted, thereby creating a much higher grade floor and enabling students to achieve passing grades more easily.” 

Other schools nationwide are also receiving criticism for lowering educational standards to favor migrants. 

For example, teachers in Chicago Public Schools recently told a local radio station they had been instructed to give passing grades even when children had failed basic proficiency measures. 

As reported by The Lion in September, “The teacher said specifically that she was instructed to give the student a passing grade and send her on to the next grade level even though, in this particular case, the student was testing at a kindergarten level.” 

Such policies hinder all students – both migrants and those born in the United States – from getting the academic help they need, according to critics. 

“Not only the illegal immigrant children, but children in largely black communities, where the migrants are housed, are likely being held back from learning as a result of the resource drain caused by the influx.” 

Redistricting initiative ‘meant to make schools appear that they are performing better’ 

Fairfax County recently passed a policy to change its school boundaries, which Lundquist-Arora argues is a thinly veiled move to spread out the effects of low academic performance to other places.  

“With its redistricting initiative, Fairfax County’s leadership intends to shuffle many of these students into high-performing schools, and move students who are not chronically absent and perform well on standardized tests to schools that are on the verge of failing,” she writes. 

The policy revisions raised many concerns from the community, as a June 28 Change.org petition opposing them drew more than 1,900 supporters. 

“For the past 38 years, this policy has served as the foundation for all school boundary decisions,” the petition states. “School boundary changes are detrimental and disruptive to students, families, and communities due to their disruption of student continuity.” 

Writers of the petition requested the board to provide more information explaining why such changes to school boundaries were necessary. 

“The Board has openly stated they have ‘no data’ and they have no studies to support these changes would solve the ongoing problems facing our students,” it argues. 

Masking poor academic outcomes through redistricting and other methods only serves to diminish the educational quality for all students, Lundquist-Arora argues. 

“These strategies are meant to make schools appear that they are performing better, rather than to facilitate the genuine education and learning of the district’s most vulnerable students.” 

She also criticizes the definition of “equal outcomes” mentioned in the district’s strategic plan: “What that seems to mean is that the district’s leadership is fine with students learning little and faring poorly together, as long as the district looks good.”