A federal judge has decided that Arizona’s rules for training teachers how to work with English-language learners do not fall short of an agreement the state made with the court to address the education of such students.
The Feb. 9 ruling by U.S. District Judge Raner Collins is the latest he’s made in an ongoing lawsuit regarding the education of Arizona’s English-language learners. The suit, Flores v. Arizona, was filed in 1992.
The state agreed in 2000 that it would determine the training, background, and qualifications necessary for teachers of English-language learners under Proposition 203, an anti-bilingual-education law approved by Arizona voters that year.
The state adopted rules last July that require allteachers and administrators to receive 15 hours of training by August 2006 and 45 hours of training after that date.