Arizona Lowered the Bar for Its English Fluency Test. Experts Say It Will Harm Students in the Long Run.

“If you’re put in a class where you don’t understand what’s going on at all, you’re not learning language or content.”

The statewide pass rate jumped from 12% to 26% in one year. Nobody taught better. They moved the cutoff. Roughly 30,000 kids just lost language support on paper, and Arizona has already paid for this exact trick with Justice Department settlements.