To the editor:

My husband and I enjoyed reading your article about the Lawrence school district’s English as a Second Language program at Hillcrest School published Feb. 19.

We do have one issue that was not addressed in the article pertaining to how the district’s testing is completed for children entering the program. Before we expand the program any further, the district should take into consideration that our child was tested by an Asian-speaking woman whose English was very poor. Our son was adopted from India and understands a great deal of English. However, he did not understand her. Because of this, he ended up testing much lower than expected.

Before expanding our district’s ESL program into other schools, this issue needs to be addressed because we may be unnecessarily placing children in the program who would function quite well in a regular classroom setting – thus “tipping” the balance even further between “English” and ESL students.

Christine Peebles,

Lawrence