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New standards for the scoring of a widely-used English proficiency test have made it much more difficult for students to be judged as proficient.

At the Manhattan Academy for Arts and Language, a newcomer school in New York City, teacher Lauren McCoy is teaching one of the school's first-ever Advanced Placement classes, and taking her students to the next level.

Federal law requires that states standardize how to determine when ELs are English proficient. In California, there is controversy over the criteria that would be used and the role of districts and teachers in making the judgment.

The author, a professor of linguistics, makes the case that assessments need to be better designed with the needs of ELs in mind.