Chicago Mayor Richard Daley this afternoon visited an elementary school full of Spanish-speaking children to rally against giving the Illinois assessment test to English language learners. We report from our West Side bureau.

Until now, Illinois has allowed students in bilingual programs for less than three years to take a test that used simpler English.

But President Bush’s administration has ruled that this alternative violates the No Child Left Behind Act. So, starting next month, all students in public schools for more than a year will take the same exam.

This afternoon Mayor Daley condemned the ruling at Nixon Elementary.

DALEY: Why are they doing this? To show what? They’re not doing well? To embarrass the public schools system? To embarrass the teachers or their principal? Is that what they want?

Illinois officials say they’re accommodating bilingual students by, among other things, allowing them to use glossaries on the exam.
 
Chicago Public Schools officials say they’re pressing the state and federal government to let students take math and reading portions in their native language.

Some Latino parents in the city’s Logan Square neighborhood, meanwhile, are threatening to keep their kids home when the testing begins March 3.