Chapter 15: Accounting For Limited English Proficient Youth In Texas: How a “Hierarchy of Public-Ness” Determines who Counts More and Less

This chapter contributes to a discussion on accountability in public schooling by examining both the expressed logic and the politics behind performance accountability systems with respect to the testing (or non-testing) of English language learners. We direct attention to the management of information by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) regarding English language learners, mostly Mexican immigrant children who—albeit from a deficiency perspective—are identified in federal statute as “Limited English Proficient” (LEP) youth. We reveal the manner that testing and accountability work in tandem in “subtractive cultural assimilation,” a process that divests youth of their culture and language in an assimilationist fashion. Exploring a policy debate regarding test exemptions, we argue the management of information through the state’s Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reflects and affects who counts more and who less in Texas schools. This system is formed around—and reinforcing of—a “hierarchy of public-ness” focusing attention on certain performances and performers to the exclusion of others.