I oppose the recommended changes in their current state. They appear to be ripe for declaring large numbers of our school systems as failing and punitive in nature and spirit. They are setting our districts up for failure-particularly districts with large numbers of low income and ELL students. These districts and students need supports not dings on district accreditation. The move to reduce ELL exemption from inclusion in standardized accountability systems from eleven semesters to three semesters is setting students, who are new to the country and learning the language, up for failure. Three semesters is not a reasonable time limit for students to learn a new language proficiently enough for academic assessment in areas such as science and grade level literature and writing. I would challenge any of our board members to begin to learn a language from scratch and to be ready to take a comprehensive science test in that new language within a year and a half. Our students need supports instead of gotcha measures to justify the eventual siphoning of public funds for the benefit of for profit private education entities.