Remember Lori Phanachone, the amazingly fierce high school senior in Iowa? We wrote about her fight against testing gone haywire, amidst the perfect storm between No Child Left Behind and the ridiculous English only law in Iowa.

Well... all the negative publicity experienced by Storm Lake school district in Storm Lake, IA along with the excellent legal counsel and advocacy by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) led to a great victory in the story of Lori.  According to AALDEF's press release, Lori will be reinstated to the National Honor Society and reclassified Lori as "English proficient."  Other things that are pending further negotiations with Storm Lake are for the school and district to:

Remove all references to Lori Phanachone’s suspension and other disciplinary action from her school records;

Assure in writing that it will not impose further disciplinary action on her;

Clarify Storm Lake’s procedures for classifying students as ELL upon enrollment; and

Explain how and why Lori Phanachone was initially classified as an ELL under Storm Lake’s classification procedures.

It's great to have this win in Lori's case.

I don't want to take away anything from this victory, but  .... (you know I had to put this "but" in there.) what about all the other 1.5 and 2nd generation students out there in Storm Lake or other districts in Iowa, or for that matter across the country, that may be subjected to ridiculous testing like this, just because they speak another language at home whether or not they take ESL/ELL classes?