Arizona lowers English test threshold as student reclassification rate doubles
About 30,000 students were reclassified as proficient in 2026 after AZELLA passing scores were reduced across all grade levels.
Arizona has lowered the scores required to pass its English proficiency test, driving the statewide reclassification rate from 12 per cent in 2025 to 26 per cent in 2026. About 30,000 students were consequently removed from English-language services, according to official figures cited by ProPublica.
The Arizona Department of Education said the revised thresholds followed testing of 600 native English speakers. The minimum combined score had previously been 1,000 out of 1,405. In 2026, passing scores ranged from 944 for kindergartners to 962 for high school students across reading, writing, speaking and listening.
The increase does not independently establish that students’ English fluency improved. Education researchers and linguists told ProPublica that some students could leave structured English immersion before they are ready to learn successfully in mainstream classrooms, potentially worsening existing academic gaps.
Tucson Unified School District’s reclassification rate rose from 10 per cent in 2025 to 24 per cent in 2026. The district’s language development director said schools must monitor reclassified students for two years and provide further support, including tutoring or summer school where needed.
Districts receive no additional funding for that monitoring. The number of students remaining in structured English immersion also affects future English-learner funding, meaning the higher reclassification rate could reduce funding for the 2027 school year.
Arizona’s structured English immersion system dates to Proposition 203, approved by voters in 2000, which banned bilingual education in public schools. Earlier versions of AZELLA prompted federal civil-rights investigations and settlements after at least 28,000 students were reportedly reclassified despite lacking proficiency in reading and writing.
