FORT WAYNE, IN (Indiana's NewsCenter) --- Two ISTEP+ tests instead of one, that will be the case for all Indiana students next year in an effort to meet federal requirements and to move the test to spring permanently.

But for some students, even one ISTEP+ test is almost too much.

In the Fort Wayne Community School district, the number of students who speak English as a second language increased by 86-percent last testing period...

Many of these students know only a few words during their first attempt at the ISTEP+.

Imagine moving to Pakistan, struggling to speak the language, let alone understand it, and then being asked to take a timed test just a few weeks later with only a bilingual dictionary for help.

Northwood Middle School student, Neela Aseel, an immigrant from Pakistan, had the reverse experience.

"It's really hard, the ISTEP+, the English part. I had lots of trouble with it. I mean I was just sitting there and my hand was raised every single minute. It was really hard, I was just like 'I need help'. I didn't know anything." says Aseel.

Federal and state accountability laws force immigrant and refugee students to take the ISTEP+ even with no grasp of the English language. At Northwood, a school with 150 of those students, two weeks of testing can be painful.

"I've had kids break down and cry and just not be able to function at all, there are very few things we can help them with, not allowed to interpret, only allowed certain kind of dictionaries, word for word interpretation, so kind of a helpless feeling. You do the best you can, they do the best they can, and you make sure they understand that's all that anybody can ask," says Kim Olden, a teacher.

In just one of her classes, Olden has kids speaking eight different languages. But, during ISTEP+ testing, no matter what their native tongue, their feelings seem identical.

"I need to learn English and it was difficult for me because I speak Spanish and I didn't know any of English," says Jose Martinez, a student from Mexico.

"It was really difficult when I take the ISTEP+, cause I don't understand speaking English," adds Cing Mang, a student from Thailand.

"One of our mottos here is 'we do what's best for kids'. When you spend two weeks giving that test to students who cannot comprehend the test and they take that test for two weeks, the first time that I did that two years ago, I had not only students in tears but I had teachers in tears because they're dealing with something that really is not best for kids," says Principal Matt Schiebel.

Despite several academic improvements within the school, Northwood has not met No Child Left Behind standards for six years, and are now on probation.

"Two years ago when the federal law changed that all students have to take the test in a school like ours, where 20 percent of our students are ENL, we immediately saw a six percent drop in our ISTEP scores. I think there needs to be under the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, at least some kind of modification for these students," says Schiebel.

Standardized tests classify her performance as below average, but Neela says her move to America has given her opportunities that far exceed the norm in her native country.

"Mostly boys just go to college there, not really girls," says Aseel.

"And what do you want to be when you grow up?" we ask.

"I want to be a doctor," she says, determination in her eyes.

The Journal Gazette's also covered Northwood teachers, students, and administrators Read story