Superintendent: ELLs Making Gains in LA Schools

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy sent a memo to the district’s board of trustees recently outlining the academic gains by English Language Learners within recent years.

The memo to the district’s board was dated May 31, and was entitled, “Next Three Years: Policy and Investment.” The school district enrolls the largest number of ELLs in the nation, according to the memo. It began redesigning its program for ELLs in 2010.

He wrote that “far fewer” elementary school ELLs are testing at the “Below Basic” and “Far Below Basic” English proficiency levels. The percentage of students testing at those low proficiency levels dropped from 37 percent to 26 percent. At the secondary level, there was an 8 percent drop in students scoring at the lower levels.

California has struggled with long term English Language Learners who have been in the school system for six years or more, but still have not become English proficient. The district’s new master plan for addressing ELLs takes this into account. Two courses have been created at the middle and high school levels addressing the student population. Students receive targeted help with improving their reading and language skills, guided by testing data.

As part of the plan, 750 special education teachers were trained on strategies to use with ELLs with special needs.

The Learning the Language blog reported that Los Angeles revamped its program after an enforcement action by the U.S. Department of Education. California is also now beginning to track data on long term ELL students.

Related Links:

- Memo from John Deasy re ELLs.

- “L.A. Unified Improves English-Learner Outcomes, Superintendent Says,” Learning the Language Blog, Education Week.

- “Memo touts progress on safety, suspensions, and English Learners,” LA School Report.

- “California Eyes Tracking Long-Term English Language Learners,” Latino Ed Beat.

Researchers Examine Dual Language Early Ed Learners

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Researchers from the Center for Early Care and Early Education Research – Dual Language Learners at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, recently reviewed many studies to drawn conclusions about English language learners. The center’s research is funded in part by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Researchers examined children ages zero to five who are learning two languages.

They found that dual language learners are not hurt by being exposed to two languages as they develop. However, their ability in each of the languages will vary based on when they were exposed to each and how often they are able to use the language.

Additionally, the dual language learners are behind other children in phonological skills as infants, but progress during preschool, and then catch up to other children.

Researchers also noted that while the bilingual childrens’ vocabulary in each separate language was smaller than that of children who spoke only one language, when the vocabularies of both languages are combined they become equal. Evidence also suggested that the dual language children began preschool with fewer literacy skills in English than the monolingual children.

Further research has shown that children who learn literacy at home in their first language are more successful in acquiring a second language. They also concluded that successful children are taught by teachers proficient in the child’s first language.

“Problems with DLLs’ development arise when they are not provided sufficient language learning opportunities and support for both languages,” the study says. “When [early childhood education] classrooms place emphasis solely on English development, DLLs’ development in their first language can decline and their abilities in English continue to fall behind those of their English speaking grade level peers.”

Researchers also concluded that bilingual children have many strengths as well, including an ability to focus more while working on nonverbal tasks such as math problems. They also found that bilingual children gain problem solving and memory skills because they must face the challenge of navigating between two languages.

- “Dual Language Learners: Research Informing Policy” Report, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

- Center for Early Care and Education Research – Dual Language Learners

Report Alleges Discrimination Against ELLs in Louisiana

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

The Southern Poverty Law Center broadened its federal complaint against the Jefferson Parish Public School System in Louisiana regarding the district’s treatment of Latino immigrant families this week.

The SPLC alleges that the school district is inadequately serving its students who are English Language Learners. The newest charges come after the organization alleged in a complaint last August that Spanish-speaking Hispanic parents were not being provided proper translation services.

The Times-Picayune reports the SPLC alleges that the school system has only 81 ESL-certified teachers serving 3,300 ELLs. The complaint also says that ELL students are exited from ESL services based on their speaking ability and not their writing and reading skills–setting them up for failure in mainstream classes.

In addition, the report is critical of the district clustering ESL educators at certain schools.

“Because of the improper allocation of resources, the ESL program in JPPSS is understaffed,” the report states. “There are not enough ESL-certified teachers to properly carry out the ESL curriculum and effectively teach ELL students English so that they can succeed in school.”

The complaint also details the experiences of specific students: a high school sophomore who reported that teachers felt bilingual paraprofessionals were a distraction to their teaching, so asked them not to help students until they were done teaching. Other students felt they struggled in math without language assistance.

The SPLC has repeatedly filed complaints against the school system with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education, having previously raised concerns about the district’s treatment of black students.

The newspaper reported that the district declined to comment on the newest complaint.

I wonder how common similar challenges are across the country–particularly in areas of the South that have not traditionally had substantial Latino, and immigrant, populations.

- SPLC new complaint text

- Southern Poverty Law Center Immigrant Justice

- “SPLC Files Civil Rights Complaint Against Louisiana District,” Latino Ed Beat.

Lawsuit Threatened over Funding for ELLs in Nevada

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Civil rights organizations in Nevada are raising concerns about the scant funding for English Language Learners attending the state’s public schools, and are investigating a possible lawsuit against the state.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that the ACLU of Nevada, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Hispanics in Politics have met to discuss the situation. Hispanics in Politics president Fernando Romero went as far as to say that Latino students have become “collateral damage,” CBS reported, after funding for ELLs was cut by legislators last session.

The discussions come on the heels of a lawsuit filed just last week by the ACLU against the state of California on behalf of six ELL students and their families, alleging that the state has not adequately educated its ELL student population.

However, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed adding $29 million for ELLs to the budget for use over the next two years.

According to a recent study by the UNLV Lincy Institute, Nevada has severely underfunded services for ELL students. Clark County schools reported serving 53,073 students in its ELL program in February 2013, but 94,771 are defined as ELLs. The report says that Nevada is one of only eight states that does not allocate specific funds to the ELL population (beyond regular base per-student funding). Schools therefore rely on federal funding for additional money.

“The lack of a state vision and action plan for ELL education is especially problematic in Nevada, where despite its higher numbers of ELLs, has no funding mechanism for ELL education nor standards to guide the educational goals and achievement of its ELL students,” the report charges.

According to the study, the Miami-Dade Schools in Florida provides funding of $4,677 per ELL student, while in the Clark County schools in Las Vegas provides just $119 per student.

Just last week, the ACLU, Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP sued the state of California for its alleged failure to provide an adequate education to some 20,000 ELLs. They allege that about 250 school districts say they are providing no to few services to the students. The state has responded that it is committed to making sure ELLs receive appropriate instruction and help.

What sort of funding does your state provide to ELLs? In addition, how are school districts actually using the funding? Are ELL students receiving language services?

- “Latino Students Are “Collateral Damage,”" CBS Las Vegas.

- “Study of a New Method of Funding for Public Schools in Nevada,” American Institutes for Research.

- “Nevada’s English Language Learner Population: A Review of Enrollment, Outcomes and Opportunities,” UNLV The Lincy Institute.

- “Calif. Neglecting Thousands of English-Learners, Lawsuit Claims,” Learning the Language blog. Education Week.

- “California ignoring some English learners, lawsuit says,” Los Angeles Times.

Schools Across Country Face ELL Challenge

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

For many children who are English language learners, the road to proficiency can stretch on for years. While many shed their ELL label after several years, others languish in special language programs well into their teens.

A recent Associated Press article describes the myriad of challenges that educators face when educating ELL students. For example, a study by the education advocacy group Californians Together found that 59% of secondary ELLs had been in the United States for six years or longer–still struggling to reach proficiency.

These students are more advanced than beginners with no vocabulary. The group’s director told the AP that they are just stalled at an “intermediate” level.

When the students’ language proficiency stalls, that places them at risk of dropping out of high school. The article notes that graduation rates for ELLs in a number of states are lower than 60%, including 29% in Nevada.

The article notes that educators are hopeful that the implementation of the Common Core standards will standardize courses for ELLs–so they don’t vary as much. Nationally, such children are educated through many different avenues, ranging from English immersion to bilingual education.

We may learn more about what methods are working best by examining which programs promote English proficiency, and which are producing more long-term ELLs. Last September, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that focuses more attention on long-term ELLs, beginning with tracking how many longterm ELLs attend specific schools and school districts.

The legislation was sponsored by California State Senator Ricardo Lara, a Democrat. Districts will have to report and collect data every year.

“Schools and districts will now have the tools to properly track and address their progress toward improvement,” Lara said in a news release at the time.

- “California Eyes Tracking Long-Term English Language Learners,” Latino Ed Beat.

- “California Governor Approves Long-Term ELL bill,” Learning the Language Blog, Education Week.

- ”Lara’s Bill, the first in the nation to create a definition for long term English learners Signed into Law,” State Senator Ricardo Lara.

Hartford, Conn., Schools Reach Agreement On ELLs

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Years after concerns were first raised about how the Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut were instructing English Language Learners, the district has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, pledging to make a number of changes to address the needs of the population.

The Center for Children’s Advocacy first filed a complaint with the OCR in April 2007. The student population includes many Spanish-speaking students, in addition to refugees from various countries.

The February 2013 agreement includes ensuring that ELL students receive at least 45-60 minutes a day of ESL instruction from an ESL-certified teacher (or bilingual) and that ELL students receive support in learning core content. It also required the district to actively recruit qualified ESL- and bilingual-certified staff, and offer professional development on ELL instruction to general education teachers.

In addition, when administrators meet to review school performance data they also will review ELL data, including examining the students’ academic progress and graduation rates. In addition, the district will make interpreting services available to parents–but agreed to avoid using students as interpreters.

The district also must provide certain information to the Office of Civil Rights by October 2013, including the numbers and types of ELL staff at each school, a description of professional development opportunities, and a copy of its plan for communication with non-English speaking parents.

By December 2013, the district must provide information including a list of all ELL students and their proficiency levels, the schedules of ELL teachers, and a description of support services in core content for ELL students.

According to the Learning the Language blog, attorney Stacey Violante Cote with the Center for Children’s Advocacy said that the group became concerned about a lack of services for ELL and immigrant students.

“That’s why this agreement with OCR is so necessary,” she said. “We need something that is going to outlast any administrative turnover or changes in the district’s reform agenda.”

Meanwhile, the blog reported that Mary Beth Russo, the school system’s lead facilitator for ELL services, said the district began implementing changes far before the agreement was signed. Those changes included offering school choice to ELLs. Hartford also began publishing a guide providing information about ELLs at every school, including their academic performance and the staff working with the population.

ELL students face considerable hurdles to overcome. According to the Hartford Courant, only 49% of ELL students in the district graduated in four years in 2010, compared with 62% of non-ELLs.

- “After Federal Probe, Hartford Schools Agree to Improve Services for ‘English Language Learners,’” The Hartford Courant.

- Hartford Board of Education Resolution Agreement

California Migrant Pre-K Program Makes Inroads

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

The Central California Migrant Head Start programs can serve as a model of how to effectively welcome Latino families, reports EdSource Today. Children are taught in Spanish and English.

Latino families are less likely to enroll their children in preschool programs than other ethnic groups, but some programs are making inroads. In 2011, the program became one of ten early childhood programs from across the country to be named a Head Start Center of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“We know from 20 years of research that a lot of Latino parents prefer to use home-based care, and that preschools appear to be excessively formal and sometimes not inviting institutions,” University of California, Berkeley education professor Bruce Fuller told the media outlet.

The story describes how 3- and 4-year old children listened to the story of the three little pigs in Spanish–but discussed the story in both English and Spanish. Classroom tools are labeled in both English and Spanish as well.

The program also recruits parents at venues as diverse as churches, flea markets and on farm job sites.

Berta Sanchez said her three-year-old daughter is doing well in the program.

“My daughter knows her ABCs, she knows the song about the ‘little star’ and she can write her name,” Sanchez told EdSource Today.

Other programs making inroads with Latino families and improving early learning opportunities include Abriendo Puertas, HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters), and Avance.

Are school districts in your community involved in any similar efforts?

- “A winning Head Start: Program for children from migrant families gets national recognition,” Santa Cruz Sentinel.

- “NCLR Spotlights Four Pre-K Programs Successful With Latino Children,” Latino Ed Beat.

Illinois District Requires ESL Training for Some Teachers

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

The second-largest school district in Illinois will soon begin to require all teachers at 10 of its lowest performing elementary school campuses to earn English as a Second Language teaching credentials.

The U46 school system in Elgin, Illinois, served more than 40,000 students in 2011. The student enrollment is about 49% Latino and 22% limited English proficient. The failing schools impacted are heavily Latino.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the impacted schools are those that have been on “academic watch” for five years and are required to restructure under No Child Left Behind.

Some teachers are concerned that earning the ESL credential will be expensive. The ESL requirement is just one of many of the district’s restructuring changes.

The Courier News reported that school board member Amy Kerber said the plan is a “really massive undertaking and massive system shift.”

More districts are taking steps to encourage all teachers to undergo training on training English Language Learners, to address the growth in the number of children needing such specialized instruction.

- “U46 teachers, parents and school board members offer their reactions to ‘massive’ restructuring plan,” Elgin Courier News.

- “Hispanic Parent Leadership Institute seeks to educate, get parents involved,” TribLocal.

- “School Superintendent Adds His Dimension to Federal Equity Report,” Hispanic Link Report.

Brief Encourages Involvement of Parents of ELL Students

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

A new policy brief emphasizes the importance of school-based efforts targeted at increasing parent involvement in improving the education of English Language Learner students.

The brief by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder makes a number of best practices recommendations for school districts and individual schools.

The recommendations include:

- Provide home-school coordinators who are fluent in the child’s language and translators at key parent meetings.

- Incorporate community cultural events and celebrations.

- Print bilingual newsletters.

- Provide parents with avenues to learn English.

- Include families in school governance

- Encourage parents’ reading and writing with their children.

- Collaborate with community organizations.

In addition, the report recommends that states provide training to ELL teachers that builds on students’ culture, prioritizes funding for ELL students and ensuring that no financial inequalities exist in support for such students.

Latino Charter School Operator Promotes English Immersion

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

The United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) began as a Latino advocacy group in Chicago in the 1980s. But now the UNO name is known more for education, as a charter school operator running ten K-8 schools and one high school.

UNO enrolls about 6,500 students, about 95% of whom are Hispanic, 93% low-income and 38% English Language Learners.

The group still emphasizes serving Hispanic students. What I find interesting is that the system emphasizes using English immersion techniques for English Language Learners. The school system’s web site emphasizes that the curriculum offers “a complete American experience.”

Juan Rangel, CEO of UNO, recently emphasized the approach in an essay about how to best educate Hispanic children for Education Next. Rangel himself did not speak English when he enrolled in kindergarten, The New York Times noted in a profile of him. He was born in Brownsville, Texas, to undocumented immigrant parents from Mexico.

“I picked up the language so fast,” he told the Times.

In his most recent essay for Education Next, he promotes the necessity for schools to promote assimilation to immigrant children.

Rangel’s support of English immersion is interesting, given that many Latino educators support the bilingual education model. Illinois is one of the states that uses bilingual education to educate ELLs. Rangel points out that his students perform better than those in Chicago Public Schools on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT).

In particular, the following passage stands out:

“Immigrants and native-born Americans alike recognize English as a unifying feature of American society and as a key to immigrant advancement. Poor English-language skills not only delay full assimilation for our community, but also deny Hispanics full access to American opportunity. UNO chose English-language immersion over the traditional bilingual transition program to teach English to its children and families.

Structured English-language immersion challenges the conventional approach to educating English language learners (ELL). Our students’ limited English-language skills could easily be used as an excuse for low performance or a need for unlimited resources, but we see it as a necessity for teachers to differentiate their instruction to reach all learners, including ELL students. Most pragmatically, English immersion is effective in closing the performance gap between ELLs and their peers nationwide, and is financially viable and scalable—unlike the many bilingual transition programs that require untenable complements of teachers and resources and produce mixed results at best.

I believe, and our schools’ performance bears this out, that a well-rounded, rigorous program with excellent teachers and leaders works with any population of students, and works especially well for Hispanic immigrant children.”

According to the Illinois Interactive Report Card, about 76 percent of UNO students met or exceeded state standards. The system does face academic struggles–it did not make adequate yearly progress.

- “Emphasize Civic Responsibility and Good Citizenship,” Juan Rangel, Education Next.

- 2012 Illinois School Report Card for UNO Network Charter Schools.

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