Language Debate Across the States

In Florida, some educators and individuals are calling for better instruction in Spanish and more efforts to ensure that bilingual children are also biliterate...whereas in Arizona, the battle is still raging over the state's new English fluency requirements and their potentially punitive effects on students.

Mark Krikorian Cries "Multiculturalism!"

In an article for the National Review Online today, Mark Krikorian attacks John McCain for his support of "multiculturalism," which he defines (with Francis Fukuyama's help) as, "not just tolerance of cultural diversity in de facto multicultural societies, but as the demand for legal recognition of the rights of ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural groups."

Of course, Krikorian condemns McCain's stance on immigration, but what's more, he derides his support of bilingual education. He also criticizes McCain for insisting that Hispanic Americans be honestly and realistically represented in the media - as the important, intelligent human beings that they are.

Wait a minute! Krikorian is criticizing McCain for these things? For recognizing the civil rights of other people? Wow, I must have missed the big meeting where bigotry and racism became okay again. But no matter. My best suggestion is this: read Krikorian's intolerant, supremacist message. Then, write to him and explain exactly WHY he is so very wrong - and why minorities in this country deserve basic civil rights. Also note that, once upon a time, his ancestors were immigrants and minorities too - and that only because this country afforded THEM basic rights, is he even writing his column today.

This man must be joking.

Spanish to English: Helping Adult ELLs Make the Transition

Fairleigh Dickinson, an independent university in northern New Jersey, has recently begun a program called "MiraeRo," or "To the Future," to help adult Korean speakers to transition to speaking English while studying for an associate in arts (A.A.) degree. This is modeled after the university's "Puerta al Futuro" (Gateway to the Future) program, which was originally designed for Spanish-speaking English Language Learners. The programs, which last three years in total, offer evening and weekend classes to ELL students with little to no knowledge of English and gradually transition them from classes taught their native language to classes taught exclusively in English. The Puerta al Futuro program, which began in 2003 with 20 students, has now grown to over 200 students.

The potential impact of this type of program is impressive, especially for Latino adults. Considering that in 2003, less than 12% of US Hispanics had a bachelor's degree, one can easily see how programs like these could offer excellent educational opportunities to Spanish-speaking adults. Not only would higher educational attainment amongst Latinos benefits the students themselves, but the degrees would make them more marketable and employable and thus, more likely to contribute positively to the American economy on the whole. If well-designed and well-executed, these programs have the potential to empower huge numbers of adult ELL students to find better, higher paying careers and increase the amount in which they give back to our economy.

Wednesday Issue: Bilingual Education y Los Candidatos

When asked during last week's GOP debate how he would work to improve our nation's public schools, Mitt Romney pointed to his work in Massachusetts as a model for the nation, declaring, " ...we also fought for English immersion. We wanted our kids coming to school to learn English from the very beginning."

Romney is not the only presidential candidate to support English immersion programs and he is certainly not the most vehement supporter. Case in point: Tom Tancredo, who skipped the Univision debate because he opposed the idea of having his remarks translated into a language other than English.

Compared to other issues, such as affordable health care and the war in Iraq, bilingual education has gotten fairly little airtime during this the presidential race. However, with immigration being a hot-button issue on the table, bilingual education is sure to come into the spotlight soon.

And the candidates are prepared. When Hispanic Link, a weekly newspaper on Latino issues, surveyed the campaigns on this issue, most candidates had statements ready. The outcome? Clinton, Richardson, Dodd, Edwards and Obama were for bilingual education - including instruction in the students' native languages*. Romney and Tancredo were against bilingual education and support English-only instruction.

* I've specified this because the term "bilingual education" sometimes includes English-only ESL programs (although the reason for that is...unknown).

What are the candidates basing their decisions on? Well, it's probably not conclusive research. As EdWeek's Mary Ann Zehr notes, high-quality research about English language instruction programs is scant. There are a lot of different methods for teaching English as a second language, but none can be ranked as the absolute best form.

My suspicion is that their positions on bilingual education are too-closely linked to their immigration stance. Candidates who want to make a show of their patriotism and their "tough stance on illegal immigrants" cry "English-only, English-only." In doing so, they deny important opportunities to both ELLs and native English speakers - opportunities like two-way dual immersion schools.

At a time when America's international test scores are dropping, we should be seeking ways to make ourselves more globally competitive - and that means not isolating ourselves linguistically. Imagine the possibilities of a bilingual or trilingual America where all students were able to speak, read, and write in at least one other language. Their opportunities - and those of our country - would be endless.

"Que Ningún Niño Se Queda Atrás:" Take That, NY Times

Catching up on some weekend reading, I came across the NY Times Article, "No Child Left Behind? Say It in Spanish." I followed their advice with the title of this post.

The article explains how the schools in NYC's suburbs are coping with the large influx of Hispanic immigrants that have recently settled in the area. In recent years, the 19 suburban counties closest to NYC have experienced a 17% growth in the Hispanic population under age 15, forcing schools to re-evaluate their ESL and Hispanic outreach programs.

Randolph, NJ was chosen as a example of one suburban district that is learning to cater to the needs of Spanish-speaking families. After noticing a drop in the test scores of an elementary school with a high number of recent immigrant students, the district initiated a multi-pronged plan to improve the academic performance of its ELL students. This included reducing class sizes, hiring a reading specialist and a full-time social worker, and initiating a "Noche Latina" outreach event for Spanish-speaking parents.

So far, test scores seem to be rising, but the ultimate result remains to be seen.

Amazingly enough, there hasn't been political backlash against these new expenditures, despite the fact that other schools in the district have seen budget cuts. Randolph's superintendent said the following: “...[I]t costs more to educate some kids, and it’s going to cost more to educate immigrants,” Mr. Riley said. “Once you accept that, everything falls into place.”

In this case, the new programs seem like a thoughtful, reasonable investment. We'll see what other districts follow their lead and how they work to find cost-effective ways to educate their ELL students.

Wednesday Issue: Bilingual Education y Los Candidatos

When asked during the final GOP candidate debate how he would work to improve our nation's public schools, Mitt Romney pointed to his work in Massachusetts as a model for the nation, declaring, " ...we also fought for English immersion. We wanted our kids coming to school to learn English from the very beginning."

Romney is not the only presidential candidate to support English immersion programs and he is certainly not the most vehement supporter. Case in point: Tom Tancredo, who skipped the Univision debate because he opposed the idea of having his remarks translated into a language other than English.

Compared to other issues, such as affordable health care and the war in Iraq, bilingual education has gotten fairly little airtime during this the presidential race. However, with immigration being a hot-button issue on the table, bilingual education is sure to come into the spotlight soon.

And the candidates are prepared. When Hispanic Link, a weekly newspaper on Latino issues, surveyed the campaigns on this issue, most candidates had statements ready. The outcome? Clinton, Richardson, Dodd, Edwards and Obama were for bilingual education - including instruction in the students' native languages*. Romney and Tancredo were against bilingual education and support English-only instruction.

* I've specified this because the term "bilingual education" sometimes includes English-only ESL programs (although the reason for that is...unknown).

What are the candidates basing their decisions on? Well, it's probably not conclusive research. As EdWeek's Mary Ann Zehr notes, high-quality research about English language instruction programs is scant. There are a lot of different methods for teaching English as a second language, but none can be ranked as the absolute best form.

My suspicion is that their positions on bilingual education are too-closely linked to their immigration stance. Candidates who want to make a show of their patriotism and their "tough stance on illegal immigrants" cry "English-only, English-only." In doing so, they deny important opportunities to both ELLs and native English speakers - opportunities like two-way dual immersion schools.

At a time when America's international test scores are dropping, we should be seeking ways to make ourselves more globally competitive - and that means not isolating ourselves linguistically. Imagine the possibilities of a bilingual or trilingual America where all students were able to speak, read, and write in at least one other language. Their opportunities - and those of our country - would be endless.

The Price of English Language Education

Following up yesterday's news about the price of "adequate" education for Special Education students, today we learn that in Arizona, the Flores v. Arizona case has been resurrected. The legal battle, which first began 15 years ago, has had an immense impact on the way that English Language Learners are educated in the state.

In this appeal, the court will decide how much money is necessary to educate an ELL student and what, if any restrictions, can legally be placed on their English Language Education.

Interrupting the flow..

I will return to CTE later today, but before that, I wanted to put this out there:

The Pew Hispanic Center has released a report on English Usage Amongst Hispanics in the US, which can be found here.

According to the study 88% of US-born adult Latinos say that they speak and read English very well. In contrast, only 23% of foreign-born Latinos say that they speak English very well.

The study is somewhat imperfect - as its asks for mere opinion and doesn't actually measure the participants' English fluency - but it is sure to be important data for the bilingual education community.

CEP on ELLs in AZ (abbreviation fun!)

The Center for Education Policy released a report today on how Arizona's high school exit exams are affecting ELLs in that state.

CEP took a look at five AZ high schools to determine the challenges that ELLs face with the exit exams (lack of information, limited English proficiency, lack of resources, etc.) and includes a number of recommendations that AZ can use to improve ELLs' achievement on this test.

Unfortunately, the study presents no conclusions on how the exit exams affect graduation rates or post-secondary opportunities for ELL students. This is due, CEP states, to a lack of accurate data, as the exit exam was first administered in 1999 and the first diplomas were withheld only in 2006. So that's something to keep an eye on for the future - I'd like to see some follow up on how these exams affect ELLs future career and educational options.

Wednesday Interview: Carlos Villagrana of Amigos Por Vida

In the Gulfton community of Houston, Texas, Mr. Carlos Villagrana is moving montañas as the principal of Amigos Por Vida/Friends for Life Charter School.

Amigos Por Vida serves a unique population of students. Of the 430 students in grades PreK – 7, 99% are Hispanic, 1% are African-American, 98% live below the poverty line, and 94% are classified as Limited English Proficient. While such numbers would present an impossible challenge to some schools, Amigos Por Vida has proven that it can beat the odds.

Last year, Amigos Por Vida produced impressive TAKS test scores and was awarded the Governor’s Excellence Award, a Financial Accountability Rating of Superior Achievement, and the State’s Gold Performance Acknowledgement in Math and Attendance.

I spoke with Mr. Villagrana this week to learn the keys to his school’s success and how Amigos Por Vida is helping its Latino students achieve excellent results.

1.) Tell me a little bit about the history of your school.

Amigos Por Vida is in the Gulfton community of Houston, which is an area that is known for being poor, young and Hispanic. In this neighborhood, 11% of the population are children under the age of five, so having quality schools is very important. Before we built our school, many children were being bused out of the area to attend school, because the schools here were so overcrowded.

Amigos Por Vida was founded in 1999 as a new option for parents who didn't want to send their children out of the neighborhood for school. Unfortunately, it was mismanaged during its first few years and didn't offer a quality education to its students. Luckily, this changed when the Board of Directors decided to turn the school around with major staffing and administration changes.

Now, Amigos Por Vida is a very successful school and we are fulfilling our promise to give the Gulfton community a good charter school option.

2.) Does Amigos Por Vida face any special challenges in educating its children?

At this point, our biggest challenge is our facilities. As a state charter school, we do not receive any funding for facilities. The apartment complex where Amigos is located cannot accommodate any more classrooms and we have to make room for 8th grade next year.

3.) What innovative techniques have you used to improve your school?

The implementation of our dual language immersion program has been instrumental in our school’s success.

4.) Why did you choose to implement the dual-language immersion program? ]
In trying to meet the needs of the community, we realized that most of our students came to us speaking only Spanish and that we needed to also focus on developing English from day one. When looking at bilingual programs, the research was very clear and showed us that dual immersion programs were what would help our students become successful.

5.) What kind of success have you seen with the dual-language program?

Our students have consistently achieved high scores on the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) and the TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System).

Blogger's Note: Click here to find out Amigos Por Vida's 2007 TAKS scores. Look for the abbreviation "Pct. Met Std." to see the percentage of students who passed each exam.

6.) How do you encourage parents and community members to be involved in your students’ education?

We offer night classes for parents and community members on Monday and Wednesday for them to complete GED and also receive ESL and technology applications courses. During the day, our counselor does a great job of offering volunteer opportunities to parents. As part of our 21st Century grant we also offer parenting classes, ESL and a women’s craft class during the day.

7.) Do you have any plans to expand Amigos Por Vida Charter School in the next few years?
Our primary goal right now is to find a permanent home for the school. After that happens, we are very interested in working with other communities in Houston and other parts of the state.

8.) What advice would you offer to other educators who serve Latino or minority populations?
My advice is to find ways to be an advocate for our students. One of the reason I came to work at Amigos Por Vida was to improve the quality of education our students were receiving and create a school where students and parents excel. I think if I was not here at Amigos, I would be getting involved in what ever way I felt I could empower our community.