Learning the Language

Study: Teacher Exchanges Are Pipeline for Bilingual Teachers

2009-11-20T21:37:58Z

Some school districts are helping to fill a shortage of bilingual teachers through international teacher exchanges, but that strategy for alleviating shortages is still "relatively unexplored," according to a report released yesterday by the Migration Policy Institute.

Researchers Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix give an overview of how school districts are participating in the short-term U.S.-Mexico Binational Migrant Education Program and long-term exchanges under cooperative agreements with Spain or Mexico to bring foreign teachers to their communities.

Most teachers with the binational migrant education program work for U.S. school districts during the summer, not during the regular school year. They generally provide supplemental education to students who have had gaps in their schooling during the academic year.

But teachers coming to the United States through the cooperative agreements with Spain or Mexico typically work in districts throughout the school year. The report says that many teach English-as-a-second-language or bilingual courses in elementary schools. In my reporting on these exchanges, I've also found that a fair number teach Spanish-language classes at the secondary level.

The numbers of teachers hired in U.S. school districts through these exchanges aren't big. Since 1992, 4,700 teachers from Spain have been employed in U.S. schools through the U.S.-Spain visiting-teacher program. And since 2001, 182 teachers have been employed through the U.S.-Mexico visiting-teacher program.

Mexico has agreements with California, New Mexico, Utah, Illinois, and Oregon for long-term exchanges. Spain has agreements with 31 states, including California and New York.

The report provides in one place the available data about these programs. So it's a handy source for any district that may be considering this option.

Tennessee Will Let ELLs Take Tests in 'Simplified English'

2009-11-18T18:40:29Z

This coming spring, Tennessee will give its state assessment to English-language learners for the first time in "simplified English," according to a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education. The state is calling the alternative test form "English Linguistically Simplified Assessment" and it will be used for math, reading, science, and social studies. While the test items use rudimentary English, or in testing lingo, what is often called "plain English," the content is on grade level.

The modified English includes a reliance on common words, the use of concrete words rather than abstract ones, and a reduction in the complexity of sentence structure, according to a presentation given by a state official. Some of the reading passages, however, may be the exact same as in the regular form of the test. Pearson is the contractor for development of the test.

A number of other states have alternative tests for ELLs, but it's been a year since I asked the U.S. Department of Education for an update on this issue. Several states had to stop using alternative tests for ELLs, such as portfolios, because the U.S. Department of Education didn't find them to be comparable with the states' regular tests.

Two years ago, Illinois had to drop use of its plain-English test for math and reading with English-language learners because of issues with comparability.

So, it's noteworthy than Tennessee is proceeding with a plain-English version.

Recently, the governing board of the National Assessment of Educational Progress held a public hearing on its proposals for better including ELLs in testing, and developing plain- English versions of NAEP was one of the proposals. People I heard testify at the hearing, such as a representative of the National Education Association, supported that idea.

Are any other states coming on board with plain-English versions of their content tests for ELLs?

Do Charter Schools Enroll Their Share of ELLs?

2009-11-17T20:50:28Z

Diane Ravitch over at Bridging Differences observes that many charter schools "have disproportionately small numbers of children who need special education or who are English-language learners."

That complaint has been popping up in a number of different places lately.

Last month, Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco made the same observation in the Huffington Post, basing it on data about charter schools in New York state. The month before that, an ELL advocacy group in Massachusetts made the same claim about charter schools there, which I reported on in Education Week.

A national study of charter schools in 10 states found that, on average, enrollment of ELLs in charter schools was about the same as in traditional schools. I got that information from Margaret E. Raymond, the director of the Stanford University center that conducted the study and the study's lead author, when I interviewed her back in September.

She said, however, that some charter schools, such as those in Minnesota that offer dual-immersion programs in Hmong and English, have a high concentration of ELLs and others don't.

So the information from the national study doesn't contradict Diane Ravitch's statement that "many" charter schools don't enroll as many ELLs as traditional public schools do.

I'm hoping in the next couple of years that researchers will provide richer information about ELLs and charter schools. At this point, we don't know much.

Free Webinars on Language Issues

2009-11-17T17:13:31Z

The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition is hosting several webinars on issues concerning ELLs, including one this week about how math teachers can best work with such students. The math webinar features the FASTMath program used in Fairfax County public schools in Virginia, and will take place this Friday, Nov. 20, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., Eastern time. (You'll get a link that appears to be in error and kicks you out of this blog entry, but if you click on "back" you can get to the registration page.) Earlier this week, I blogged about a free webinar on best practices for math teachers to work with ELLs that WestEd plans to host on Dec. 2.

In addition to the webinar offering professional development for math teachers, NCELA has two other webinars planned for this year about how teachers can work with ELLs. Aida Walqui, the director of the teacher professional-development program at WestEd, will be a guest for "Effective Professional Development for All Teachers With ELL Students," and Deborah J. Short, a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Lingusitics, and Linda Griffin, the director of the mathematics education unit for the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, will be guests for a webinar, "Implementing PD for Content Area Teachers." Dates for those webinars haven't yet been finalized.

Lastly, the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute is hosting a free webinar this Thursday, Nov. 19, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern time, on how government officials and administrators in the juvenile-justice system can help parents who have limited proficiency in English understand the system. Register here.

I can imagine it would be overwhelming to be a parent who doesn't speak much English to understand what's happening if his or her child gets involved in the court system.

It seems to me that it would be a good idea for someone to have a webinar on how schools can work with parents with limited proficiency in English to understand how to navigate school systems as well.

Mass. May Revisit In-State Tuition Rate for Undocumented Students

2009-11-16T16:31:12Z

Some Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing for the state to permit undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates at public universities, according to an Associated Press article. It says Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, supports a bill that would provide in-state tuition rates to students living illegally in the country. The former governor, Mitt Romney, a Republican, opposed the idea.

The article says that 10 states—California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin—permit undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates.

I've noticed how the undocumented students have become increasingly organized in pressing legislators both at the state and national levels to address their concerns. The article notes that they've been active in lobbying state lawmakers in Massachusetts.

Webinar: Help for Mainstream Math Teachers in Teaching ELLs

2009-11-16T14:21:25Z

In the decade I've been writing about English-language learners, I've noticed a large increase in training of mainstream teachers, rather than just ELL specialists, on how to work with those students.

WestEd is adding to this training by providing a live webinar for mainstream teachers of math to teach ELLs in their classroom who have different levels of language proficiency.

The webinar, "Making Mathematics Accessible for English-Learners," will be offered Wednesday, Dec. 2, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern Time. Presenters will be Cathy Carroll, a senior project director at WestEd, and John Carr, a senior research associate for the evaluation research team at the research organization.

How Are Districts Using Stimulus Funds for ELLs?

2009-11-12T17:40:14Z

The three top ways that federal stimulus funds are being used to improve schooling for English-language learners are to improve the quality of teachers, step up services at the middle and high school levels, and increase instructional time through after-school or summer programs, according to a survey conducted by the Working Group on ELL Policy. The organization is made up of researchers who specialize in studying ELLs and make recommendations on federal policy for such students.

The working group has also posted on its Web site, which was launched today, a case study of how the St. Paul school district in Minnesota is using stimulus funds for ELLs. I included that district in an article I wrote back in May about how four large urban districts are targeting English-learners with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The case study gives a lot more detail about the St. Paul district's plans than I provided. For example, it says that stimulus funds will help to pay for K-5 reading materials, which benefit ELLs in that they include a strong oral-language component.

If you've been following this blog, you know that recently I've had the chance to report on the importance of the teaching of oral language to English-learners and other students who are at risk academically.

Light Blogging This Week

2009-11-11T14:00:36Z

The blogging has been light this week because I've been taking some days off work. Next week, I expect to be back up to speed in posting news nearly every day. Readers, please don't go away.

Governing Board of NAEP Considers Inclusion of ELLs

2009-11-11T12:31:41Z

Representatives of education organizations attending a public hearing on how best to include English-language learners and students with disabilities in the National Assessment of Educational Progress this week expressed support for the ELL policies proposed by the test's governing board. I wrote about the hearing in an article published yesterday by Education Week.

The board proposes that reporting of the data about ELLs' performance on NAEP be matched with information about their English-language proficiency as measured by the state English-language proficiency tests. It also proposes expanding the use of native-language support, such as Spanish translations of tests, to all subjects other than reading and writing. Currently, Spanish translations are available only for math and science.

Obama Visits School Where Large Number of Students Are ELLs

2009-11-05T14:38:48Z

Yesterday, President Obama visited a charter school in Madison, Wis., where 39 percent of students are English-language learners. But I don't see anything in news coverage about his visit that says he mentioned the educational needs of ELLs. (See update below.) It seems like a missed opportunity.

An editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal says the school, James C. Wright Middle School, takes an inclusive approach to educating ELLs and students with disabilities, which includes co-teaching and support for a universally designed curriculum. I'm intrigued.

Update: I skimmed his speech and see that President Obama did mention English-language learners at one point, saying that a commitment to education means "boosting the numbers of quality teachers who can help our special education and English-language learners meet high standards—as you've done here at Wright." But that still doesn't tell us much.

The Journal Sentinel of Milwaukee, Wis., reports the president mentioned he was working to ensure that children of undocumented immigrants can go to college. I interpret that statement as the president's reiteration of this support for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or "DREAM Act." The president's remark also likely indicates he realized a lot of his audience were Latinos, many of whom support that act.

But it would have been great if the president could have highlighted some ways that Wright Middle School is successful with ELLs, if in fact that is the case, since such students make up such a large proportion of the school population. Educators are looking for models for how to educate these students, particularly at the middle and high school levels.

Public Hearing Will Look at Inclusion of ELLs in NAEP

2009-11-05T14:10:51Z

Over at Curriculum Matters, my colleague Sean Cavanagh notes that the governing board for the National Assessment of Educational Progress will hold a public hearing on Monday, Nov. 9, to receive public input on policies for including English-language learners and students with disabilities on the test. The hearing will take place here in the nation's capital.

I recently blogged about results for ELLs in the most recent math assessment that is part of NAEP. See the comments from readers to get a sense of some of the issues that arise in including ELLs in the test and making sense of their scores.

Tom Horne Persists in Critique of Ethnic Studies in Tucson

2009-11-04T15:15:12Z

In his latest move to try to get Tucson Unified School District to halt offering ethnic studies, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction has commissioned a study looking at the test scores of students who take the ethnic studies compared with Hispanics in the state who don't.

The analysis of test scores found no significant effect of the courses on student performance on the state's academic tests. Horne put out a press release saying the Arizona Department of Education conducted the study to examine claims by the school district that students who take the ethnic studies courses, which focus on Mexican-American history and culture, perform better on state tests than students who don't.

The study compared the scores of 626 students who took the classes in Tucson last school year, compared with scores of Hispanics statewide. Eighty-five percent of students who took the ethnic studies classes were Hispanic. Fifteen percent were English-language learners. The Arizona Daily Star picked up on the study in an article published this week.

One thing I've learned about Horne over the years: If an educational issue is a concern for him, he will not give up in continuing to bring public attention to it.

I'm thinking about how he took the ELL funding issue in his state to the U.S. Supreme Court and how he sent his staff to the Mexican-U.S. border to gather video evidence that operators of a charter school were enrolling and transporting students who reside in Mexico across the border to attend school in the United States.

Quick Facts on U.S. Immigration

2009-11-03T13:00:35Z

Of immigrants living in the United States who are age 25 and older, only 27.1 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher in 2008, according to facts put together by the Migration Policy Institute. Slightly more than half of immigrants, 52.1 percent, do not speak English "very well."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey, nearly 38 million, or 12.5 percent, of the U.S. population was born in a foreign country. That compares with an immigrant population of 14.8 percent in 1890.

The fact sheet notes that the large presence of immigrants from Mexico and Asian countries in the early part of this century starkly contrasts with the predominance of immigrants in 1960 who came mostly from European countries.

The top five U.S. states by the number of immigrants in 2008 were California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Illinois.

Naturally, those are also big states for English-language learners in schools.

WIDA Tally: New Mexico Joins Consortium

2009-11-02T15:55:51Z

New Mexico has joined 19 states and the District of Columbia in adopting the most popular English-language-proficiency test in the nation, which is developed by the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment Consortium, or WIDA.

Starting this school year, New Mexico will administer WIDA's test to measure students' progress in learning English, ACCESS for ELLs, to about 60,000 ELLs, said Tom Dauphinee, the interim supervisor of assessment and accountability for the New Mexico education department, in a phone interview. In joining the WIDA consortium, the state also plans to use WIDA's screening and placement test for ELLs.

Dauphinee said that the state must use a bidding process to select test developers for all of its large-scale assessments. For its English-language-proficiency test, New Mexico received a bid from Pearson and from WIDA. Dauphinee said that WIDA won the bid in part because ACCESS for ELLs aligns well with New Mexico's standards for English-language proficiency. He added that the committee is pleased with how WIDA conducts research on English-language proficiency and uses that research to improve the assessment and professional development.

Previously New Mexico used what Dauphinee called an "off-the-shelf test" based on test items in the Stanford English Language Proficiency Test, owned by Harcourt and Pearson.

Timothy Boals, the executive director of WIDA, said that New Mexico is the first state that has joined WIDA through a state bidding process. "It's a grueling process, and a costly one as well, to go after a state like that," he said. "It's something commercial developers do all the time. This isn't our preferred way to go for it."

In the bidding process, Boals said, WIDA spelled out the same consortium package that it offers to all states.

But one aspect of WIDA's relationship with New Mexico is unique. Before the bidding process began, WIDA had worked with New Mexico to customize the WIDA English-language-development standards for that state. All other states that are part of the consortium have adopted the regular WIDA standards.

Even so, said Boals, the New Mexico English-language-development standards are very similar to the regular WIDA ones. The main difference, he said, is that some of the materials that support the standards, such as documents for teacher training, contain examples that are particularly relevant to New Mexico.

Opinion: 'Immigrant Children Are Not on Anybody's Agenda'

2009-10-29T18:49:04Z

Ruby Takanishi, co-editor of a new book titled Immigration, Diversity, and Education, tells New America Media that in the Obama administration, "immigrant children are not on anybody's agenda, except in a negative way."

Takanishi said she hasn't seen the needs of immigrant children discussed much in education initiatives presented by the administration, including Race to the Top funds from the federal stimulus package.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other federal officials have not highlighted the needs of English-language learners since President Obama took office. I can think of only one exception, which I blogged about earlier this week. One of three meetings that the federal government is hosting for public input about the distribution of $350 million in Race to the Top assessment funds will examine how to accurately measure the content knowledge of ELLs.

That's the only public meeting focused on ELLs that I've heard about under the administration. I'm not counting meetings that examined the needs of Latino students, where issues about ELLs may also have been mentioned.