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<h1 id="page-title" class="">Parents, Educators React to Los Angeles Schools' ELL Policy</h1>
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By <span class="">Alyssa Morones</span> on <abbr class="" title="2013-10-21T12:10:12-05:00">
October 21, 2013 12:10 PM</abbr>
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<p><em>From guest blogger Alyssa Morones</em></p>
<p>Two months into the school year, the Los Angeles Unified School
District's English-language-learner students will be rearranged into
classes based on their English-language proficiency, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-adv-english-learners-20131020,0,1836196.story">reports the <em>Los Angeles Times</em></a>. The district's decision to implement this policy has spurred protests from parents, teachers, and principals.</p>
<p>The change in ELL instruction is a response to<a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/26/09ell_ep.h31.html"> an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's office of civil rights</a>,
which determined that the district's English-language-learner services
were inadequate, with some students lingering for years in ELL classes.</p>
<p>The district entered an agreement with the office of civil rights in
October 2011. Soon after, it began the process of developing a master
plan based on an instructional policy set in 2000 that had never been
widely implemented. The plan had to be approved by the federal civil
rights office before it could be approved by the district school board. </p>
<p>But the new master plan ignores the question of whether separating
students by their English-fluency level is better than including them in
classes where they can interact with students with a diverse range of
English abilities.</p>
<p>Katherine Hayes, the district's chief research scientist, in an interview with the <em>Times, </em>said
the data show that when students are placed with others of a similar
language-proficiency level, they become fluent faster. She also said,
however, that this is not a subject that has been highly researched.</p>
<p>The article also quotes experts in bilingual education with United
Teachers Los Angeles who expressed support for the policy change since
it would allow teachers to better focus instruction.</p>
<p>Under the district's plan, a student's English-proficiency level will
be the top consideration in forming classes. Students will be assessed
two to three times per year, with the goal of moving students to full
proficiency within five years. </p>
<p>Though the plan's aims are to have students move up together to the
next proficiency level each year, Hilda Maldonado, the director of
multilingual and multicultural education for the district, said in an
interview with <em>Education Week</em>, "we know, however, that we're working with individual kids who may progress at different rates."</p>
<p>Therefore, decisions of when to move students up to a new fluency level will be made by individual school sites. </p>
<p>Parents are petitioning the district to postpone the class
reorganizations until next year and have held protest rallies to express
their discontent. Meanwhile, 17 South Los Angeles principals penned a
letter to Robert Bravo, the instructional superintendent for that part
of the district, warning him that the policy could create a "chasm"
between their schools' English and non-English-speaking communities.</p>
<p>But Bravo rejected the request to delay and warned principals that
they would be subject to disciplinary measures if they failed to honor
the policy in their schools.</p>
<p>District officials said they were unsure how many of the district's
elementary schools would have to reorganize their classes, since some
already organize their students based on English proficiency. They also
added that the policy encourages non-core classes, such as physical
education, art, and music, to mix students of various proficiency
levels.</p>
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<a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2013/10/schools_react_to_la_unifieds_e.html">http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2013/10/schools_react_to_la_unifieds_e.html</a><br></div>
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