<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="" itemprop="headline">Parents lie on survey to identify English learners</h1><div class="" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name" class="">
Amy Taxin, Associated Press
</span><span class="">5:24 p.m. MST November 24, 2014</span></div><div id="module-position-Nr5eM0v1-CA" class=""><div class=""><div class=""><img class="" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/a219b2353afb54f2073c5534fed29b2e73896dd8/c=289-0-4479-3150&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/Phoenix/Phoenix/2014/11/24/635524536909838930-english-learners.jpg" alt="Rosaisela Rodriguez, Isabel Gutierrez, Rafael Gutierrez"><span class=""></span></div><p class=""><span class=""><span class="">Rosaisela
Rodriguez (center) reads with her children Isabel Gutierrez and Rafael
Gutierrez, at their home in Pleasant Hill, Calif. Rodriguez deliberately
didn't declare that her twin son and daughter knew Spanish when she
enrolled them in school, adding that most 5-year-olds are language
learners, regardless of whether they are bilingual.</span><span class="">(Photo: Ben Margot/AP)</span></span></p></div></div><div id="module-position-Nr5eM0xp6bU" class=""><div class=""><span class=""><span class="">
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</span><span class="">TWEET</span></a><a class="" href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=http%3A//azc.cc/1vHcheJ&mini=true" target="_blank"><span class=""></span><span class="">LINKEDIN</span></a><span class=""><span class=""></span><span class="">COMMENT</span></span><span class=""><span class=""></span><span class="">EMAIL</span></span><span class=""><span class=""></span><span class="">MORE</span></span></div></div><p><span class="">LOS ANGELES – </span>Nieves
Garcia came from Mexico at age 6 and spent most of her elementary
school years in California classified as an "English learner," even
after she had picked up the language. Now a 32-year-old mother, she
didn't want her daughter labeled the same way and subjected to
additional testing.</p><p>And so, she lied.</p><p>When Garcia signed up
her daughter for kindergarten, she answered a standard four-question
survey by saying her family spoke only English at home, even though her
husband doesn't speak the language.</p><p>"I just said we spoke English, English, English and English," Garcia said.</p><p>California
education officials say it's tough to know how many parents lie on the
home-language survey they are required to fill out before their children
start public school. Educators say failing to identify students who
need language assistance can set the children back and violate federal
laws guaranteeing access to education.</p><p>Parents like Garcia fear
that by acknowledging the truth, their kids will be siphoned off from
native English speakers or stigmatized, and could miss out on learning
opportunities.</p><p>Rosaisela Rodriguez deliberately didn't declare
that her twin son and daughter knew Spanish when she enrolled them in
school, adding that most 5-year-olds are language learners, regardless
of whether they are bilingual.</p><p>"If they were placed in the
English-language group they would have been taken out at a certain time
or placed in different curriculum," said Rodriguez, 51, of Pleasant
Hill. "This was a very calculated move on my part."</p><p>In an
increasingly multilingual society, a slew of states are re-evaluating
how they define and identify English learners in the hope of moving
toward a more unified system, education experts said.</p><p>California
plans to roll out a new English-language proficiency test in 2016, and
is considering changing its home-language survey, said Elena Fajardo,
administrator of the state Department of Education's language policy and
leadership office. The survey was developed in 1980, and the state's
population and immigration patterns have changed since then.</p><p>Census
data shows that nearly 44 percent of Californians age 5 and older speak
a language other than English. The most common language spoken is
Spanish, and 57 percent of Spanish speakers in the state say they also
speak English very well.</p><p>That's a marked shift from 1990, when
less than a third of the state's residents age 5 and older spoke another
language, and less than half of Spanish-speaking Californians claimed
to also speak English very well, the data shows.</p><p>Most statesscreen
children initially through the home-language survey and give an English
proficiency test to those whose families speak another language.</p><p>In
California, more than 200,000 incoming kindergarteners were given the
test in 2012, and only 9 percent were deemed English proficient,
according to state data. Those results have led some parents to slam the
use of a single day of testing of preschoolers — and an exam some say
is too difficult — to determine a child's educational path.</p><p>Alison
Bailey, a UCLA professor who researches bilingualism, said many state
surveys including California's don't really consider the possibility
that a child might be bilingual.</p><p>"There are competent bilingual
children who would do as well in an English-language environment as any
other," she said. "The initial cut of children going in to be assessed
may not need to be as high as it is."</p><p>Some parents don't want
their children classified as English learners because they fear they
won't be able to move into more advanced coursework in middle and high
school due to additional language requirements. Another reason is that
state data show English learners don't perform as well on the California
High School Exit Exam — though students who were initially English
learners and reclassified outperformed their English-only counterparts
on the test.</p><p>Cheryl Ortega, director of bilingual education for
United Teachers Los Angeles, said she's seen Spanish-speaking parents
write on the home language survey that English is spoken at home by
using the Spanish word "ingles." She said educators ought to meet with
parents before they fill out the forms and explain the process to dispel
concerns.</p><p>Earlier this year, Tesha Sengupta-Irving, an education
professor in Orange County, registered her son for kindergarten. At the
time, her parents were visiting and she was speaking to them in their
native tongue, Bengali, so she wrote on her survey that the language was
spoken at home.</p><p>Her son, who knew but a few words in Bengali, was
tested and classified as an English learner. She said the results were
ironic since she had tirelessly tried to pass the language on to him and
still he spoke only English.</p><p>"That survey is the most
benign-looking thing ever," said the 38-year-old, adding it was one of a
dozen forms required to enroll her son in school. "It is catching too
many kids."</p><p><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/24/english-learners-california-parents-lie-survey/70062292/">http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/24/english-learners-california-parents-lie-survey/70062292/</a><br></p><p><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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