<div dir="ltr"><h1>Plan for English language learner schools causes conflict in Pr. George’s County</h1> <div class=""> <a name="86005db9428dcf536263697cdbcdabb99f547faf"></a> <img class="" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/05/22/Local/Images/SCHOOLS0041400791145.jpg?uuid=I81TsuHxEeOUQlQYm_GoCQ"><br> <span class="">The
NAACP is opposing a plan from Prince George's Schools chief Kevin M.
Maxwell, left, to open new programs for English-language learners.
(Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post )</span> </div> <div class=""> <span class="">By <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/ovetta-wiggins">Ovetta Wiggins</a></span> <span class="">December 19</span> <span class=""><a href="mailto:ovetta.wiggins@washpost.com?subject=Reader%20feedback%20for%20%27Plan%20for%20English%20language%20learner%20schools%20causes%20conflict%20in%20Pr.%20George%E2%80%99s%20County%27"><span class=""></span></a></span> <span class=""><span class=""></span> </span> </div> <p>A
plan to open two new high school programs for immigrants and
English-language learners in Prince George’s County has created a rift
between members of the African American and Hispanic communities, with
opponents of the proposal questioning the school district’s decision to
use its limited resources to benefit one group of students over the
other.</p> <p>The county’s chapter of the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-naacp-opposes-schools-for-english-language-learners/2014/09/24/35591cfa-4359-11e4-b437-1a7368204804_story.html">NAACP</a>
has mounted strong opposition to schools chief Kevin M. Maxwell’s plan
to open two schools next year for 800 English-language learners who are
struggling academically.</p> <p>The debate surrounding the new schools
is new evidence of rising tensions between the Maryland county’s African
Americans, who make up 65 percent of the Prince George’s population,
and Hispanics, who make up almost 15 percent of the county’s population
and 26 percent of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/principals-named-for-two-new-high-schools-focusing-on-immigrants-in-pr-geos/2014/10/02/836c86fc-4a61-11e4-a046-120a8a855cca_story.html">the school </a>population. The Hispanic population is the fastest-growing minority group in the county.</p> <p>“This
whole thing is designed to change the school system from what we know
today,” said Bob Ross, president of the county’s NAACP chapter. “They
are talking about the needs of the newcomers and putting them ahead of
the needs of those who are already here.”</p> <p>Del. Joseline A.
Pena-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s) said Ross’s words are “very dangerous”
and are creating division at a time when African Americans and Hispanics
need to work together.</p> <p>“Our issues are the same,” she said. “We are all people of color.”</p> <p>The
Prince George’s school system entered into an agreement with the
International Network for Public Schools and CASA of Maryland earlier
this year to open one school in the Langley Park area and another as a
school-within-a-school program at Largo High School.</p> <p>Carnegie Corporation of New York has provided a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-receives-grant-to-help-young-english-language-learners/2014/07/15/28d76b62-0b6e-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html">$3 million grant </a>to
start the programs, which would become the 19th of their kind in the
nation and the first in Prince George’s County. Maxwell has proposed $14
million in the 2016 fiscal year budget to support them. Similar schools
are operating in the District and in Alexandria.</p> <p>Ross has questioned whether the schools pass constitutional muster, arguing that they might violate <i>Brown v. Board of Education</i>,
the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that found separate public
schools for black and white students violated the Fourteenth Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution. NAACP officials have raised questions about
the process to open the schools and what they say was a the lack of
community input.</p> <p>Max Pugh, a spokesman for the school system,
said representatives for the administration met with community members
about selecting Largo as a site for one of the schools.</p> <p>“While we
always strive to communicate well with those involved, there is
sometimes room for improvement,” he said. The school district is
planning to hold focus groups as the process moves forward.</p> <p>Odis
Johnson Jr., chairman of the African American Studies Department of the
University of Maryland, said that the schools for English-language
learners will help the school district address the county’s achievement
gap: 63 percent of ELL students graduated on time, and 74 percent of all
students graduated in four years in 2013.</p> <p>“Not moving
forward with the creation of these ELL schools in Prince George’s
County would not only be a failure to take appropriate action, but it
also would be inconsistent with the spirit of Brown,” Johnson said in a
statement.</p> <p>Barbara Dezmon, the education chairwoman for the state
NAACP, said the state organization has not taken a position on the
schools but is assisting the local chapter in gathering additional
information. She said the issue is not about race but equity. She is
concerned that the discussion will turn into “a political fireball.”</p> <p>“This is not one minority confronting a minority group,” Dezmon said. “We are acting for the good of all students.”</p> <p>She
said it was disturbing to learn that the community was not aware of the
plan to locate the school-within-a-school in their community. “People
should not feel marginalized or disenfranchised,” she said.</p> <p>The
NAACP is asking for data regarding the schools, including the academic
benefits and the social and psychological ramifications.</p> <p>School
system and Hispanic leaders said the International schools have been
successful elsewhere, and they were surprised by Ross’s stance given
there was no opposition from the NAACP when similar schools opened in
New York and California. They said the schools are designed to help
English-language learners of all backgrounds, including African, Asian
and European. Advocates say the schools will provide programming that
will meet the needs of students who are not being adequately served in
the system.</p> <p>English-language learner students, parents and
elected officials have shared testimony with the board about struggling
to comprehend in a traditional school and the feelings of isolation.</p> <p>“This
is a group of students who have special needs,” said County Council
member Deni Taveras (D-Hyattsville). The graduation rate among ELL is
“an egregious oversight that we need to address,” she said.</p> <p>But
Pat Fletcher, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the school board this
year, said it was “misleading” to call the schools “international,”
when it is “primarily for Hispanic students.” She said it is
inappropriate for a school to be designed for English-language learners
while many African American students graduate from county schools with
“little to no mastery of the English language.”</p> <p>“This is
politically motivated to appease a voting population,” she recently told
the school board. “Stop being a pawn in pitting one ethnic group
against another.”</p> <p>Many blamed the divisiveness on the way the
proposal was originally presented, arguing that the process lacked
transparency and was not offered as part of a broader plan to improve
academic achievement systemwide.</p> <p>“If this had been presented as
part of a larger plan of how we are addressing the academic needs of all
of our population, then that would make more sense,” said Peggy
Higgins, a former school board member. But she worries that what has
happened “locks in on a certain position and certain solution for a
smaller group and does not address the larger needs and goals for
everybody.”</p> <p>Largo
High School PTA president Valerie White, who testified during a board
meeting that she is opposed to the school-within-a-school concept at
Largo, said the Largo community has tried for years to get program
enhancements at its high school, where 94 percent of the students are
African American. Those efforts have been unsuccessful.</p> <p>White
said she worried about the disparity that will probably exist in the
two schools at Largo. She described classes in the current school
containing more than 30 students, while the new school would probably
have about 15 students.</p> Washington Post, 12/21/14<br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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