[EDLING:2350] New Jersey: Push for English learners to pass tests

[Francis M Hult]

Via lgpolicy...

>  Posted on Mon, Feb. 12, 2007
> 
> Push for English learners to pass tests
> 
> By Geoff Mulvihill Associated Press
> 
> VENTNOR, N.J. - The day's topic in Sonya Bertini's class is fractions, a
> concept that plenty of fourth graders find foreign. In this Ventnor
> Elementary School classroom, though, practically everything is foreign for
> the students. They hail from all over Latin America: Chile, Mexico, Puerto
> Rico. And then there's Kevin Padilla, who moved to the seashore town from
> Honduras just a few months ago. Switching between English and Spanish,
> Bertini tries to get them all up to speed in fractions. "You need to think
> before you open your mouth," she said after some blurt out a wrong answer.
> "OK, vamos," she said, diving back into the lesson with the Spanish word
> for "Let's go."
> 
> For educators in schools as diverse as Ventnor Elementary, the challenges
> are growing. The complicated business of teaching children the English
> language, as well as how to read, write and do math, is nothing new. But
> the pressure to do it quickly is increasing. Under federal education
> policy, the students who are just learning English are held to the same
> expectations on standardized tests given in English as children who grew
> up speaking English. According to data released last week in the
> Department of Education's annual New Jersey School Report Card,
> three-fourths of the state's 2,400 public schools have three or more
> native languages among students. More than one-third have at least eight
> languages represented.
> 
> Ventnor, a bedroom community whose year-round population of about 11,000
> includes many employees of the casinos in neighboring Atlantic City, is an
> extreme case. Its 1,000 students speak a total of 19 languages. About 20
> percent are considered English-language learners. An additional 30 percent
> are now proficient at English, although it is not their first language.
> The languages are diverse. One class of English as a second language (ESL)
> has five seventh graders with four native languages: Albanian, German,
> Spanish and Vietnamese. And here, even the Spanish speakers come from such
> far-flung places that they speak different dialects. New Jersey is one of
> a handful of states that require some schools to offer bilingual
> education. The theory is that students should not be left behind in
> content areas such as science and math as they get a grasp on English.
> 
> Any district with at least 20 English-language learners who have the same
> first language must teach them in that language. New Jersey has maintained
> that policy even as states such as California and Arizona have abandoned
> bilingual education. In Ventnor, as in many New Jersey communities, that
> requirement applies only to Spanish speakers because the number of
> students speaking other languages is small. Here, Spanish-dominant
> kindergartners are generally taught solely in Spanish, first and second
> graders get a mix of Spanish and English, and third graders are taught
> primarily in English. After second grade, all students spend part of their
> days in English-language classes in subjects such as social studies and
> science.
> 
> "It's a little hard," said Kevin Padilla, 10, a fourth grader freshly
> arrived from Peru using some newly learned English. Children who speak
> languages such as Albanian and Vietnamese never get taught in their native
> language. Those students spend most of their days with the general student
> population, and part in ESL classes where they get extra help. In Jane
> Rosenberger's ESL classroom, where students from all over the world spend
> part of their days, almost everything has a label with the English word
> for it: signs that say clock, ceiling and floor. Being one of a few, or
> the only one, to speak a language can take a toll on students. "It was
> hard for me to make friends here," said Xhuljo Penko, a seventh grader
> from Albania.
> 
> When it comes to standardized tests, the students in ESL and bilingual
> classes are treated nearly the same as other groups of students. In their
> first year in a school district, the test scores of English learners do
> not count toward the federal proficiency guidelines. But after that, they
> do. The students may have instructions for the exams - but not the
> substantive questions - translated, and they get extra time. Under the
> 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law, states must monitor how many
> students in various subgroups, including English learners, pass
> standardized tests. If the number is not high enough, schools risk losing
> federal money or being taken over by the state. So far, enough English
> learners have passed in Ventnor each year. But every three years, the
> percentage of students who must pass goes up. In the 2013-14 school year,
> schools could face sanctions if any students fail.
> 
> "These children have very little chance" of passing the exams this year,
> Bertini said, pointing to a group of fourth graders who have been in the
> United States less than three years. But, she said, "they'll eventually
> pass them, they'll eventually go to college."
> 
> To view the School Report Card, go to http://go.philly.com/reportcard
> 
> http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/16679389.htm