Link to recommendations for using stimulus funds to benefit bilinguals in US public education

[Ari Sherris]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: 
Recommendations for Addressing the Needs of English Language Learners

http://www.stanford.edu/~hakuta/ARRA/

Working Group on ELL Policy 

March 20, 2009

The primary purpose of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
is to stimulate economic recovery.  But ARRA also provides an
extraordinary opportunity to improve educational outcomes for children
most in need.  English language learners (ELLs) are a very large,
rapidly growing, and currently under-served population who stand to
benefit greatly from the attention and resources provided by ARRA.  

The challenges ELL students face are many.  They are most likely to
attend schools with the sparest of resources, staffed by ill-prepared
teachers who are overwhelmed by high concentrations of low-achieving
students.  Even in schools with access to Title I resources, the
attention paid to ELL students may not be appropriately tailored to
their unique needs in learning the English language and in gaining
academic skills and subject matter knowledge.

The infusion of ARRA funds into states and school districts across the
nation can help to improve this situation - if those funds are used
wisely.  This document offers a set of recommendations that target
specific opportunities for improving ELL outcomes through ARRA
allocations to Title I, IDEA and special education, education
technology, statewide data systems, improving teacher quality grants,
early childhood education, the National Science Foundation, and state
stabilization grants.

 

 

 

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