ESL Students struggle to keep up with peers

[Harold F. Schiffman]

"Stuck in a spin cycle" - San Gabriel Valley Tribune,
12/4/04

ESL students struggle to keep up with peers according
to a report by Cal Poly Pomona and So. California
Edison.

www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,205%257E12220%257E2575478,00.html

By Michelle Rester
Staff Writer


Friday, December 03, 2004 - Area students who speak English as a second
language score below other students in all subjects at a rate that doubles
by the time they hit 10th grade, according to a report looking at
education in the San Gabriel Valley. It's a fast-growing group that
includes about 30 percent of students in the San Gabriel Valley. It
appears they never acquire enough language and literacy skills to keep up
with other students as they become older and are exposed to more difficult
course work.

"Despite district efforts to change these patterns, analysis over the past
two years shows very little improvement with trend patterns remaining
almost identical year to year,' according to a report by researchers at
Cal Poly Pomona, "The Conditions of K-12 Education in the Greater San
Gabriel Valley.' The report was funded by Southern California Edison.
"More than any other factor, learning English as a second language remains
the greatest predictor of low student achievement, even greater than
socioeconomic status.'

As many as 70 percent of the 10,400 students in the Mountain View School
District in El Monte are English Language Learners from kindergarten
through eighth grade. Some eventually are redesignated as proficient in
English, but many never make it, officials said. "I think it's a really
complicated problem and I don't think that there's a simple answer to it,'
said Jane Russo, assistant superintendent of educational services. "I
think some of the issues that English Language Learners have to deal with
are like those of other students. So it could be a difficulty in learning,
it could be they didn't learn in a research-based program or didn't have
enough phonics early enough. What they all need is a structured English
language program.'

Russo believes the English Language Learners in her district have made
improvements in the last year, after a new program was put in place that
puts more attention on language development. Students learning English
receive up to an extra hour each day in English language development,
while other students work on something else, Russo said.

Even when English Language Learners begin San Gabriel Valley schools in
the primary grades, many never pick up the language enough to do well in
any of their subjects from history to math, said Joan Bissell, dean of the
College of Education and Integrative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona. "By grade
10, the difference between English language learners and all students has
doubled,' Bissell said. "It's really quite a call to action.'

"These differences, which are manifested in the early grades and increase
by the later grades, have significant educational, social and economic
implications since these students make up about one-third of the school
population,' according to the report.