New Jersey: Push for English learners to pass tests

[Harold F. Schiffman]

 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

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