Campaign for High School Equity to Congress: English Language Learners Are Being Left Behind

[Harold Schiffman]

Campaign for High School Equity to Congress: English Language Learners
Are Being Left Behind



    Coalition Calls for Stronger Provisions for English Language
Learners in NCLB Reauthorization



    WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Campaign for High
School Equity, the only coalition of leading civil rights groups to focus
on high school education reform, held a briefing for policymakers yesterday
to address changes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that would ensure
stronger provisions for the more than five million English language learner
(ELL) students enrolled in America's public school system.



    While ELL students represent the fastest growing segment of students,
they are among the country's lowest performing. For instance, in 2007, only
4 percent of eighth-grade ELL students scored at or above a "proficient"
level on the reading portion of the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, compared to 31 percent of non-ELL students. In addition, only 49
percent of ELL students graduate from high school on time, with a regular
diploma.



    Phitsamay Uy, board chair for the Southeast Asia Resource Action
Center, joined Goode and coalition members Peter Zamora, regional general
counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and
Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American
Citizens, at the briefing. Uy stressed that the needs of many Southeast
Asian students, especially those who are English language learners, are
overlooked as a result of the model minority myth that stereotypes all
Asian Americans as doing well academically.



    "Many of these children are trying to learn a new language at the same
time as learning a new subject. Their success needs to be defined by
academic achievement, not English-language proficiency alone," said Uy. She
noted that, after Spanish, Vietnamese and Hmong are the two most common
primary languages of ELL students.



    Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) and Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) made remarks at
the briefing, showing their support for the Campaign's recommendations to
safeguard the civil rights of those students whose proficiency in spoken
and/or written English is not yet strong enough to permit them to succeed
in an English-language classroom setting without extra support. The Campaign
called on Congress to incorporate the following priorities into NCLB reform:



    -- Require the public reporting of data broken down by students' racial
and ethnic backgrounds in order to highlight subgroups of students;

    -- Hold high schools accountable for increasing graduation rates for
all student subgroups and consider graduation rates on an equal footing
with high-quality assessments aligned to college and work readiness in
determining high school quality;

    -- Provide high-quality assessments and instruction that help to
improve student reading and math skills without sacrificing their access to
high-level academic subjects;

    -- Give students excellent teachers, and provide parents with adequate
supports so they can play a more confident and informed role in their
children's education; and

    -- Ensure that federal policy provides sufficient resources to serve
all students, particularly ELLs.



    For more of the Campaign's recommendations on strengthening NCLB to
better serve students of color, visit their Web site at
http://www.highschoolequity.org.



    The Campaign for High School Equity is a diverse coalition of national
civil rights organizations representing communities of color that believe
high schools should have the capacity and motivation to prepare every
student for graduation, college, work, and life. The Campaign was formed to
address the unequal public education system that fails to provide
high-quality education to students of color and youth from low-income
neighborhoods. Members of the Campaign include the Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights Education Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens,
the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Association
of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the National
Council of La Raza, the National Indian Education Association, the National
Urban League, and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. The Alliance
for Excellent Education serves as the Campaign's convener and coordinator.


http://www.highschoolequity.org

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