[lg policy] Massachusetts: Lawmakers urged to rethink English immersion law

[Harold Schiffman]

Lawmakers urged to rethink English immersion law
By Matt Murphy

Posted Oct 04, 2011 @ 04:42 PM

Cambridge —

Armed with fresh findings by the Department of Justice that fault
Massachusetts for failing to adequately train teachers to instruct
students with limited English skills, supporters of bilingual
education on Tuesday called for increased flexibility for school
districts to meet the needs of non-native English speakers. "Limited
English proficient students are languishing in the classroom and it's
affecting the well-being of an entire population of students," said
Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, a Boston Democrat and the author of a bill (H
1065) that would reintroduce bilingual education to Massachusetts
classrooms for the first time in 10 years.

Sen. Sal DiDomenico filed an identical bill (S 197) in the Senate this
session. Both bills were the subject of a hearing Tuesday before the
Committee on Education, co-chaired by Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Rep.
Alice Peisch. The Justice Department issued a report in July blaming a
lack of teacher training on the state's decision not to make
specialized training mandatory, and on outdated training policies that
left certified teachers unprepared to properly instruct
English-language learners.

As of May 2011, more than 45,000 teachers in over 70 percent of the
state's school districts lacked the training required to properly
instruct students with limited English skills, according to the
federal government's review.

Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester requested and received
permission last week from the Board of Elementary and Secondary
Education to pursue an update to the state's teacher training and
certification policies, and plan to present recommendations in
February.

"It's only when the DOJ steps in, the Department of Education acts on
one of our concerns," Sanchez said, lamenting a widening achievement
gap for students with limited English skills.

Sanchez said the lack of progress over the past decade to close that
gap proved that the state's shift in 2002 away from bilingual
education to English immersion programs showed that the current law is
a "failure."

The English learner student population has grown by 51 percent to more
than 67,000 students over the past decade, according to the Department
of Elementary and Secondary Education. English language learners,
according to proponents of the bill, are nine times more likely to
drop out of high school, and are frequently placed into special
education programs at an increased cost to the state.

In 2002, voters approved a statewide ballot initiative abolishing
bilingual education in favor of a system known as sheltered English
immersion. Instead of non-English speakers receiving classroom
instruction in subjects like math, history and science in their native
language until they become fluent in English, students are taught
almost entirely in English with the curriculum designed for students
learning the language.

"The sheltered English immersion program does not work," said
Alejandra St. Guillen, executive director of Oiste. "Districts should
be given the opportunity to teach the students in the ways that best
meets their needs."

St. Guillen described what she considered the "hesitancy" of lawmakers
to change the law out of concern for respecting the will of the voters
established nearly a decade ago at the polls. "This is an example of
where politics gets in the way of good policy and it's clear the
initiative implemented ten years ago is not working."

The bill (H 1065) filed by Sanchez would further regulate the training
and certification of teachers, and allow school districts to craft
education programs for English language learners to best meet the
needs of their student populations. Options would include English
immersion, modified bilingual-world education, transitional bilingual
education, or two-way bilingual education, where English speakers are
exposed to a second language and vice-versa.

Schools would also be required to report frequently on their progress
to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and
demonstrate how parents were being incorporated into the development
of learning programs for ELL students.

Margaret Serpa, a retired English language learner director who worked
in the Malden, Somerville, Fitchburg, and Cambridge public schools,
said districts need the resources to train teachers and the
flexibility to implement programs proven to work for different groups
of students.

Serpa said some schools have removed textbooks written in the native
languages of students in an effort to support the current English
immersion program. She warned that such policies were leaving a
generation of students behind, calling the failure to educate English
learners a "national crisis."

"The kids need to keep reading while their learning English. Why would
you take books out of a school? It's doesn't make any sense," Serpa
said.


Read more: http://www.tauntongazette.com/archive/x432921780/Lawmakers-urged-to-rethink-English-immersion-law#ixzz1Zv7AKFTV


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