[lg policy] Plan for English language learner schools causes conflict in Pr. George’s County

Mon Dec 22 20:48:55 UTC 2014

Plan for English language learner schools causes conflict in Pr. George’s
County

The NAACP is opposing a plan from Prince George's Schools chief Kevin M.
Maxwell, left, to open new programs for English-language learners. (Astrid
Riecken/For The Washington Post )
 By Ovetta Wiggins
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/ovetta-wiggins> December
19
<ovetta.wiggins at washpost.com?subject=Reader%20feedback%20for%20%27Plan%20for%20English%20language%20learner%20schools%20causes%20conflict%20in%20Pr.%20George%E2%80%99s%20County%27>

A plan to open two new high school programs for immigrants and
English-language learners in Prince George’s County has created a rift
between members of the African American and Hispanic communities, with
opponents of the proposal questioning the school district’s decision to use
its limited resources to benefit one group of students over the other.

The county’s chapter of the NAACP
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-naacp-opposes-schools-for-english-language-learners/2014/09/24/35591cfa-4359-11e4-b437-1a7368204804_story.html>
has mounted strong opposition to schools chief Kevin M. Maxwell’s plan to
open two schools next year for 800 English-language learners who are
struggling academically.

The debate surrounding the new schools is new evidence of rising tensions
between the Maryland county’s African Americans, who make up 65 percent of
the Prince George’s population, and Hispanics, who make up almost 15
percent of the county’s population and 26 percent of the school
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/principals-named-for-two-new-high-schools-focusing-on-immigrants-in-pr-geos/2014/10/02/836c86fc-4a61-11e4-a046-120a8a855cca_story.html>population.
The Hispanic population is the fastest-growing minority group in the county.

“This whole thing is designed to change the school system from what we know
today,” said Bob Ross, president of the county’s NAACP chapter. “They are
talking about the needs of the newcomers and putting them ahead of the
needs of those who are already here.”

Del. Joseline A. Pena-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s) said Ross’s words are
“very dangerous” and are creating division at a time when African Americans
and Hispanics need to work together.

“Our issues are the same,” she said. “We are all people of color.”

The Prince George’s school system entered into an agreement with the
International Network for Public Schools and CASA of Maryland earlier this
year to open one school in the Langley Park area and another as a
school-within-a-school program at Largo High School.

Carnegie Corporation of New York has provided a $3 million grant
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-receives-grant-to-help-young-english-language-learners/2014/07/15/28d76b62-0b6e-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html>to
start the programs, which would become the 19th of their kind in the nation
and the first in Prince George’s County. Maxwell has proposed $14 million
in the 2016 fiscal year budget to support them. Similar schools are
operating in the District and in Alexandria.

Ross has questioned whether the schools pass constitutional muster, arguing
that they might violate *Brown v. Board of Education*, the landmark U.S.
Supreme Court decision that found separate public schools for black and
white students violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
NAACP officials have raised questions about the process to open the schools
and what they say was a the lack of community input.

Max Pugh, a spokesman for the school system, said representatives for the
administration met with community members about selecting Largo as a site
for one of the schools.

“While we always strive to communicate well with those involved, there is
sometimes room for improvement,” he said. The school district is planning
to hold focus groups as the process moves forward.

Odis Johnson Jr., chairman of the African American Studies Department of
the University of Maryland, said that the schools for English-language
learners will help the school district address the county’s achievement
gap: 63 percent of ELL students graduated on time, and 74 percent of all
students graduated in four years in 2013.

“Not moving forward with the creation of these ELL schools in Prince
George’s County would not only be a failure to take appropriate action, but
it also would be inconsistent with the spirit of Brown,” Johnson said in a
statement.

Barbara Dezmon, the education chairwoman for the state NAACP, said the
state organization has not taken a position on the schools but is assisting
the local chapter in gathering additional information. She said the issue
is not about race but equity. She is concerned that the discussion will
turn into “a political fireball.”

“This is not one minority confronting a minority group,” Dezmon said. “We
are acting for the good of all students.”

She said it was disturbing to learn that the community was not aware of the
plan to locate the school-within-a-school in their community. “People
should not feel marginalized or disenfranchised,” she said.

The NAACP is asking for data regarding the schools, including the academic
benefits and the social and psychological ramifications.

School system and Hispanic leaders said the International schools have been
successful elsewhere, and they were surprised by Ross’s stance given there
was no opposition from the NAACP when similar schools opened in New York
and California. They said the schools are designed to help English-language
learners of all backgrounds, including African, Asian and European.
Advocates say the schools will provide programming that will meet the needs
of students who are not being adequately served in the system.

English-language learner students, parents and elected officials have
shared testimony with the board about struggling to comprehend in a
traditional school and the feelings of isolation.

“This is a group of students who have special needs,” said County Council
member Deni Taveras (D-Hyattsville). The graduation rate among ELL is “an
egregious oversight that we need to address,” she said.

But Pat Fletcher, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the school board
this year, said it was “misleading” to call the schools “international,”
when it is “primarily for Hispanic students.” She said it is inappropriate
for a school to be designed for English-language learners while many
African American students graduate from county schools with “little to no
mastery of the English language.”

“This is politically motivated to appease a voting population,” she
recently told the school board. “Stop being a pawn in pitting one ethnic
group against another.”

Many blamed the divisiveness on the way the proposal was originally
presented, arguing that the process lacked transparency and was not offered
as part of a broader plan to improve academic achievement systemwide.

“If this had been presented as part of a larger plan of how we are
addressing the academic needs of all of our population, then that would
make more sense,” said Peggy Higgins, a former school board member. But she
worries that what has happened “locks in on a certain position and certain
solution for a smaller group and does not address the larger needs and
goals for everybody.”

Largo High School PTA president Valerie White, who testified during a board
meeting that she is opposed to the school-within-a-school concept at Largo,
said the Largo community has tried for years to get program enhancements at
its high school, where 94 percent of the students are African American.
Those efforts have been unsuccessful.

White said she worried about the disparity that will probably exist in the
two schools at Largo. She described classes in the current school
containing more than 30 students, while the new school would probably have
about 15 students.
Washington Post, 12/21/14

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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