[Lgpolicy-list] [lg policy] Arizona: Parents lie on survey to identify English learners

Tue Nov 25 20:24:38 UTC 2014

Parents lie on survey to identify English learners
Amy Taxin, Associated Press 5:24 p.m. MST November 24, 2014
[image: Rosaisela Rodriguez, Isabel Gutierrez, Rafael Gutierrez]

Rosaisela Rodriguez (center) reads with her children Isabel Gutierrez and
Rafael Gutierrez, at their home in Pleasant Hill, Calif. Rodriguez
deliberately didn't declare that her twin son and daughter knew Spanish
when she enrolled them in school, adding that most 5-year-olds are language
learners, regardless of whether they are bilingual.(Photo: Ben Margot/AP)
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LOS ANGELES – Nieves Garcia came from Mexico at age 6 and spent most of her
elementary school years in California classified as an "English learner,"
even after she had picked up the language. Now a 32-year-old mother, she
didn't want her daughter labeled the same way and subjected to additional
testing.

And so, she lied.

When Garcia signed up her daughter for kindergarten, she answered a
standard four-question survey by saying her family spoke only English at
home, even though her husband doesn't speak the language.

"I just said we spoke English, English, English and English," Garcia said.

California education officials say it's tough to know how many parents lie
on the home-language survey they are required to fill out before their
children start public school. Educators say failing to identify students
who need language assistance can set the children back and violate federal
laws guaranteeing access to education.

Parents like Garcia fear that by acknowledging the truth, their kids will
be siphoned off from native English speakers or stigmatized, and could miss
out on learning opportunities.

Rosaisela Rodriguez deliberately didn't declare that her twin son and
daughter knew Spanish when she enrolled them in school, adding that most
5-year-olds are language learners, regardless of whether they are bilingual.

"If they were placed in the English-language group they would have been
taken out at a certain time or placed in different curriculum," said
Rodriguez, 51, of Pleasant Hill. "This was a very calculated move on my
part."

In an increasingly multilingual society, a slew of states are re-evaluating
how they define and identify English learners in the hope of moving toward
a more unified system, education experts said.

California plans to roll out a new English-language proficiency test in
2016, and is considering changing its home-language survey, said Elena
Fajardo, administrator of the state Department of Education's language
policy and leadership office. The survey was developed in 1980, and the
state's population and immigration patterns have changed since then.

Census data shows that nearly 44 percent of Californians age 5 and older
speak a language other than English. The most common language spoken is
Spanish, and 57 percent of Spanish speakers in the state say they also
speak English very well.

That's a marked shift from 1990, when less than a third of the state's
residents age 5 and older spoke another language, and less than half of
Spanish-speaking Californians claimed to also speak English very well, the
data shows.

Most statesscreen children initially through the home-language survey and
give an English proficiency test to those whose families speak another
language.

In California, more than 200,000 incoming kindergarteners were given the
test in 2012, and only 9 percent were deemed English proficient, according
to state data. Those results have led some parents to slam the use of a
single day of testing of preschoolers — and an exam some say is too
difficult — to determine a child's educational path.

Alison Bailey, a UCLA professor who researches bilingualism, said many
state surveys including California's don't really consider the possibility
that a child might be bilingual.

"There are competent bilingual children who would do as well in an
English-language environment as any other," she said. "The initial cut of
children going in to be assessed may not need to be as high as it is."

Some parents don't want their children classified as English learners
because they fear they won't be able to move into more advanced coursework
in middle and high school due to additional language requirements. Another
reason is that state data show English learners don't perform as well on
the California High School Exit Exam — though students who were initially
English learners and reclassified outperformed their English-only
counterparts on the test.

Cheryl Ortega, director of bilingual education for United Teachers Los
Angeles, said she's seen Spanish-speaking parents write on the home
language survey that English is spoken at home by using the Spanish word
"ingles." She said educators ought to meet with parents before they fill
out the forms and explain the process to dispel concerns.

Earlier this year, Tesha Sengupta-Irving, an education professor in Orange
County, registered her son for kindergarten. At the time, her parents were
visiting and she was speaking to them in their native tongue, Bengali, so
she wrote on her survey that the language was spoken at home.

Her son, who knew but a few words in Bengali, was tested and classified as
an English learner. She said the results were ironic since she had
tirelessly tried to pass the language on to him and still he spoke only
English.

"That survey is the most benign-looking thing ever," said the 38-year-old,
adding it was one of a dozen forms required to enroll her son in school.
"It is catching too many kids."

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/24/english-learners-california-parents-lie-survey/70062292/

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