12/4/08

Elizabeth Jimnez, CEO GEMAS Consulting and Advocacy

Introduction
This session will provide an overview of
Major legislation Policies landmark court decisions Ballot initiatives

Participants will examine key statistical data on the make up and size of the English learner population in the US

Terminology to Know
OCR LEP/FEP EL or ELL ELD or ESL SDAIE or Sheltered Instruction Sheltered English Immersion Opportunity to Learn AMAO

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Terminology Changes Over Time

Language Decient Punished for speaking a language other than English Often placed in special education Often retained LES/NES Limited English Speaking/Non-English Speaking Compensatory focus bilingual education only for los pobrecitos LES/NES/MES LEP Limited English Procient EL English Learner AYP sub-group most often failing to meet goal Non-nons Protracted English learners

What Policy Makers Need to Know

Not all EL are Latinos, not all Latinos are EL Not all EL students arrive in kindergarten. Learning a new language takes time, so by denition, middle school EL must play catchup To close the achievement gap, accelerate learning; L1 is a critical tool with which to do so Schools have an obligation to attend to the unique language development needs of EL Lau vs. Nichols (1974), US Supreme Court

Legal History
The courts have long played a role in the education of English learners
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483 (1954) LAU v. Nichols (1974) Castaeda v. Pickard (1981)

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Legislative History

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Title VI Civil Rights Act (1964 ) Bilingual Education Acts (1968 and 1974) State specic bilingual education legislation State ballot initiatives

Legislative History
In 1968 the Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act became law
First time schools changed for the child rather than the child having to change for the school Shifted focus bilingualism became the default preference in hiring

OCR (1970) Interpreting Title VI of Civil Rights Act

Where inability to speak and understand English
excludes national origin minority children from effective participation in the educational programs offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional programs to those students.

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(1974) Lau vs. Nichols

There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers and curriculumfor students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education US Supreme Court

(1981) Castaeda v. Pickard

Set the standard for the courts in examining programs for LEP students. Basically, districts must have: A pedagogically sound plan for LEP students Sufcient qualied staff to implement the plan (includes hiring of new staff and training of current staff) A system established to evaluate the program Castaeda did not require bilingual education programs to meet these standards. It required only that "appropriate action to overcome language barriers" be taken through well-implemented programs.

Anti-Bilingual Education Ballot Initiatives

June 3, 1998 California voters pass Proposition 227 virtually banning bilingual education except under certain special conditions and establishing a one-year "sheltered English immersion" program for all LEP students November 7, 2000 Arizona voters pass Proposition 203, a very similar measure November 2002, Massachusetts voters pass ballot initiative Question 2

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Anti-Bilingual Education Ballot Initiatives

November 2002 Colorado voters defeat Amendment 31, a similar ballot initiative November 2008 Oregon voters pass Measure 58

NCLB

Identied and focused attention on subgroups, including English learners Has had the side-effect of narrowing the curriculum AMAOs 1 and 2 focus on progress and attainment of English prociency

NCLB Requires all States to:

Identify English learners Measure their English prociency Include them in state testing programs that assess academic skills

Source: www.ets.org

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NCLB Requires States to:

Establish statewide English prociency standards Assess each ELL with a statewide English prociency assessment that reects these standards ELL students are expected to participate in regular state assessments in academic content with all other students grades 3-8 and in high school States are expected to include the assessments of ELL students in determining Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).1

NCLB Requires States to:

Set Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAO) for ELLs in English-language prociency and performance on academic content. Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives must include: Annual increases in progress in learning English Annual increases in attainment of Englishlanguage prociency Making Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) in the academic content areas

Top 5 Languages in US Schools

Spanish Vietnamese Hmong Chinese Korean

3,598,451 88,906 70,768 46,466 43,969

0.045% 1.953% 1.555% 1.021% 0.966%

Source: Kindler,A.L. 2002

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States with Greatest ELL Student Population Growth from 94-95 - 04-05
State South Carolina Kentucky Indiana North Carolina Tennessee Alabama # ELLs From 04 - 05 15,396 11,181 31,956 70,288 19,355 15,295 % Growth From 94 - 95 714.2% 417.4% 407.8% 371.7% 369.9% 336.8%

Sources: U.S. Department of Educations Survey of the States Limited English Proficient Students and Available Educational Programs and Services, 1991-1992 through 2000-2001 summary reports; state publications (1998-1999 data); enrollment totals from the National Center for Educational Statistics Core of Common Data, 1998-1999

School Districts with Largest Number of ELL Enrollment within each State and Percent of ELL Enrollment for Selected Districts
California 565,254 Los Angeles San Diego Santa Ana Florida 165,084 Dade County Broward County Palm Beach County Texas 255,409 Houston Dallas Ft. Worth 61,144 50,658 21,342 29% 32% 27% 62,180 29,612 19,599 17% 11% 12% 326,893 38,790 38,207 45% 28% 61%

Opportunity to Learn Lawsuits

Williams vs. State of California settled in 2004 State failed to exercise its constitutional obligation to provide equal access to education for all students in the state by allowing decient facilities, uncredentialed teachers, and inadequate or insufcient instructional materials.

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(1974) Lau vs. Nichols

There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers and curriculumfor students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education US Supreme Court

Topic Review
The rapid growth of and extension beyond the border states of US English learner population Overview of legislation and lawsuits The increasing role of the federal government in the education of all students including English learners

Did You Know..?

There are 5.5 million ELL students in U.S. public schools who speak more than 400 different languages. Eighty percent of ELL students speak Spanish as their rst language. This constitutes more than 12 percent of all students in public elementary and secondary schools.

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References
www.ets.org, Current State of EnglishLanguage Learners in the U.S. K-12 Student Population, Rose M. Payn and Michael T. Nettles

Kindler, A.L., Survey of the States Limited English Procient Students and Available Educational Programs and Services 2000-2001 Summary Report (2002) Peabody Journal of Education, v80 n3 p126-153 2005