Page 13 - ELG1807 July Issue 459

US Department of Education US Department of Education ANGER AS DEDICATED OFFICE

NEWS

FOR ELLS COMES UNDER THREAT

By Anna Zarra Aldrich
Betsy DeVos is looking to diminish May by a group of civil rights
organisations also sharply criticised
the role of the federal Office for the motion.
English Language Acquisition ‘Dual-hatting another political
(OELA) by folding it into the appointee [as director] would
larger Office of Elementary and
necessarily and inevitably diminish
PIC Secondary Education. the time, attention and supporting
The plan will eliminate the
expertise and analysis applied to
position of director of the office.
Many Democratic congressional EL issues, as statutorily required,
and may well exacerbate staffing
leaders have voiced their shortfalls in OELA,’ the letter said.
opposition to DeVos’ plan. DeVos’ office responded
At the end of May, a bipartisan saying, ‘Once implemented,
group of legislators wrote her a the department knows that its
letter about the move, warning, proposed changes will enhance
‘Without a seat at the table, department operations and
the needs of ELs are likely to be leverage resources to better serve
ignored.’ English-learner students and their
The letter said that its families.’
signatories found the proposal Kenji Hakuta, professor
‘deeply concerning’ and were emeritus at the Stanford University
worried that this move would lead Graduate School of Education,
the Department to ‘retreat on the told Education Week that scrapping
federal role in educational equity the OELA could prompt state
for English learners’. agencies to merge or abandon their
A separate letter sent in early ELL offices.

Never talk
down to ELLs COMMENT: ‘ELLs will once more
be destined to the educational
language arts assessments. A wrote DeVos a letter claiming that periphery’
report published by Achieve some of the plans violated ESSA,
Unidos US, a civil rights and particularly the rule that the Public schools have been served, our focus on making every
advocacy group for Hispanics in performance of ELLs and other held accountable for student teacher an ELL teacher, training
the US, stressed this, saying states subgroups should be factored results, via testing, for decades. teachers in co-teaching and peer
must be ‘intentional about setting into the overall assessment of a Concurrently, they have been coaching, and our Newcomer
ambitious yet achievable goals for school’s performance. asked to do more with less: less programme would be in jeopardy.
ELLs for academic achievement ‘Your failure to implement support, less funding, fewer Our nationally recognised first-
in all core content areas’. this requirement will result programs and diminishing generation programme would also
‘We are pleased to see a sharper in an incomplete picture of expertise. be scaled back.
focus on English learner student school performance that leaves The most vulnerable student These are programmes that
achievement under ESSA,’ communities of colour, low- groups have often been used as have made a significant difference
Michael Cohen, president of income parents, parents of a political football, being tossed in the achievement of ELLs.
Achieve, told Language Magazine. students with disabilities and back and forth based on the policy The old adage that you get
‘However, as these new reports parents of students who are du jour. ELLs are no exception more of what you focus on (and
show, there is still room for English learners in the dark,’ the to this. less of what you don’t focus on)
improvement with regard to goal- letter said. Betsy Devos wants to scuttle will undoubtedly be proved true.
setting for EL students’. DeVos herself has criticised the Office of English-language Without the ongoing focus on
The Midwestern state of some of the states’ plans, claiming Acquisition and subsume it within the teaching and learning of ELLs,
Iowa has the largest gap in its she had seen ‘too many’ that only the office for elementary and they will once more be destined
expectations of ELLs and non- met ‘the bare minimum required secondary education. to the educational periphery
ELLs. by the law’. With five million ELLs now in where traditionally underserved
The state’s goal is that 80 Florida’s original plan, which US schools, and continued growth populations lose their voices and
per cent of all students achieve the state submitted last autumn, expected, this is not the time for achievement gaps widen.
academic proficiency on the did not include an English upheaval at the federal level.
grade 11 English Language Arts language proficiency measure and Without the continued federal Cathy Beck and Heidi Pace are
exam, but only 26 per cent of was rejected. Nearly 10 per cent funding, most school districts co-authors of Leading Learning
its more than 27,000 ELLs must of Florida state school students and local schools will need to for ELLs: Strategies for Success.
meet this standard. are ELLs. scrap much of their programming (2017). Routledge.
The Department of Education Florida resubmitted its plan in for ELLs. Thus, by definition
has so far approved 49 of 52 state April with revised provisions for certain practices, professional
plans, including those of D.C. and assessing English proficiency. development and programmes
Puerto Rico. The state is still awaiting would be discarded.
But in March a group of approval along with California To make this personal, in
concerned members of Congress and Utah. the school district we recently
editorial@elgazette.com 13

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