State Commissioner John King, Regents’ Chancellor Merryl Tisch, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Chancellor Dennis Walcott are proud of the Common Core tests that failed 70% of the children of New York State. They say it is “”very good news” that the tests got much harder. They don’t care that the achievement gaps between the advantaged and disadvantaged grew larger. They bask in children’s defeats.
El Diario/La Prensa newspaper, written primarily for the Hispanic population in New York City, ran the following editorial, which reported the devastation to children who are not fluent in English, mostly Spanish-speaking. Only 11.4% of the English language learners were proficient in math. Only 3.4% were proficient in English.
Why are the state’s policymakers so pleased with these terrible results? Are they serial child abusers?
The mayoral candidates have participated in many debates and forums and campaigned all over New York City. But to date, most of them have not discussed or offered plans to improve bilingual education.
In New York City’s public school system, there are 159,162 students who are known as English-language learners (ELL’s). Of them, 100,933 are Latinos.
Among ELL high school students the four-year graduation rate is below 50%, well below the average rate of 62% for non ELL students.
While all results were expected to be low, the outcomes of the most recent student testing under the new Common Core standards paint a bleaker picture. ELLs had proficiency rates of 11.4% and 3.4% in math and English, respectively.
These wide gaps in academic achievement need to be closed, for the sake of these students and the future of this city’s workforce. When strong leadership, teaching and adequate resources are in place, ELL’s are more successful and score higher.
The next mayor must make bilingual education a top priority. And this is a mission not only for the incoming chief executive but also for elected officials, community groups and state government. Among the critical steps needed:
The state must monitor and ensure that the city meets the requirements tied to the funds it receives. There are resources for ELL’s, but distribution is up to the city and whether they are reaching students in need is a big question.
The city’s Department of Education must properly train and qualify teachers and principals to meet the needs of ELL students.
Taking into account that 50% of ELL children in pre-K and kindergarten don’t speak English fluently, bilingual early childhood programs should be created.
The language of tests must match the educational level of the students. Currently, English-language learners must take standardized tests in English, which doesn’t allow for a real gauge of their academic progress. A transition process that is adjusted according to the student’s skills should be considered.
For too long, the challenge of delivering a quality education to ELL’s has been inadequately addressed and put on a backburner. The next mayor must ensure that New York City rises to a first-class public educational system and that begins with making sure all of our kids have access to excellent learning and support
Posting this question in several spots, hoping to get an insightful answer. Is it true that charters discriminate on the basis of ability/IQ?
Is it always the case?
In the Buffalo Public Schools, the Charter Schools will not accept students with special needs due to a lack of services. In addition, if a child “misbehaves” they can be expelled and then returned to the BPS. However, although Buffalo now has to pay to educate this student, the funding remains with the Charter.
Personal Observation: Many of the Charter Schools are Neighborhood Schools which leads to segregation (I.e. all black or mostly white schools). The test scores reflect the neighborhood and are no different than the public school scores for that area.
Regarding Charters, it’s really all about where they are located and how they choose to operate. Some are inclusive, some are not. I taught at two charter schools in AZ. One was a haven for the discipline problems that had burned their bridges in public school districts in our area. Most of these students were expelled, in some cases for life, for violent offenses. But since a butt in a seat is bucks in the coffer, the director/owner would take any and all comers. I lasted one year there.
There are some nationally recognized charters in AZ, such as BASIS, which has a very rigid entrance process. We had several BASIS students transfer into our charter due to the rigor required. They just weren’t able to handle it. But these schools get results, if the students can keep up with their class and homework, up to 4 hours each night.
Regarding ELLs, this is a tough nut to crack. Along with the influx of immigrants, mostly Hispanic, comes the added burden of accommodations for our ELL students. These are more unfunded mandates, that go on top of the other unfunded mandates.
My heart goes out to students struggling to just understand their surroundings on a day-to-day basis, and I certainly don’t have the answers. In a perfect world, we’d have high stakes tests in each ELL’s native language, but then wouldn’t that in itself open up another new set of challenges? How many ELL students are really that proficient in their native language arts skills?
In my experience, having taught in several districts with a high percentage of students where English was their second language, much of the challenge for these students was trying to overcome their deficits in their native language, while learning English. The most successful programs I saw were the immersion programs and dual language programs that gave these students the assistance they needed from dual language teachers with the skills and the heart to help make a difference for these students.
As I said in the beginning though, these are expensive programs and they are not extensively pursued throughout the regions with high enrollments of non-English learners.
However, I’ve seen that those students who continue to work hard, with the right help, can flourish. Such as several young Mexicans I had the pleasure to teach in Washington, who had been in the states for only a few months. Working with proficient Spanish speaking students in my classes, these students made great strides their first full school year, and by the end of their second year were as well written as most of my English speaking students. I might add that math is a universal language, and as long as most ELL students understand the question and what its asking, they can usually do as well as any other student.
It’s not a matter of ability, it’s a simple matter of communication.
This issue (I won’t call it a “problem”) will only increase in severity as immigration reform continues. It will be interesting to see how our educational system ebbs and flows with this challenge.
In the Buffalo Public Schools, not only is there a large ELL population, there are also a large number of refugees. There are a few schools which have a large portion of this population, plus quite a few special education classes. Needless to say, their scores are the lowest in the city (which is already low, except for a few schools with application requirements ). King has threatened to close these schools due to their low test scores.(We are talking about schools where over 35 languages are spoken). Other models of reform have included transferring out half the teachers and getting a new principal. I have seen teachers cry because they have built relationships with these children who need stability in their lives after the traumas they have experienced in their war torn countries. King has not taken the ELL population into consideration. Now he wants these schools to hook up with an outside district vocational program. There is also a call out to the suburban districts to take on some of the students in these “failing” schools. Of course it is every man (or school) for themselves. The suburban schools claim they have their own problems and are not willing to help out the city. These are definitely troubling times.
Bad enough that the kids that are fluent in English don’t stand a chance, the ELL’s are doomed. John King must go. Go get a job with Pearson John.
As a NYC teacher of ELLs, and having a Master’s degree in linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, I agree that there need to be changes in some of the NY state policies concerning ELLs. However, I have to disagree with the editorial’s call for a mandate of bilingual education. I don’t know if the author of the editorial is aware, but Albany has been pushing hard for bilingual education, and there are many fine programs. However, a state mandate is not the answer to the low performance of ELLs. As with most problems, the answer to increased literacy among ELLS is not going to lie in a miracle cure. In fact, studies are conflicting on the benefits of bilingual programs. Yes, I do know that native language proficiency contributes to literacy, but many of our students are not literate in their native language. What state mandates do is usually say ALL must submit. When mandates say this, they don’t take into consideration the age of the student, the lack of formal schooling, etc. There is no one size fits all solution. The decision whether to have a bilingual program, dual language, or stand alone programs should rest with the constituents of the school. Ideally, all children in the U.S. should be bilingual. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.
The author also failed to point out that a second year English Language Learner must take the ELA test. Again, I will make my usual analogy – if I was in my second year studying Chinese, I would not get a 3 or 4 on the Chinese Language Arts exam. I would not be deemed proficient. Does this mean that the school has failed me. No. It means that it takes 7 to 10 years to become academically proficient in another language. What NY state should do is not have an 8th grader who has been in the school system for a year and a half subjected to the common core 8th grade ELA exam. It is bizarre.
Why would it be the ‘ideal’ for ALL children in the country to be bilingual in English and Spanish? “Ideally, all children in the U.S. should be bilingual.” Why is that preferable to ALL children being fluent in English?
In Buffalo it is not just Spanish, we have Urdo, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnam Namese, … Over 35 languages (sometimes in the same school). After 1 year in the US, how can they be expected to do well on exams which native speakers find challenging which also have a cultural bias towards people born in America. And these non natives work very hard to absorb as much education as possible (unlike many of their Buffalo born counterparts). It seems ridiculous to me.
OK. So then what? A waiver for three years?
Harlan, RL did not suggest that students should not be fluent in English. RL also said bilingual. The second language does not necessarily have to be Spanish. We are hearing that our students need to compete in a global economy. Knowing a second language is an advantage. Brain research shows that the younger you are, the easier it is to learn that language.
NYS use to have a 2 or 3 year waiver for a newcomer to take the test. One year is just too quick to ask a child to take the ELA exam .As to bilinguality, by definition it means English Language fluency as well as a 2nd (language of your choice) and yes of course it would be wonderful if our students could be bi or trilingual as many Europeans are.
I agree that there should be a 2 or 3 year waiver. What happened to it?
Before I became an teacher(8 years ago, second career), I didn’t see the harm of testing. I do now. It’s morphed into something way beyond the original intent. I don’t think the general public understands this. We need to change the focus of our argument before the public.
There are too many TEACHERS who are just now realizing the impact of testing on their own classrooms. With the new year starting, they are shocked they will now be judged on impossible standards and flawed tests.
There will be a teacher shortage soon in NYS, as many of my colleagues, who are master teachers, are counting the days until they can retire. And if they do use the scores to fire teachers, who are they going to get to replace them?
“The next mayor must ensure that New York City rises to a first-class public educational system and that begins with making sure all of our kids have access to excellent learning and support.”
Not only the children need support but the parents because they need to speak both languages as well to help support their child’s learning experiences. If the parents get the help I see efforts being reinforced at home.
I wonder… if children who speak only English go to live in other countries that speak in languages other than English… do those countries give them high-stakes tests in the “other language” and then blame their teachers when they do poorly?
Good point, Hannah. Maybe in Chile?
Does France make any accommodation for speakers of English, Swahili, etc.? If you are Turkish in Germany, and you attend state schools, are you instructed in Turkish or German? If you are Swiss, in the German cantons and speak Switzerdeutsch, are you taught in your mother tongue or must you learn Hochdeutsch to progress in school? If you are Korean, and emigrate to the US, are you given bilingual instruction here, in Korean and English? If you are a foreign student from China enrolled in, say, the University of Michigan, are you given instruction in Chinese and in English? If I immigrated to Norway, and enrolled in a Norwegian school, would I be taught in English until I was proficient in Norwegian? If I am Mexican and immigrate to NYC . . . ?
I doubt that France has been invaded by Pearson yet. Immigrants and their kids learn the new language fast, but if you’re a 10 year old who just came to the US is this test a fair assessment of the kids potential? I think not. Nice try though Harlan.
After one year, no, such a test is absolutely unfair. My question is WHY are such kids, the ESL kids, are not exempted from the CCSS tests for, say, 3 years? Or would THAT be unfair because it would be “lying” to them and to their parents about where they were that year!!!! As long as the tests of such students are NOT used in evaluating the teacher or the school, I don’t see any unfairness. In any case, I thought that the CCSS assessments were originally intended to track progress from year to year for each individual student, but now it seems that the tests are measuring students against the standard rather than where they were in the previous year. That’s an administrative decision isn’t it, or is it part of the Law of God Arne Duncan?
Harlan, this is an old post, but if you’re reading this, I have to tell you something:
I do think kids should be bilingual, and the other language does not necessarily have to be Spanish.
As someone who has well acquired French and Spanish, I can see first hand the need master English and at least one other language.
I agree wholheartedly with your point about ESL kids and testing!!!
In New York State, years ago, ESL kids WERE EXEMPT from all standardized testing for FIVE whole years. Then when GW Bush and NCLB came into play in his fist term, the exemption was shortened to 3 years. Toward the end of his second term, the exemption was eliminated, meaning that if a child came “right off the boat”, was admitted into a public school, and the standardized tests were being given the next week, that child was now mandated and legally required to take ALL the tests, no ifs, and, or buts.
The law was continued by Obama, and has not changed in NY State.
I would venture to say that it’s probably the same in most if not all states.
The previous exemptions arose form the universal research that it takes anywhere from 5 to 7 years (obviously the federal government used the lower figure) or 7 to 10 years to fully acquire academic English. I don’t know that I agree with the latter, but the former acquisition period is reasonable if the program and teaching are robust and engagin. Under the 5 year and even 3 year exemption, ESL kids were STILL given local assessments, obviously, to guide teachers in drivng their instruction and practices. Some kids in districts would enter a bridge program for 5 to 10 months where the standard curriculum was dropped for them, and they were given basic English, like naming all your vegetables, weather, employment, modes of transportation, clothing, going to the market, etc. . . . plus they were taught grammar through conversation and some pencil and paper.
Today, this practice has dwindled, as the state has pushed for immediate academic immersion, with ESL kids learning the same exact terminology, reading and math skills, and citical thinking skills in CCSS that non-ESL kids do.
I am not saying whether that’s a good thing or bad thing. It has its pros and cons with my experience.
But the idea that someone who arrives here and does not speal the language is now thrown into tests that evaluate him and his teacher is, well you can fill in that blank.
Now, Harlan, getting back to my humorous side, You quoted Norway and France about how they handle students. . . . Better watch out deferring to those red commie countries; you have your tea party reputation to maintain. . . .
Other countries only focus on their brightest and best students. There is a high suicide rate in Japan of students who have brought dishonor to their families by not being accepted into advanced programs. The US has an extremely diverse population (vs Finland), where all students are guaranteed a public education. Our brightest and best are extremely competitive with other countries. Our government is comparing apples and oranges. If our education system is so bad, why do so many foreign students apply to our colleges?
We need to stop worrying about other countries (many of their top students will emigrate here anyway). Remember, Einstein wasn’t born in the US and Edison, who was, was labeled retarded by the Public School System.
Let’s just focus on educating our students in a loving, considerate way, without tearing their egos and dignity apart.
Oh, and yes, the large number of foreign students at SUNY at Buffalo do take English Language classes. My son’s girlfriend from Brazil, went to Toronto for a month last October to take an extensive English Language class ( and her English is already pretty good). She would have come here to school, but she couldn’t get a visa.
An aside: She carved a jack-o-lantern and went trick or treating with my grandson for an American experience and we also got her some Beef on Weck and Chicken Wings from Duffs – the same restaurant that O’Bama visited when he came to Buffalo a few years ago).
What’s “Beef on Weck”?
Buffalo is famous for their Roast Beef sandwiches on a kimmelwick roll. (A salted roll).
You throw a fit when Kevin Orr calls city of Detroit employees ‘dumb, lazy, and rich’, but you just called New York policy makers ‘serial child abusers’. Wow. How about less name calling and more about those content rich curriculum that seem to only be found in schools of choice.
The truth hurts.
Cynthia, before you totally disregard the notion of this being child abuse, I invite you to spend time in several classrooms over the course of the year. I work in a small school district compared to NYC. My school has quite a few Hispanic speakers. We also have an Arabic population. My classroom last year had a German speaker and students who knew Japanese and the language of Thailand. My school also houses the regions emotional disabilities classroom. I’d like to share a specific example of testing abuse from that room. One student, “John,” came to this room from another district. He was in fifth grade. Because of his emotional issues, his ability to learn in a traditional classroom was hampered. As a result, he was reading significantly below grade level. That alone is enough to destroy a child who really just wants to be seen as “normal.” We worked really hard to provide a rich literacy environment and find topics that he would like to read about. He was making great improvements. While he improved more than a grade level, he was not reading at a fourth grade level. What do you think happened when it came time for the state test? Knowing that he couldn’t comprehend what some politician somewhere said he should had the same effect as a parent shouting at a child, “You are dumb. You are worthless. You are no good.” We did what we could to highlight his gains and shout about his strengths. The rest of the school year was a fight to get the student back who was start to enjoy reading. We now have to take pre and post tests that will predict how our students will perform on the state test in three subject areas. Up to 14 times a year we are sitting students down to a test that is not developmentally appropriate for them, does not measure the gains they have made, and reinforces the notion that they are stupid. I strongly encourage to really listen to what teachers are doing in the classrooms before buying into sound bites on television.
BTW, this same student knew more about engines than idea. He was repairing lawn mowers and working with adults at the local speedway on race cars. If he was tested on this skill, he would score above proficient.
*That should be I do. Didn’t catch the auto correct.
I taught in a testing grade in NYC this past year. One of my students came to the US the previous April, after the test. He was highly educated in his native language, but was in the silent phase — essentially a newcomer, because he was isolated from English while he was at home over the summer. We believed him to be exempt the entire school year, and found out a week before the ELA that he was not. (He was enrolled during the make-up period the previous year.) I was so proud that he finally felt comfortable enough to ask for help — but he had to sit through the entire test with no hope of passing. The tests aren’t appropriate for any children, but especially not students from diverse backgrounds who lack the language and cultural knowledge assumed by the test-makers.
I wonder if some of the ELL students’ parents came to America wanting a better education for there children. How sad for them.
Your sympathy should depend on where the student is comming from. One of the students in the class I taught this summer was raised in Kibera. He had never used a flush toilet or taken a shower until he came to the US when he was 20.
The fact that this student lived in such dire poverty in Kibera is absolutely NO excuse for us to let our better democracy here become worse and further plutocratized.
Your theory of relativity is the usual abject failure, wrought with your usual disconnect.
It seems to me that you should evaluate a persons choices by looking at the available options the person had to choose from.
It seems to me that you make absolutely no sense, are cryptic, isolated, disconnected, illogical, self absorbed, self centered, and void of any real feeling, critical thinking, and humanism.
Please crawl back into the petri dish you came from . . . .
Would you argue that my student would be better off back in Kenya? That would seem to be Alabama teacher’s point, that he would not get a better education here than there.
I would argue that the realm of relativity means nothing in the current politicized climate of public education.
We are hard pressed to undue the mess the reform movement has created because most public schools are not in any crisis, other than the shrinking tax dollars that are being allocated to other agendas. Poverty is not being addressed in the United States in any serious, systemic way.
I am not interested in what goes on in Kenya nearly as much as I am in our very own public schools here. . . . A bad situation here is not let off the hook because a Kenyan had it much worse in his own country. . . .
Who is letting anyone off the hook? Just pointing out that students who come to the United States often do get a better education than they would in their home country.
Buffalo has a large refugee population, that have to be educated along with immigrants and Buffalo bred students. Refugees get help for 90 days from government agencies to adapt to our culture and are given one year before they have to pass the state standards/common core. My daughter did a college internship with the International Institute plus continued to volunteer there until she graduated and started full time employment. She still is in contact with one of the families she assisted and visits on a regular basis as a friend. Although the students work hard, it takes more than a year to adjust, yet the scores for these children are not prorated, so it appears as if they are not being properly educated, when the opposite is true. King condemns the teachers in these schools and has threatened to close them down due to their understandably low test scores. That is just one of the reasons why these children matter.
The saddest part of this testing fiasco is it is bound to damage the self-esteem of the test takers. Many years ago a mentor of mine told that self-esteem is a person’s most valuable possession. Our Education officials are now claiming they lied to these children when they told them they were smart and now they are telling them they are failures.
Diane, you are absolutely correct in labeling this as abuse. An adult that trashes the self-esteem of a child solely for their own benefit is a bully and a coward.
This is absolutely child abuse and it’s also educational neglect because students needs are not being met. It’s very frustrating and I won’t let my children be subjected to it.
The evidence on bilingual education is decidedly NOT mixed. Research is clear that developing fluency/proficiency in L1 (native language) helps develop fluency in L2. Please read anything by Stephen Krashen or Jim Cummins. Offering bilingual education should NOT be optional
The school where I worked had a Spanish Immersion program where half the students were native born Spanish speaking, (mainly from Puerto Rico, but also other countries in South America) and the other half English speaking students from Buffalo. The program started in Pre-K and the students were taught mainly in Spanish, with ELL lessons for the Spanish speaking kids. Each year more Instruction in English was added. By fourth grade all students were bilingual. It really worked,. Technically they could have passed NYS Regents exam in Spanish.
However, it was an expensive program with small class sizes and extra staff. There were also many special enrichment activities involving the parents and children which enhanced the experience, plus field trips to Spanish speaking countries (lots of fund raising).
I talked to Stephen Krashen about the program and, as a school librarian, he encouraged me to purchase as many books in Spanish as possible, for both the teachers and students to use. I begged for and received some start up money, used part of my budget, and scarfed up books from other school libraries in Buffalo which had discontinued their Spanish speaking programs. By the time the first group had graduated from fourth grade I had over 1000 books, although I needed to purchase more higher level fiction appropriate for good readers. Krashen preaches that recreational reading is the best way to improve reading skills.
It worked, but whether this program will survive with proposed budget cuts is still in question.
In 2001 Paul Wellstone stated:
without greatly increased resources more testing would simply set up poor children to fail.” This quote is found in Jal Mehta’s new book.
Mehta also quotes David Shreve that NCLB was “written by a bunch of 25 year olds in Washington who know nothing about states or schools.”
David Shreve worked with National Conference on State Legislatures and defined the law as “egregious example of top-down , one-size fits all” federal reform. Mehta also claims that Kennedy told the union to “soft -pedal” (my term) their objections to go along with bipartisan efforts.
BOOK: “The ALLURE OF ORDER: High Hopes, Dashed Expectations and the Troubled Question to Remake American Schooling. 2013 Oxford University Press.
Isn’t it “funny” that everyone’s an expert by virtue of the fact that they were once a student, so of course they know how schools should be run. I am curious about how many of these decision makers actually went to public school.