Los Angeles has decided that the best way to improve the language skills of students who don’t speak English is to segregate them with others who don’t speak Emglish.
A group of 17 principals objected to the plan to segregate English learners, Many teachers also opposed segregating the students by language.
Thousands of educators and parents oppose the new policy. “In recent weeks, a group of southeast L.A. principals have mounted a rare challenge to district policy, teachers have flooded their union office with complaints, and parents have launched protest rallies and petition drives urging L.A. Unified to postpone the class reorganizations until next year.
“Kids with little or no English are going to be segregated and told they’re not good enough for the mainstream,” said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, a Granada mother of a kindergartner who gathered 162 parent signatures seeking a postponement and spoke against the policy at an L.A. Board of Education meeting last week. “Kids learn from their peers, and they’re not going to be able to do that anymore.”
“Marking the latest chapter in California’s fierce language wars, the furor over class placements for those learning English raises the controversial question of which is more effective: separating students by fluency level or including them in diverse classes. Critics are also upset that the change is coming two months into the school year, after students have bonded with classmates and teachers have developed classroom lessons and routines. Opponents blame the district and local schools for the disruption.
“Although the district adopted segregated classes as official policy for all schools in 2000, it has not been widely practiced or enforced, according to officials from both L.A. Unified and the teachers union.”
But that changed this year. L.A. Unified settled a complaint by the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which contended that the district had failed to provide adequate services to students learning English.
Katherine Hayes, the district’s chief research scientist, told teachers last week that district data show that students placed in classes with peers of similar language level progress more rapidly toward fluency than those in mixed-level classes. But she added that the question had not been widely studied and more research was needed.
Norm Gold, an independent educational consultant who has worked in the field of English language development for more than 35 years, said that although studies are mixed, they tend to skew toward separating students based on their English ability.
“My experience tells me, in addition to research, that there is an absolute necessity for doing this kind of grouping,” he said — adding, however, that students should be moved in a timely manner to new classes as their fluency improves.
Norm Gold, an independent educational consultant who has worked in the field of English language development for more than 35 years, said that although studies are mixed, they tend to skew toward separating students based on their English ability.
“My experience tells me, in addition to research, that there is an absolute necessity for doing this kind of grouping,” he said — adding, however, that students should be moved in a timely manner to new classes as their fluency improves.
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