Report from the Front Lines:

What's Needed to Make New York's ESL

and Bilingual Programs Succeed

February 7, 2001

Advocates for Children of New York

New York Immigration Coalition

Copyright 2001

Executive Summary

Much attention has been paid recently to the need to reform bilingual education. Initiatives have included ballot propositions to eliminate bilingual education in California and Arizona, and voluminous reports from Mayor Giuliani and Chancellor Levy recommending greater parental choice and programs and policies to move New York City schoolchildren whose native language is not English, referred to as English Language Learners (ELLs), into mainstream classes more quickly. The issue is generally presented as a debate over whether bilingual education or “English immersion” programs are the best approaches for teaching ELLs English. Unfortunately, this debate misses the big picture. The real issue to be debated is what is needed to prepare ELLs to meet New York States’s new graduation and promotion standards. If we teach ELLs to understand and speak English, but fail to teach ELLs to become academically proficient in English, then we have failed them and they will not be able to get a high school diploma in New York.

The reality is that the basic educational needs of ELLs in New York have been overlooked for decades and as a result they are seriously underserved in New York City schools. These students often lag behind their peers academically and suffer extraordinarily high drop-out rates. While there are system-wide problems such as overcrowding and poorly equipped schools that need to be addressed with a long-term investment strategy, there are other barriers that can be addressed in the short term that can directly improve the educational outcomes of ELLs. The real issue for ELLs is teaching—having high quality, well-trained teachers with appropriate curriculum, and having additional time for teachers to help ELLs become academically proficient in English, while they also master other core subjects. The issue of teaching is not just about bilingual and ESL teachers, it is also about ensuring that all teachers - mainstream math, science, social studies, and English teachers - know how to address the unique needs of their ELL students.

This report focuses on one of the ingredients most fundamental for ELL’s success: their teachers, and the resources they possess to teach this group of children, who make up nearly 17% our City’s school population. It is incontrovertible that implementation of the new standards requires more support and services than currently exist if these students are to succeed. These supports and services include teacher readiness, teacher certification, training and professional development, curriculum alignment, and proper materials and supplies in the classroom. Issues related to the dearth of qualified ESL/Bilingual teachers, teacher training, the lower achievement levels of many ELLs, parent involvement with the school and the teacher, and cultural competence of school personnel must also be addressed. This report focuses on the impact of the new demanding standard on ELLs, the challenges teachers face, and steps the New York City public schools need to take to overcome these challenges.

Key Findings

This report has compiled a wide range of data from New York City’s Board of Education, the New York State Education Department and studies conducted in New York and across the country on ELL performance and issues affecting their learning. Additionally, Advocates for Children of New York and the New York Immigration Coalition conducted a survey of New York City teachers who teach ELLs in public schools in an attempt to view the challenge of educating ELLs through the eyes of those working on the front lines of this issue. A total of 227 teachers from 13 different school districts in Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens completed the survey. Highlighted findings are found below.

Many Bilingual Teachers Do Not Speak the Same Language as Their Students

Bilingual teachers were asked if they spoke the language of their students. Thirty-five percent responded that they speak the same language of only “some” of their students. In other words, some children in bilingual classes (which are supposed to be taught in the child’s native language) are being taught by teachers who do not speak the same language as the students they teach. This finding is extremely serious, as it means that some children are not receiving their mandated services and are unlikely to progress.

Problems with Timely Placement In Proper Classes

Teachers were asked to indicate if timely placement of new ELLs was a problem for students entering their schools. Overall, a stunning 58% agreed that it was problematic, with a small proportion indicating that ELLs had to wait long periods, up to five months, for proper placement. Without proper placement ELLs generally are in English-only classes without supports or services, and as a result, are unlikely to progress academically.

Coordination Between ESL and General Education Teachers Is Lacking

Teachers were asked to indicate if coordination between ESL and general education teachers was a problem. Overall, 67% stated that it was problematic. This is a serious issue because if there is no coordination between, for example, an ESL and a language arts teacher, the language arts teacher may teach a child at a higher or lower level of English proficiency than might actually be warranted. Either way the child is unlikely to have a positive learning experience without such coordination.

Many Students Were Identified as Being At Risk of Holdover

Bilingual and ESL teachers were also asked to indicate the proportion of students they are currently teaching who were identified last summer as being at risk of being retained in grade. Overall, 36% indicated that 20% or less were so identified, while 30% reported that more than half of their students were at risk of being held back. That nearly a third of these teachers reported that over half their children were at risk for retention is very disturbing; this could indicate that a serious disproportion of children being held are ELLs.

Students At Risk of Holdover Are Not Getting the Services They Need

Overall, 61% of the teachers indicated that proper services for English Language Learners are not always available. Teachers indicated that 37% of these at-risk children were not receiving extra help with reading, 44% were not receiving extra help with math, 41% did not receive small/group or individual instruction, and 57% did not receive counseling services. This lack of services is completely unacceptable.

Adequacy of Curriculum Materials

Teachers were asked about the adequacy of their curriculum materials (books, worksheets) and whether or not they covered the necessary materials to help students meet the new standards. Thirty-six percent indicated that they were not adequate.

Challenges That Teachers Confront in Communicating with Immigrant Parents and Services

to Enhance Teacher-Parent Relationships that Teachers Felt Were Necessary

94% stated support services for immigrant parents were necessary
78% stated that language barriers were a problem
70% stated that immigrant parents didn’t understand what the schools expected of them
87% agreed that there should be translators at parent meetings
93% agreed that information for parents needed to be in the parent’s native language
85% of teachers agreed that they needed a better understanding of ELL parents’ cultures

It is clear that many of the necessary services to ELL parents, some required by law, are not available.

Support Services Are Rarely Provided to Teachers

ELL/Bilingual teachers were asked a general question about whether or not they receive assistance to develop their professional skills to deal with challenges presented by English Language Learners. Overall, 46% stated they did not receive such assistance. Without such development teachers, especially new teachers or those unfamiliar with teaching ELLs, cannot provide ELLs with the assistance they need to meet the new standards.

Teachers were also asked to indicate the areas that would enhance their effectiveness. The following services were identified:

76% agreed that general training in ESL methods would be helpful
74% agreed that general training in Bilingual methods would be helpful
80% agreed that general training in content areas would be helpful
79% agreed that observations of a master teacher would be helpful

School Policies With Regard to Summer School Need Significant Improvement

While most of the teachers (86%) indicated that most parents had received a written letter informing them of their child’s possible retention (although not timely as required by regulation), the remainder indicated that most of the parents were informed over the telephone, by the teacher, or by a note written on their child’s report card saying “Promotion in Doubt,” all in violation of the regulation. Finally, although schools are required to communicate with parents in their home language – “To the extent possible, communication with parents should be in their home language” – teachers who completed the survey also indicated that parents of the ELL students in their schools were frequently communicated with in languages other than their home/native language.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Assure that significantly more funding goes to programs to assist ELLs—the Governor and the Mayor’s proposed budgets need to invest more to help the large and growing number of ELL students to succeed.

· ELLs are not currently receiving either the depth or breadth of services necessary to meet the new standards. The requirements of the new standards will require more, not fewer services. Consistent with the court ruling in the CFE lawsuit, New York City and State must provide additional resources to ensure that all New York City students receive a sound basic education. While the Chancellor’s report recommends an investment of $75 million, the Mayor only included $15 million in additional resources in his recent budget, and the Governor’s budget would actually reduce State funding for ELLs.

Ensure proper training for teachers who are currently teaching ELL students.

· Create an intensive summer institute for ESL, bilingual teachers and core subject teachers to give them the proper tools to teach ELL students, taking into account the requirements of the new standards. All teachers should be offered this training, but teachers whose students are not making adequate progress should be required to attend.

· Create a citywide ESL model curriculum for ELLs and train teachers in its use.

A model ESL curriculum should be created for citywide use. The curriculum should reflect what skills will be taught at different levels of proficiency, the types of materials and books students will read, how standards will be achieved, and how ESL and ELA teachers will work together and coordinate instruction. Extensive teacher training in the use of the curriculum is also critical.

Expand teacher recruitment efforts targeted to ESL and bilingual shortage areas.

For ELL students to succeed and increase their ability to meet the new standards, there must be intensive efforts to recruit and retain ESL and bilingual teachers who are properly certified and trained. ESL and bilingual teachers have additional skills and certification requirements not required of other teachers and should receive additional compensation to reflect this.
The Teachers for Tomorrow recruitment program must specifically address uncertified bilingual and ESL teachers, including special education teachers and aides. Uncertified teachers in these areas should receive additional assistance to pass the LAST and ATWS tests.
State law should be changed to permit non-citizens to become certified teachers and immigration visas should be sought for foreign-born teachers who are proficient in English.

The Board of Education must ensure funding for bilingual special education teachers and aides in its proposals. The low rate of English language acquisition for ELLs with disabilities results largely from a severe shortage of certified, bilingual special education teachers and resources.

Provide teachers and ELL students with additional class time and support services to meet the new standards. This investment will result in students needing fewer years of schooling to graduate.

ELLs must master both academic proficiency in English and master all other core subjects to meet the new standards, and there is not enough time in a regular school day to do both. ELLs and their teachers must have access to after-school, weekend, and summer classes and the use of technology to meet these requirements. While all ELLs need the additional time and help, priority should be given to late entrant ELLs, students at risk for retention and students receiving special education services.
Many ELLs need from 5 to 7 years to complete high school. By providing additional help, we can shorten the number of years ELLs need to graduate and save money.

· Assure that those ELL students designated “at-risk” are provided intervention services during the school year. According to our survey, ELLs who are at-risk for holdover do not receive adequate intervention services during the regular school year. The entitlement to services guaranteed in the prior Chancellor’s Regulation should be reinstated.

Teachers need more help from parents of ELL students--provide notice and information in the home or native language of the parents as well as interpretation services to parents.

· Over half of school-age children in New York City are members of immigrant families. It is essential that information and notices from school are sent in a language that parents can understand.

· In order for parents to participate in their children’s education, those parents who are ELLs must have interpretation services offered to them so they can speak with school personnel about their child’s academic progress.

Hold teachers and students accountable--develop a statewide assessment for ELLs to strengthen the accountability system and quality of instruction of programs serving this population.

· There is a demonstrable need for a reliable assessment designed to measure the progress students make towards full English proficiency. The assessment would be useful for putting “teeth” into an accountability system to ensure that students are being delivered a high level of instruction that is aligned with standards. In addition, such an assessment would provide useful information to teachers and administrators about students’ needs in order to improve curricula and instruction on an ongoing basis.

Introduction

This report has compiled a wide range of data from New York City’s Board of Education, the New York State Education Department and studies conducted in New York and across the country. Additionally, Advocates for Children of New York and the New York Immigration Coalition conducted a survey of New York City teachers who teach ELLs in public schools in an attempt to view the challenge of educating ELLS through the eyes of those working on the front line of this issue on a daily basis. A total of 227 teachers from 13 different school districts in Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens completed the survey. The survey focused on the adequacy of the school and classroom services provided to ELLs to help them to meet the challenges of the updated standards. The report begins by providing an overview of ELLs in New York City, the updated standards, the educational outcomes of ELLs, and the school factors that have been identified as barriers to school success for ELLs. In Part II of the Report, the survey findings are presented and in Part III policy recommendations are outlined.

Part I: Background Information: The Challenge

1. The Increase in Immigrant and Refugee Students in New York City

Immigrants and their children make up a large and growing percentage of New York City’s population. In 1999, a stunning 53% of children 5-18 years old were members of immigrant families in New York City.[1] Today, there are nearly 170,000 students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) [2] attending the New York City public schools.[3] While not all ELLs are immigrants or the children of immigrants, and not all immigrants and/or their children require assistance in learning English, the size and diversity of New York’s immigrant and refugee communities naturally create more demand for English language instruction in schools.

Statewide, ELLs make up approximately 8% of all students, but in New York City they make up almost 17% of total students, and in high schools almost 25%. These numbers refer only to those ELLs who have entered the school system within three years.[4] In New York State, there are approximately 220,000 students who are ELLs. Approximately 80% of all New York State’s ELLs are enrolled in New York City schools. In New York City, there are currently 148,399 general education ELLs enrolled in the New York City public schools, representing approximately 15% of the 1.1 million who are enrolled.[5] Overall, 105,846 are attending schools in Community School Districts: elementary through intermediate schools, kindergarten-ninth grade (including those receiving special education resource room/related services). An additional 42,553 are placed in high schools, grades 9-12. Finally, 20,000 are placed in self-contained special education programs/services.[6]

Since the late 1970s, immigrants from the Caribbean have dominated the flow of newcomers, with the immigrants from the Dominican Republic topping the list through the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Other Caribbean countries that figured prominently in New York’s arrival statistics during these recent decades include Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. The most recent years for which arrival data are available (1990-1996) indicate that newcomers from the former Soviet Union rank second on the list. In addition, several African countries, notably Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana, began sending enough immigrants to rank among the top twenty countries for the first time ever. Table 1 lists the top ten countries of origin for immigrants to New York City in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s along with the number of new New Yorkers arriving from each country during each time period.[7]

Table 1: TOP TEN SENDING COUNTRIES TO NEW YORK CITY

ANNUAL AVERAGES, 1972-1979, 1982-1989, 1990-1996.

1972-1979		1982-1989		1990-1996
Country of Origin	Number	Country of Origin	Number	Country of Origin	Number
1. Dominican Republic	9,997	1. Dominican Republic	14,470	1. Dominican Republic	21,330
2. Jamaica	6,636	2. Jamaica	9,043	2. former Soviet Union	15,279
3. China, Total	5,190	3. China, Total	8,985	3. China, Total	11,935
4. Italy	3,733	4. Guyana	6,705	4. Jamaica	6,403
5. Haiti	3,602	5. Haiti	5,102	5. Guyana	5,986
6. Trinidad & Tobago	3,501	6. Colombia	2,851	6. Poland	3,553
7. Guyana	3,244	7. Korea	2,514	7. Philippines	3,247
8. India	2,857	8. India	2,505	8. Trinidad & Tobago	3,061
9. Ecuador	2,793	9. Ecuador	2,241	9. Haiti	3,007
10. former Soviet Union	2,664	10. Philippines	1,692	10. India	2,976

These statistics indicate that New York is unique among other large, immigrant-receiving cities and states, not only for the size of its newcomer population, but also for the diversity in race, ethnicity and national origin of its newcomers. This diversity is in turn reflected in the number of languages spoken by its school-age children. There are approximately 140 languages spoken by students in the New York City schools. The predominant languages are Spanish (65.5%), Chinese (10.4%), Russian (3.6%), Haitian/Creole (3.1%), Bengali (2.5%), Urdu (2.1%), Arabic (1.7%), Korean (1.7%), Punjabi (1.3%), Polish (1.0%), Albanian (<1%), French (<1%), and Hindu (<1%). These 13 languages account for 95% of all ELLs.[8] Table 2 shows the enrollment of ELLs by predominant language and borough for the 1998-1999 school year in New York City public schools.

Table 2: LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENT (LEP) STUDENT ENROLLMENT

BY PREDOMINANT LANGUAGE & BOROUGH

Predominant Language Group

Total LEP Student Enrollment