Campaign for High School Equity to Congress: English Language Learners are Being Left Behind

The Campaign for High School Equity, the only coalition of leading civil rights groups to focus on high school education reform, held a briefing for policymakers yesterday to address changes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that would ensure stronger provisions for the more than five million English language learner (ELL) students enrolled in America’s public school system.

While ELL students represent the fastest growing segment of students, they are among the country’s lowest performing. For instance, in 2007, only 4 percent of eighth-grade ELL students scored at or above a “proficient” level on the reading portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to 31 percent of non-ELL students. In addition, only 49 percent of ELL students graduate from high school on time, with a regular diploma.
“While we work on reauthorizing NCLB, we must keep in mind the civil rights of all students,” said Victor Goode, assistant general counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “Currently, NCLB doesn’t require states to assess ELL students in their native language.”

Phitsamay Uy, board chair for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, joined Goode and coalition members Peter Zamora, regional general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, at the briefing. Uy stressed that the needs of many Southeast Asian students, especially those who are English language learners, are overlooked as a result of the model minority myth that stereotypes all Asian Americans as doing well academically.

“Many of these children are trying to learn a new language at the same time as learning a new subject. Their success needs to be defined by academic achievement, not English-language proficiency alone,” said Uy. She noted that, after Spanish, Vietnamese and Hmong are the two most common primary languages of ELL students.

Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) and Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) made remarks at the briefing, showing their support for the Campaign’s recommendations to safeguard the civil rights of those students whose proficiency in spoken and/or written English is not yet strong enough to permit them to succeed in an English-language classroom setting without extra support.

The Campaign called on Congress to incorporate the following priorities into NCLB reform:

– Require the public reporting of data broken down by students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds in order to highlight subgroups of students;

– Hold high schools accountable for increasing graduation rates for all student subgroups and consider graduation rates on an equal footing with high-quality assessments aligned to college and work readiness in determining high school quality;

– Provide high-quality assessments and instruction that help to improve student reading and math skills without sacrificing their access to high-level academic subjects;

– Give students excellent teachers, and provide parents with adequate supports so they can play a more confident and informed role in their children’s education; and

– Ensure that federal policy provides sufficient resources to serve all students, particularly ELLs.

For more of the Campaign’s recommendations on strengthening NCLB to better serve students of color, visit their Web site at www.highschoolequity.org.

The Campaign for High School Equity is a diverse coalition of national civil rights organizations representing communities of color that believe high schools should have the capacity and motivation to prepare every student for graduation, college, work, and life. The Campaign was formed to address the unequal public education system that fails to provide high-quality education to students of color and youth from low-income neighborhoods. Members of the Campaign include the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the National Indian Education Association, the National Urban League, and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. The Alliance for Excellent Education serves as the Campaign’s convener and coordinator.”*

*From: http://www.hispanicprwire.com
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