Dianne Piche, Advocate for ELLs Gets Appointment to OCR

Dianne Piche, the executive director of the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights, has been selected for the number two post at the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education. She'll be the deputy assistant secretary for the office.

She's paid close attention to the rights and educational needs of English-language learners (ELLs) over the years. She mentioned the needs of ELL students several times, for example, during her testimony in 2007 at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing on supplemental services provided under the No Child Left Behind Act.

This appears to be a potentially important appointment for Language Minority students.

Oregon Voters Reject Measure Limiting Bilingual Education

11/4/2008 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Voters have rejected Ballot Measure 58 proposing a limit to how much time public school students can spend in English as a Second Language classes and prohibit teaching public school students in a language other than English.

The vote was failing by a margin of 54% No to 46% Yes.

If passed, the measure would have required non-English speaking students to learn English within two years.

The measure was sponsored by Bill Sizemore, who said limiting students time in English as a Second Language classes would encourage them to learn English faster. Sizemore, Oregon's most prolific initiative activist, had five measures on the Nov. 4 ballot. Opponents claimed the measure imposes a "one-size-fits-all" standard on students.

Supporters said the measure, which would have limited teaching English learners in their native language to one year in elementary school or two years in high school, would spur schools to work harder to teach students to read and write English as soon as they enter school.

Opponents argued that the measure was a crude, one-size-fits-all approach without any educators endorsements. Teaching students to read and write in their first language, an approach used with only 15 percent of Oregon's English learners, has proven to help students become stronger readers and writers in English in the long run.

There are more than 60,000 non-English speaking students in Oregon's public schools. Most speak Spanish.

Mary Ann Zehr, an assistant editor at Education Week, suggests that a favorable political climate for bilingual education programs could be coming, given the fact that the American people have chosen Sen. Barack Obama as president-elect. He has publicly endorsed transitional bilingual education, an education method where students are taught some subjects in their native language while learning English.

The Oregon Chapter of the Institute for Language and Education Policy was credited with leading the successful opposition to the initiative.

Schools Advised Not to Turn Away Undocumented Students

One of the recurring questions that I receive from pre-service and in-service teachers is about the legality of undocumented students in our schools. Many are under the impression that these students are not allowed to attend schools given their legal status. This belief is held by many and has evolved into a sort of "folk theory" that has become a practiced truth.

Folk theories, i.e. theories that are based on common, everyday experiences, but not subjected to rigorous experimental techniques, policy, or truth often determine our actions. For years, many state education agencies have been telling educators they cannot ask students about their immigration status in accordance with the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe, which gives all children the right to a free K-12 education in this country regardless of their immigration status.

School officials can ask parents or students for proof of residency in a school district to determine priority for enrollment purposes, but not for a Social Security number or other proof of citizenship.

Frequently school personnel rely on their common sense rather than law and ask for immigration information when parents try to register their children for school.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has decided to address this violation of federal law in New Jersey. MyHeraldNews.com provides thorough coverage of the story.

New Mexico First State to Adopt Navajo Textbook

The following story was provided by the Associated Press. Many have the mis-conception that bilingual education is for Spanish speaking Latino participants only. Given the range of languages covered by dual-language programs this story should be of interest to all.

Albuquerque

In the Navajo language, there's no one word that translates into "go" — it's more like a sentence.

"There are so many ways of 'going,'" said Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a Navajo professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. "It states who is going, how many of us are going, where are we going. So the tense, the adverb, the subject, the number of people, all of that is tied up in one little tiny verb."

Those verbs are part of what makes the Navajo language one of the most difficult to learn, she says. Yazzie is hopeful a book she recently wrote will provide a user-friendly way for New Mexico students to learn not only the language but the culture of a tribe that long has tied the two elements.

State officials formally adopted Yazzie's book, Dine Bizaad Binahoo'ahh, or Rediscovering the Navajo Language, Tuesday in Santa Fe. While other books on Navajo language exist, state officials say New Mexico is the first to adopt a Navajo textbook for use in the public education system.

About 10 school districts in New Mexico provide Navajo language instruction. Out of seven American Indian languages that were taught in the public school system during the 2006-07 school year, 5,024 students were learning Navajo.

The Navajo language long had been an oral language, and many Navajo elders fluent in their native tongue cannot read or write the language. Tribal officials have expressed concern that the language is dying among the youth, leading to some immersion programs on the reservation.

Yazzie said there is a shortage of written material available not only in Navajo but other American Indian languages.

"Whatever comes out, they're so eager to get their hands on it," she said.

School districts in New Mexico, as well as U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, can review Yazzie's book and decide whether to use it starting in the 2009-10 school year. The book will be accompanied by a CD with the voices of Yazzie and her brother, Berlyn Yazzie, a former educator and administrator on the Navajo Nation.

In the Navajo culture, certain topics — such as how to build a hogan or cradle board and how to care for cattle and horses — should be addressed by men. Other topics, including the preparation of food, clothing and caring for children, should be addressed by women.

"I wanted to be culturally correct, so that's why we included the male and the female voice," said Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, who has taught Navajo language at NAU for 18 years.

Each chapter of the book, which Yazzie said is suitable for students of all ages, begins with a cultural lesson and guides readers through verbs, sentence construction, clanship, clothing, formal education, telling time the Navajo way, the reservation, Navajo teachings, corn fields, livestock, textures, shapes and the Navajo government.

It also includes pictures of people who have lived on the Navajo reservation, which stretches into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Yazzie said she looks forward to students sharing the book with Navajo elders and "pretty soon conversation will be sparking around fires."

"It has culture, it's manageable, it's easy," she said. "It invites you in, it's captivating. They'll (students) see that their language is important enough to put in a book like this, and they will be more proud of their language."

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

U.S. Higher Ed Bill Calls for Teacher Prep for ELL's

For the first time, a new Federal Education Law (H.R. 4137) requires colleges and universities to do something in regard to preparing teachers to work with English-language learners.

The bill, signed into law on Aug. 14, 2008 by President Bush, requires colleges and universities to set annual goals for increasing the number of teachers for instruction of English language learners (ELLs) and other areas where there are teacher shortages.

Here's what the new higher education law says under Title II, Section 206:

"Each institution of higher education that conducts a traditional teacher preparation program (including programs that offer any ongoing professional development programs) or alternative routes to state certification or licensure program, and that enrolls students receiving federal assistance under this act, shall set annual quantifiable goals for increasing the number of prospective teachers trained in teacher shortage areas designated by the Secretary or by the state educational agency, including mathematics, science, special education, and instruction of limited English proficient students."

You can view the entire "Higher Education and Opportunity Act" on Libary of Congress' THOMAS legislative search engine.

The law also requires that each institution provide an assurance that "general education teachers receive training in providing instruction to diverse populations, including children with disabilities, limited English proficient students, and children from low-income families."

For the first time the nation has a statutory requirement for colleges and universities to set goals related to teacher shortage areas, including ELLs.

H.R. 4137 also includes a provision in Title II to establish graduate fellowships for teacher educators in second language acquisition pedagogy and theory. Including bilingual education and ESL teacher preparation as high-priority areas in the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GANN) program is also a small, but significant, step by lawmakers to try and address the needs of ELLs in the classroom.

For a more thorough coverage of this story visit Mary Ann Zehr's story on Education Week.

Updated National Technology Standards For Teachers Released

A renovated set of standards for how teachers should improve learning through the use of technology was released last week in San Antonio, Texas at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference, the nation’s largest K-12 educational technology conference.

The standards try to shift the focus from technology tools to raising academic achievement and preparing students for highly skilled jobs of the future. These standards suggest the facilitation and inspiration of student learning and creativity. Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

Conference themes suggest the end of isolated individual learning and teaching. Instead they are seeing a shift to connected learning and teaching that transforms the classroom into a digital learning portal to the outside world, a world where students and teachers have almost the same access to information and where collaboration and sharing of knowledge are taking place across the globe to construct higher levels of knowledge.

A major theme of the National Educational Computing Conference this year was that the K-12 world is becoming flat—meaning that long-standing hierarchies of educational authority are giving way to more collaborative approaches to teaching and learning such as the use of wikis, blogs, and social networks.

To help educators face that challenge, ISTE unveiled a major revision of its educational technology standards for teachers. "The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers" outline the skills and knowledge that teachers need to use technology more effectively in the classroom.

The first version of NETS-T, released in 2000, has been adopted by numerous states and teacher-preparation programs.

View an overview of the New Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (PDF download).

The new standards emphasize the need for teachers to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments, to model digital-age work and learning, to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, and to engage in professional growth and leadership.

Digital Content Trends in Classrooms Revealed in New Report

"State of Digital Content in America’s Classrooms, 2007-2008"
Reveals Current Use of Technology in American K-12 Schools

Denver, Colorado -- American classroom teachers currently use digital content for a small percentage of their classroom time, but teachers would prefer to use technology more often, reports a new study from Quality Education Data, Inc. (QED), an education market research and database firm, a subsidiary of Scholastic. QED researched technology trends to collect the most current data on digital content in American schools.

State of Digital Content in America’s Classrooms, 2007-2008, asked educators about the types of digital media that they have access to in their schools and that they use in their every day instruction. The study also asked teachers to identify barriers to technology use in their classrooms and to report the most common technology-based activities in which their students participate.

U.S. teachers use digital content for just a small share of classroom time, according to the survey. Just 9 percent of teachers report spending more than half their instructional time using digital technology, including computers, LCD projectors, and interactive whiteboards, while 16 percent do not use such technology in class, the report says.

Elementary school teachers most often said they used educational games, word processing, and drill exercises on computers. Middle and high school teachers most often reported using computers for Internet-based research, word-processing software, and multimedia presentations. Eighty-five percent of teachers said a barrier to their use of digital content was having insufficient computers in the classroom.

Key findings include:

• 86% of teachers have desktop computers available in their classrooms; 67% of teachers have access to laptops for their students if they need them; and only 5% of teachers have no access to computers of any kind.

• 9% of teachers spend more than 50% of instructional time using technology, while 16% of report no use of technology during classroom time.

• 85% of teachers report not having enough computers in their classroom as a barrier to using digital content, either always (23%) or sometimes (63%).

• Nearly 95% of teachers use technology to search for free content for use in their classrooms; 36% report that they do so at least three to four times a week.

• 17% of teachers participate in online social networking. Nineteen percent of teachers participate in an online professional community.

• Students of all ages are creating multimedia presentations in school: 58% of high school students, 49% of middle school students, and 22% of elementary school students.

“The findings from the new State of Digital Content report underscore the importance of schools across America making a commitment to providing access to up-to-date, relevant technology for both students and teachers,” said Andy Lacy, President of QED. “Teachers are telling us that they recognize the importance of technology as both a motivator and an instructional tool and as an essential part of a 21st century classroom.”

A New Online Clearinghouse Offers Help for K-12 History Teachers

A new online clearinghouse for history education has been established to provide curriculum, research, and professional-development resources for K-12 teachers.

The National History Education Clearinghouse, launched this month by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the Stanford University History Education Group, is underwritten by a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

The free Web site, www.teachinghistory.org, includes links to journal articles, Web-based documents and other historical collections, and examples of best teaching practices.

New Research Casts Doubt On "UNZ" Initiatives

Initial findings from studies commissioned by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Linguistic Minority Research Initiative at University of California, Santa Barbara, suggest that states that have replaced bilingual education with structured English immersion have seen little benefit, according to Mary Ann Zehr in Education Week. Though the language and implementation of the referenda that brought this change varied slightly from state to state, findings from the studies indicate that the achievement gap on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in both reading and math is wider in California, Massachusetts, and Arizona than in two other states that still require bilingual education. Russell Rumberger, director of the Linguistic Minority Research Institute said "there's no visual evidence that these three states are doing better than the national average or other states," with regard to educating English Language Learners, based on NAEP results.

Researchers found instead that other factors - such as whether students have books at home - have greater impact upon English Language Learners' (ELLs) achievement than state instructional policies. However, the NAEP data did show that rigorous academic standards reduced the achievement gap between ELLs and their non-ELL peers in the fourth grade, and that those with the lowest proficiency in English benefited most from specialized English instruction.

For further details visit the Education Week site and read Mary Ann Zehr's piece "Researchers Study Impact" of Unz Initiatives.

‘Reading First’ Not Helping Students Grasp Meaning, Federal Study Finds

The $1 billion-a-year Reading First program has had no measurable effect on students’ reading comprehension, on average, although participating schools are spending significantly more time teaching the basic skills that researchers say children need to become proficient readers, a major federal report finds.

The long-awaited interim report from the Reading First Impact Study, released May 1 by the Institute of Education Sciences, says that students in schools receiving grants from the federal program have not fared any better than their counterparts in comparison schools in gaining meaning from print.

To read an overview visit the Education Week site and read Kathleen Kennedy Manzo's article: Reading First Doesn't Help Pupils 'Get it'.