	March/April 2004
Educators Are Accepting of New NCLB ELL Policies in the Short Term, But Concerned in the Long Term By Ines Alicea, ELL Outlook™ Contributing Writer Educators of English language learners (ELLs) welcomed recent changes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that offer schools some flexibility in working with ELLs in the near term, but they expressed concern over the rigid goals for the long term. "While we appreciate and welcome the changes, I'm not sure they fully address the range of concerns and issues we have," said Brook Gregory, Executive Director of Student Success and Multicultural Services for Cherry Creek Public Schools in Greenwood Village, Colorado, just south of Denver. The Bush administration announced in February that it was revising two aspects of NCLB to give educators more flexibility in how they assess ELLs during their first year in the United States and in how schools calculate yearly progress in educating ELLs. "Our nation has embarked on an historic journey to teach every child," said U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige in announcing the changes. "Every child is important to the future of America, and every public school must be a place of high expectations and high achievement." Paige said the first change gives schools a one-year transition period by allowing them to substitute an assessment of English language proficiency for the assessment of reading competency during a student's first year in U.S. public schools. This English language proficiency test would not count toward the Adequate Yearly Progress goals for the school. Ramin Dadmanesh, an ESOL teacher at Rose Hill Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, said the change Paige announced is not a major shift in policy for states like Virginia that already exempt newly arrived students from testing during their first year. Gregory said Colorado also exempts ELL students in their first year from testing. The second new element of flexibility in NCLB addresses how schools classify students who have acquired proficiency in English. Currently, once students are no longer classified as English language learners, they are no longer considered in measurements toward Adequate Yearly Progress for their subgroup. Under the new policy, schools can continue to count these students towards Adequate Yearly Progress for two additional years after they have become English proficient. "Since many schools are constantly absorbing new English language learners, the policy rewards schools for the good work they do to help English language learners attain proficiency," said Paige. Gregory, whose district of 45,000 students has 1,700 ELLs and 7,000 language-minority children, said the change recognizes the challenges and realities schools face in helping students become proficient in English and in academic content, particularly those students who arrive in this country with little or no education in their native language. "This change will help our teachers who are frustrated that we seem [in the Adequate Yearly Progress scores] to always have beginners who show no growth," said Gregory. But educators expressed frustration with the amount of testing and paperwork involved in carrying out No Child Left Behind, which significantly reduces actual instruction time with students. In Fairfax County, Virginia's largest school district, for example, all ELL students in every grade have to take annual reading, writing, listening, and speaking assessments twice a year. Virginia also mandates additional testing of its Standards of Learning in grades 3, 5, 8, and high school in order to raise academic levels and meet state and national standards. "Among the many challenges is that of adequately preparing our students for these tests, plus the addition of a huge amount of paperwork to be done before and after testing, including choosing from and managing an array of proxy assessment instruments allowed under the law," said Dadmanesh. NCLB is designed to close the achievement gap by implementing strong accountability provisions, requiring states to describe how they will close the achievement gap, and making sure all students, including those who are disadvantaged, achieve academic proficiency. In addition, states must produce annual state and school district report cards that inform parents and communities about state and school progress. In Colorado, 70 percent of ELLs must pass the reading and math assessments for their school to be considered as making adequate yearly progress. By 2014, the law says 100 percent of ELLs must pass, which educators say is an extremely stringent goal. Gregory said that while students may quickly acquire conversational English, numerous studies have shown that it takes students several years to learn the academic language of school. "New students arrive every day and we have to move them forward from where they are," said Gregory. "We can't control their language background or educational background. We are seeing a lot of growth in the numbers of students with little schooling. They are refugees or they come from war-torn areas. We're not transferring literacy skills from one language to another. We first have to build literacy in their language. That takes time." Schools that do not make adequate progress after two years must first provide public school choice, followed by supplemental services (e.g., free tutoring or after-school assistance) and corrective actions. If schools are still not making adequate yearly progress after five years, they must make dramatic changes to the way the schools are run. School districts say that to significantly boost achievement, more money is needed; but the money from the federal government and the states, which is pushing these goals, is not meeting the demand, putting enormous financial pressure on school districts. While Secretary Paige touts the Bush administration's doubling of the annual funding for Title III to $665 million to meet the needs of English language learners, educators say the amount is too little to accomplish all of the mandates being imposed. For example, to boost achievement among disadvantaged children in just one small section of Fairfax County, Virginia, school officials have proposed spending $17 million next year to offer a computer-based phonics program, a longer school day, and full-day kindergarten to the 30 lowest-performing elementary schools.
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March/April 2004

Educators Are Accepting of New NCLB ELL Policies in the Short Term, But Concerned in the Long Term

By Ines Alicea, ELL Outlook™ Contributing Writer

Educators of English language learners (ELLs) welcomed recent changes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that offer schools some flexibility in working with ELLs in the near term, but they expressed concern over the rigid goals for the long term. "While we appreciate and welcome the changes, I'm not sure they fully address the range of concerns and issues we have," said Brook Gregory, Executive Director of Student Success and Multicultural Services for Cherry Creek Public Schools in Greenwood Village, Colorado, just south of Denver.

The Bush administration announced in February that it was revising two aspects of NCLB to give educators more flexibility in how they assess ELLs during their first year in the United States and in how schools calculate yearly progress in educating ELLs. "Our nation has embarked on an historic journey to teach every child," said U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige in announcing the changes. "Every child is important to the future of America, and every public school must be a place of high expectations and high achievement."

Paige said the first change gives schools a one-year transition period by allowing them to substitute an assessment of English language proficiency for the assessment of reading competency during a student's first year in U.S. public schools. This English language proficiency test would not count toward the Adequate Yearly Progress goals for the school.

Ramin Dadmanesh, an ESOL teacher at Rose Hill Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, said the change Paige announced is not a major shift in policy for states like Virginia that already exempt newly arrived students from testing during their first year. Gregory said Colorado also exempts ELL students in their first year from testing.

The second new element of flexibility in NCLB addresses how schools classify students who have acquired proficiency in English. Currently, once students are no longer classified as English language learners, they are no longer considered in measurements toward Adequate Yearly Progress for their subgroup. Under the new policy, schools can continue to count these students towards Adequate Yearly Progress for two additional years after they have become English proficient. "Since many schools are constantly absorbing new English language learners, the policy rewards schools for the good work they do to help English language learners attain proficiency," said Paige.

Gregory, whose district of 45,000 students has 1,700 ELLs and 7,000 language-minority children, said the change recognizes the challenges and realities schools face in helping students become proficient in English and in academic content, particularly those students who arrive in this country with little or no education in their native language. "This change will help our teachers who are frustrated that we seem [in the Adequate Yearly Progress scores] to always have beginners who show no growth," said Gregory.

But educators expressed frustration with the amount of testing and paperwork involved in carrying out No Child Left Behind, which significantly reduces actual instruction time with students. In Fairfax County, Virginia's largest school district, for example, all ELL students in every grade have to take annual reading, writing, listening, and speaking assessments twice a year. Virginia also mandates additional testing of its Standards of Learning in grades 3, 5, 8, and high school in order to raise academic levels and meet state and national standards. "Among the many challenges is that of adequately preparing our students for these tests, plus the addition of a huge amount of paperwork to be done before and after testing, including choosing from and managing an array of proxy assessment instruments allowed under the law," said Dadmanesh.

NCLB is designed to close the achievement gap by implementing strong accountability provisions, requiring states to describe how they will close the achievement gap, and making sure all students, including those who are disadvantaged, achieve academic proficiency. In addition, states must produce annual state and school district report cards that inform parents and communities about state and school progress.

In Colorado, 70 percent of ELLs must pass the reading and math assessments for their school to be considered as making adequate yearly progress. By 2014, the law says 100 percent of ELLs must pass, which educators say is an extremely stringent goal. Gregory said that while students may quickly acquire conversational English, numerous studies have shown that it takes students several years to learn the academic language of school. "New students arrive every day and we have to move them forward from where they are," said Gregory. "We can't control their language background or educational background. We are seeing a lot of growth in the numbers of students with little schooling. They are refugees or they come from war-torn areas. We're not transferring literacy skills from one language to another. We first have to build literacy in their language. That takes time."

Schools that do not make adequate progress after two years must first provide public school choice, followed by supplemental services (e.g., free tutoring or after-school assistance) and corrective actions. If schools are still not making adequate yearly progress after five years, they must make dramatic changes to the way the schools are run.

School districts say that to significantly boost achievement, more money is needed; but the money from the federal government and the states, which is pushing these goals, is not meeting the demand, putting enormous financial pressure on school districts. While Secretary Paige touts the Bush administration's doubling of the annual funding for Title III to $665 million to meet the needs of English language learners, educators say the amount is too little to accomplish all of the mandates being imposed. For example, to boost achievement among disadvantaged children in just one small section of Fairfax County, Virginia, school officials have proposed spending $17 million next year to offer a computer-based phonics program, a longer school day, and full-day kindergarten to the 30 lowest-performing elementary schools.