I just finished reading a rather concerning Los Angeles Times article about English Language Learners in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The article discusses a study that was released on Wednesday which suggests that 30% of ELL students in LAUSD remain in English languages classes far too long – from primary grades into high school.

What the study doesn’t address is why these students remain in English Language Learning classrooms for so long. Is there an egregious lack of ELL education funding? Have culturally appropriate education translations been made available? What socio-political factors play a role in this learning gap? The article even mentions; “researchers say schools may avoid moving English learners into mainstream classes to keep test scores high.”

With such a variety of variables affecting how and when our ELL students are entering into mainstream classrooms, we need to get very serious about how we address English Language Learning. Considering 20% of elementary and secondary school children speak a language other than English at home it is absolutely crucial for our non-native English speaking students to become more competitive in school.

Keep Learning!
Maggie
K12Translate

Tags: English Language Learners

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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