How long should it take for English language learners (ELL) to achieve second-language proficiency? That is the question under debate in the Oregon Legislature. A bill, HB 3499, sponsored by several state legislators, proposes a maximum of seven years for students who have been identified with low-level, English-language proficiency and four years for students with moderate skill.
English literacy is a critical first step for “ELL” student academic success. Current state law does not dictate a maximum length of time students may rely on ELL program support, nor does the state determine how districts must spend the $3,750 in additional funding they receive for each ELL student.
Critics of these policies argue that school districts retain students in ELL programs longer than necessary. They have charged that districts use the additional funding to pay for other school programs.
Large-scale research studies conducted in states with significant ELL populations, such as California, Arizona and Texas, conclude that it may take up to 10 years for ELL students to achieve English proficiency. Why? Because social and economic factors that affect ELL students in their schools and social environments must be taken into account. To properly assess what makes sense for each student, one must consider fluency in the native language, socioeconomic status, parents’ education level, sociocultural adjustment and whether the student has a learning disability.
As a middle school teacher in California, I too observed the unique challenges faced by children of immigrants and refugees from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Armenia. My students’ challenges also contributed to a phenomenon known as “subtractive bilingualism,” wherein a person has limited proficiency in both native and second languages. Students experiencing this status require additional instructional resources and support in their home language while they learn English.
That is why I am dismayed that HB 3499 limits ELL instruction to four and seven years, ignoring the instructional needs of linguistically and culturally diverse ELL students. Adopting a “two-sizes-fits-all” approach to English language acquisition ignores what research tells us is optimal for ELL students to achieve English proficiency.
If the legislature passes this bill, a first grade student with low-level English language skill will receive ELL instruction with the expectation that he or she will achieve English proficiency by the end of the eighth grade. Likewise, a sixth grade student with intermediate-level English language skill will be expected to reach English proficiency by the end of 10th grade. But what if they don’t become English proficient within the prescribed timeframe?
The bill would shut off the ELL resource boost to districts, allowing continuation only if justified in a bureaucratic waiver application, which may or may not be honored by the State Board of Education. In other words, ELL students would lose the very resources designed to support their acquisition of English fluency. This is not a prescription for student success and ignores what research tells us about the process of developing true academic (as opposed to conversational) literacy.
Even as the decades-long disinvestment in Oregon’s public schools continues, more immigrants are moving here. While the spotlight shines on immigrant students, lawmakers would be wise to focus their energies on educational quality, not quantity, in deriving policies to improve these students’ lives.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy