(NAME-MCE) Shamefully low graduation rates

[Anselmo Villanueva]

ASSESSMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND REFORM

Shamefully low graduation rates

Editorial    El Diario Newspaper    New York NY   July 22, 2009

http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/opinion/editorial/2009/7/22/shamefully-low-graduation-rate-136929-1.html

In the New York City, ELLs are 14 percent of the students in public schools.
This is an estimated 150,000 students, more than 40,000 of whom are in high
school. But many are not graduating in four years or at all. The ELL high
school graduation rate is a shocking 23.5 percent. Even worse, this is a
decrease from previous rates of graduation.

The debates over public schools have included a missed deadline around
mayoral control, a push for concrete parental engagement and lately, a lot
of name-calling between Mayor Bloomberg and state legislators. Shamefully,
little attention or action has been paid to the status of English Language
Learners (ELLs).

In the New York City, ELLs are 14 percent of the students in public schools.
This is an estimated 150,000 students, more than 40,000 of whom are in high
school. But many are not graduating in four years or at all. The ELL high
school graduation rate is a shocking 23.5 percent. Even worse, this is a
decrease from previous rates of graduation.

To be fair, there are good efforts and models of success in the school
system. But they are not at the scale and vigor that are needed.

A report issued last month by Advocates for Children and the Asian American
Legal Defense and Education Fund looked at another dimension of this crisis.
The small schools movement, a cornerstone of Bloomberg’s educational policy,
is largely leaving ELL students behind, the organizations found.

The organizations studied the dismantling of two large high schools with
significant numbers of ELL students. They report that in the transition to
smaller schools, a diminished number of ELL students were served. They also
found that small schools offered fewer language assistance options and had
an inadequate number of ESL-certified teachers, if any at all.

The question the report raises is, are ELL students receiving the same
access and treatment as other students? And is the city meeting legal
requirements for delivering services to ELL students?

The city’s Department of Education must review and adopt the report's
recommendations, chiefly that meeting the needs of ELLs must be part of
transitional planning, not an afterthought.