The nation needs to 鈥減ick up the pace鈥� in helping English-language learners do well in school, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said last week in a speech at a conference here for teachers and administrators who work with such students.
鈥淓nglish-language learners are the fastest-growing student population in the United States,鈥� Ms. Spellings told the 1,200 attendees at a luncheon during the Education Department-sponsored conference, held Nov. 30 through Dec. 2.
She noted that by 2025, one in four students in U.S. classrooms is expected to be an English-language learner. 鈥淥ur education system is in a race to keep up with these students. We have to pick up the pace,鈥� she said.
The secretary reiterated the goal of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that 鈥渨e will close the achievement gap by 2014.鈥� She said that the implementation of high standards and accountability called for in the law are paying off in advancing that goal.
Ms. Spellings said that many reading strategies that have been found to work with children in general also work for English-language learners. But she added that more research needs to be done on how best to teach such students.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 fully cracked the code for English-language learners,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e need to develop a more focused, research-based strategy for these students鈥攁nd we better do it soon.鈥�
Educators said in interviews between sessions that the No Child Left Behind Act, which will be 4 years old next month, is not realistic in some of its requirements for English-language learners, such as the mandate that the achievement gap between students who are learning English and other students be closed completely.
鈥淎s long as you continue to get large groups of immigrants at the lowest proficiency level, the scores won鈥檛 make the leaps to close the gaps,鈥� said Carol Bass, the supervisor of programs for English-language learners for the 66,000-student Prince William County, Va., school system.
But educators also said that the law has given them more power within their school districts to improve education for English-language learners.
Estee Lopez, the director of English-language learners and instructional services for the 12,000-student New Rochelle, N.Y., district, said she opposes the federal law鈥檚 requirement that English-language learners take state standardized tests in English, rather than in their native languages, three years after they enroll in U.S. schools.
It鈥檚 not fair, she said, for schools to be penalized if the test scores for such students prevent the schools from meeting the goals for adequate yearly progress that states have set to comply with the law.
鈥淭he research tells us it takes five to seven years for an English-language learner to be able to compete somewhat effectively with a native speaker of English,鈥� Ms. Lopez said.
At the same time, she said, the law has spurred improvements in her state, such as the development of standards for English-language learners and creation of better assessments, such as a new test for measuring English proficiency, that help educators better determine how such students are progressing.
Jesus DeLeon, the director of federal projects for the Caldwell, Idaho, school district, said that the NCLB law has had an overall positive affect on the English-language learners in his district.
鈥淣ot only are they getting more attention, but they are getting better instruction,鈥� he said. Nearly 1,000 of the district鈥檚 5,800 students are English-language learners.
鈥淲hile it should have happened all along,鈥� Mr. DeLeon said, the district鈥檚 administrators are now placing a high priority on training regular classroom teachers鈥攏ot just teachers of English as a second language鈥攐n the best ways to work with English-language learners.
Kathleen Leos, the director of the Education Department鈥檚 office of English-language acquisition, which sponsored the conference, said federal officials are considering making a change in only one of the law鈥檚 requirements affecting English-language learners.
She wouldn鈥檛 speculate on what the change would be or when it would be announced, except to say that it would affect only students who are recent arrivals to the United States.
English-language learners must take their states鈥� standardized mathematics tests鈥攊n English or their native languages鈥攄uring their first year in the country, but they have the option of taking an English-proficiency test instead of a standardized state reading test during that first year. Test scores for newcomers aren鈥檛 counted in the federal accountability system, however, until students have been in the United States for at least a year.
