This action is important because it addresses the needs of English Language Learners, the rights of parents to be informed of changes to the law and the education their children are receiving, and the marginalization of educators in a license area dedicated to the vulnerable population of immigrant students.
NYS decided to change CR Part 154 without regard to the current teacher shortage, the inability of many schools to be in compliance with the demands, the lack of training and resources and the serious impact these changes would have in student choice, and programming conflicts. Once again a flawed rollout and unfunded mandates are causing harm to a particular subpopulation of students.
The curriculum delivered to beginner ELLs has been cut in half. Progress toward confident command of the language will be negatively impacted. Students are already in "sink or swim" classroom situations, mainstreamed, forced to endure curriculum that was not designed for them and subject to failure and humiliation. Teachers all over NYS are reporting serious challenges with this subtractive model of instruction that assumes the objectives of a content area can be simultaneously met with the objectives of the ESL course. This is unjust and impacts a particular community of students harshly, and is therefore discriminatory.
Commissioner's Regulations Part 154
In the landmark 1974 decision, Lau v. Nichols, the United States Supreme Court established the right of ELL students to have “a meaningful opportunity to participate in the educational program.” As such, ELL students must be provided with equal access to all school programs and services offered to non-ELL students, including access to programs required for graduation. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/bilinged/CRPart154.html
Under the revised CR Part 154 implemented this year, schools across NYS have had to scramble to try to meet the new requirements to serve the English Language Learners enrolled in their institutions. The intent of the law, to have "a meaningful opportunity to participate in the educational program" is being violated by the impact of the new CR Part 154 revisions to ESL/ENL services.
In the past, at the high school level, newcomers, the recent arrivals to the United States, received 540 minutes of language instruction. Language Instruction has been cut under these revisions. Under the new regulations, ELLs receive only one period of language instruction and the other minutes are being delivered through push in (“integrated” and “flexible”) instruction, in content area classes. This is double counting the minutes of ESL service and content instruction. A properly written, sequenced and developed ESL course cannot be delivered in such short amount of time. Students learning under these circumstances will receive less instruction than they received last year, but still subject to the same tests and graduation requirements.
Bronx Educators United for Justice suggest the following changes
I. Revise the Current Part 154 (with timely, public and transparent input from Principals and Teachers, Parents and Students) so that it is not double counting content area co-teaching/push in classes as ESL services, and restores language instruction minutes. No more claiming that the minutes have not changed. ESOL teachers across the state know they would not be able to complete last years' curriculum map in the time alotted for ESOL instruction this year. To deny this fact is a form of gaslighting.
II. Revise NYSITELL and NYSESLAT and Home Language Testing for ELLs to
III. RESPECT ELL DEVELOPMENT: A. Awarding English credit to students for ESL classes should be restored.
III. RESPECT PARENTAL CHOICE:
IV. INVEST IN CAPACITY OF CONTENT AREA TEACHERS: Training/certification extensions for content area teachers in ESOL methodology specifically for their curricular area and to help them obtain bilingual extensions. 5 courses are not enough to meet two sets of objectives.
V. INVEST IN CAPACITY OF ESOL TEACHERS: Fund training/certification extensions for ESOL teachers to improve instruction and alignment of curriculum to build capacity for independence in ELA mainstream courses, and obtain dual certifications in ELA and content area courses, or bilingual extensions.
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