Arizona schools see sharp drop in English learners, report says

by Pat Kossan - Jun. 23, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The number of students learning the English language in Arizona schools has plummeted in recent years as fewer children entered the immersion program, others withdrew and more tested out as proficient, a newly released state report concludes.

How much of the drop was because of the effectiveness of Arizona's 4-year-old immersion program for English learners is unclear, however, the report said.

The state's data is unreliable and two-thirds of schools sampled haven't fully implemented the program, the Arizona Office of the Auditor General reported.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate that program, which requires English learners to spend four hours a day learning the language.

"This (decline in students) is an example of an interesting phenomenon going on that we can't explain because we can't track students," said Paul Koehler of WestEd, an education-research and policy group. "We don't know where the students came from or where they went. That's a really serious issue."

The scarcity of data leaves educators and policy makers operating on speculation instead of facts to improve language-learning programs, Koehler said.

The auditor general's report, released Wednesday, showed that the total number of English learners declined by 38 percent over three school years, from 169,758 in 2007-08 to 105,868 in 2009-10.

Figures are not yet available for the 2010-11 year.

The study looked at 73 districts and charter schools and pointed to several possible reasons for the decline:

- The immersion program, introduced statewide in 2007-08, enabled more students to reach English proficiency. Schools also began to pay more attention to how students are learning English and how long it takes them to become proficient.

- A growing number of students entered school knowing more English and started at more advanced levels of English-learning classes. That caused the number of those testing out of the program to rise.

- New proficiency tests given to students before and during the program were easier, allowing more to avoid or exit. The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice have told the state the test fails to identify all language learners and prematurely exits them from the program. The state is crafting a reply.

- In 2008-09, the state doubled the extra money schools receive to help pay for English-language programs, to $839 per student, improving student results. Budget cuts reduced that amount in 2009-10 school year to $724 per student, or a total of $67 million.

- More students have left the state, or their parents used a waiver to pull their children out of the program.

Officials at some school districts have told The Arizona Republic that tougher illegal-immigration laws prompted immigrant families to move out of Arizona; other districts said they haven't seen that trend.

The study discounted as a factor a query given to parents and students before the students enter English learning. That three-question query asks them what language is spoken at home, what the student's first language is and what language the student most often speaks. In 2009-10, Arizona reduced that query to one question - What language does the student speak? - raising complaints that this allowed too many students to elude English learning when they really needed it.

But the study pointed out that the one-question query was not in place in the previous two years, when the decline in students was greatest. The state restored the three questions midway through 2010-11 in response to federal demands.

The study faulted the state for not properly tracking who attended immersion programs, hours spent in class, which classes students attended and the quality of teachers. As a result, auditors couldn't draw conclusions about the program's impact.

Some educators attributed the decline less to a flight from immigration laws and more to proficiency testing and a new focus on English learning.

In Phoenix Union High School District, the number of Spanish-speaking families with students has remained steady, spokesman Craig Pletenik said. At the same time, the number of English-language learners dropped from 15 percent in 2007-08 to 4.8 percent this past school year. He attributed the decline to the ease of passing the proficiency test.

Minerva Valenzuela, English-learning coordinator for Nogales Unified School District, said she has no data to show that tough immigration laws pushed students out of the district's schools or the English-learning program. Instead, "there's more emphasis on English-language development."

One reason is that within the past few years, state and federal governments have started requiring schools to report the annual number of English learners who become proficient and move on to regular courses. That rate of progress is part of a formula that determines which one of six labels, ranging from excelling to failing, the state gives each school. Federal law requires a school to notify parents when it doesn't make progress with English learners.

"What gets measured is where you put your emphasis," said Angelina Canto, school-improvement director for Nogales Unified School District.

Of the district's 5,700 students about 1,400 are in English-language immersion, and the number has been dropping, Canto said.

Canto said the state is doing better at meeting the needs of English learners, but many of parents also are withdrawing high-school students from the programs.

Parents don't want their students studying English for four hours a day, as it prevents them from earning enough credits to graduate from high school on time, she said.

Canto said she agrees with the parents but still credits Arizona's improvement.

"I wouldn't want to go back to the days when there were no assessments in place and no instruction whatsoever," Canto said.

Reach the reporter at pat.kossan@arizonarepublic .com

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