Thread: Civil Rights Office Ends Probe of Salt Lake Schools

Civil rights office ends probe of Salt Lake schools
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:04/01/2009 10:58:56 PM MDT

It took eight years and $1.2 million. But Salt Lake City School District is now free from federal scrutiny for failing to properly educate non-English speaking students.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights ended its monitoring of the district, resolving a 2001 discrimination complaint which alleged the district had too few teachers trained to teach English as a Second Language (ESL).

The news was welcomed by Salt Lake Superintendent McKell Withers as being due recognition for a "difficult, but enjoyable journey."

For civil rights officials, it marks the end of an era.

Salt Lake was one of 10 Utah school districts to come under federal review for "sink-or-swim" educational practices that did little to help non-native speakers master English, instead shunting them into dead-end tracks for slow learners.

It was the final district to meet federal equality in education goals, said Utah civil rights coordinator Richard Gomez.

Michael Clára, the west-side community advocate whose complaint gave rise to the Salt Lake probe, now applauds the district.

"I just wish it didn't take someone like me going to the federal government," he said.

Clára first voiced concerns at a school board meeting in 2001 about there being zero ESL teachers at Glendale Middle School, and got zero traction.

At the time, the entire district had only 97 ESL-endorsed teachers even though a third of the students qualified for special help. Today, roughly 900 teachers, more than half the district's force, are trained in ESL.

At Glendale, 90 percent of the teachers now have ESL experience.

In addition, the district offers bilingual classes and dual-immersion programs where all students are taught in English and another "world" language like Spanish, French or Chinese. And schools now commonly deploy interpreters and translate school newsletters, bulletins, community meeting notices and calenders into Spanish.

More importantly, there has been a cultural shift, said Clára, who recalls a day when teachers chastised students for conversing in Spanish.

Withers, who inherited the federal probe, acknowledged some in the district saw it as an "oppressive burden."

Withers saw opportunity and said there's work yet to be done.

Two years after becoming proficient in English, Salt Lake's non-native speakers perform on par with native speakers, federal monitoring reports show.

But statewide, there remains an achievement gap for English learners.

Year-end tests in 2008 show that while 80 percent of native English speaking second graders in Utah were reading at grade level, only 49 percent of those learning English were. The gap widens as students progress in school. By the seventh grade, 82 percent of native speakers can read on grade level, compared with 37 percent of English learners.

"We definitely haven't arrived. I don't know any school that has arrived," said Withers.

Teachers today are more tolerant and teaching methods have improved. But the ranks of immigrant students are swelling and debate about the best way to educate them continues against a backdrop of lightening-rod issues, such as illegal immigration.

Meanwhile the demographic landscape keeps shifting, said Withers, whose 24,000 students now include refugees and speak 80 different languages.

Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, co-director of Immigration Studies at New York University, said the gold standard for non-native speakers is dual-immersion programs, which avoid segregating students and allow them to stay on track in math, science and social studies while learning English.

But not all programs are created equal. And even under the best circumstances it takes six to seven years to learn academic English -- a hard sell in today's world of high-stakes testing, said Suárez-Orozco. "We want kids to learn English and we want kids to learn English fast."

He predicts schools will slowly specialize to meet the needs of different learners.

"One day," he said. "We will look back at the mass-production model of education with horror the same way [modern medicine] looks at bleeding and leeches."

kstewart@sltrib.com

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Related:
ProEnglish Asks Supreme Court: Protect English Immersion
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-152075.html

But not all programs are created equal. And even under the best circumstances it takes six to seven years to learn academic English -- a hard sell in today's world of high-stakes testing, said Suárez-Orozco. "We want kids to learn English and we want kids to learn English fast."

Total BS! It should take no more than THREE years to become proficient, if you have half a brain! That's how long it took me without any "ESL" "help". The sole problem is that parents do not encourage their kids to learn English, like mine did. Mine didn't speak English, but they demanded that I learn to better protect myself from "bottom-feeders" among our own kind!