Thread: TX- DISD chief urges fed flexibility on 4-year grad on immig

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Dallas schools chief urges federal flexibility on 4-year graduations to retain immigrants

04:49 AM CDT on Friday, April 30, 2010
By DIANE RADO / The Dallas Morning News
drado@dallasnews.com

In his first appearance before a congressional committee on Thursday, Dallas Schools Superintendent Michael Hinojosa urged the federal government not to penalize high schools that don't graduate students in four years, saying immigrant students in particular may need longer to get their diplomas.

"It takes a long time to acquire language," Hinojosa told members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. He said schools should be given incentives – not punished – if they keep immigrant students in class longer to master English and obtain the credits they need to graduate.

"We should be given credit for making sure the kids don't walk the streets, and stay in school and graduate," Hinojosa told the committee, which is holding hearings in Washington, D.C., on renewing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In its current form – called No Child Left Behind – the act judges high schools based on how many students graduate in the traditional four years. Schools accepting federal money for low-income students face sanctions if too few students graduate on time.

Texas' state accountability system rates students on a five-year graduation rate, and there is a growing sentiment around the nation that there should be more flexibility at the federal level when it comes to graduating on time, particularly for special education students and immigrants who are still struggling with English.

The Obama administration has already signaled that it is open to "extended" graduation rates.

Earlier this year, the Texas Education Agency asked permission from the federal government to give Texas schools the option of using five-year rates. The U.S. Department of Education has not decided on Texas' request, an agency spokeswoman said, but three other states – Michigan, Massachusetts and Washington – have already been given permission to be judged on extended graduation rates.

Hinojosa was asked to testify before the Senate committee that focuses on special-needs student populations, including the homeless, migrants and limited-English students.

More than 55,000 students in DISD are categorized as limited-English students – about 36 percent of the district's enrollment.

The district has improved education for English-language learners and recruited bilingual teachers from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain and South America to ensure that limited-English students have qualified teachers, Hinojosa said.

DISD has also created a dual language program for all elementary schools, with a goal for all students to be literate in two languages in reading, writing and other academic skills.

For Hinojosa, improving the quality of education for immigrant students is personal.

"I, too, was an immigrant," he told the senators in a packed committee room.

Hinojosa's family moved from Mexico to Lubbock and then to Dallas, when Hinojosa was a child. Born in Mexico, Hinojosa became a U.S. citizen when he was in college.

In an interview with The Dallas Morning News following his testimony, Hinojosa said he received an email from the staff of the committee just three days before the hearing, asking if he could testify.

"It was very much a surprise," Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa joined several other speakers on the panel.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... a7d2e.html


What a bunch of BS...

Great, all of our school will have 28 year old illegals in them just hanging out.

What happens after the fifth year and they still don't get it? Give them another year or two or five? Get the hell outta here!

Learning English is not the same as special ed, so don't insult the families of special ed students who are not in special ed by choice.

Attitudes like this offend me deeply. Neither of my parents spoke English and they were helpless to help me. It was up to ME to work my butt off to graduate....all this BEFORE all these ESL and entitlement classes even existed. So unless Hinojosa expects these students to be stupid the rest of their lives, tell them to buck up and APPLY themselves or get out and pick tomatoes the rest of their lives!!! It takes hard work and will to learn another language and to graduate from high school, what's the point of coddling them? So they can go thru life whining when things don't come easy? PLEASE!

Hinojosa's family moved from Mexico to Lubbock and then to Dallas, when Hinojosa was a child. Born in Mexico, Hinojosa became a U.S. citizen when he was in college.

I'd say the odds are good that he and his family came here illegally.