Alison

Posted on 10/23/09

Here is a Supreme Court quote taken from the Lau v. Nichols case.
The basis for the case was the claim that the students could not
understand the language in which they were being taught: therefore,
they were not NOT being provided with an equal education. The
Supreme Court agreed, saying that: "There is no equality of
treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities,
textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not
understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful
education."

The case reaffirmed that all students in the United States,
regardless of native language, have the right to receive a quality
education. It also clarified that equality of opportunity does not
necessarily mean the same education for every student, but rather
the same opportunity to receive an education. An equal education is
only possible if students can understand the language of
instruction.

Within weeks of the Lau v. Nichols ruling, Congress passed the Equal
Educational Opportunity Act (EEOA) MANDATING that no state shall
deny equal education opportunity to any individual, "by the failure
by an educational agency to take appropriate action to overcome
language barriers that impede equal participation by students in an
instructional program." This is an important piece of legislation
because it defines what constitutes the denial of education
opportunities.

"Push in" ESL teachers need to study this and do their own research.
Administrators need to be aware of this Supreme Court ruling and
understand that they are breaking the law passed down by the Supreme
Court and Congress. There are no studies to date proving that "push
in" is raising test scores. Fact is....it is bringing test scores
even lower. Do your research and you will see that I am right.

On 10/22/09, Alison wrote:
> It sounds to me, Vanessa, that the exact same thing is happening
> in your school district that is happening in mine. The only
> difference is that not every school in my district is "pushing
> in". They are, instead, letting the principals decide to "push
> in" or "pull out". And yes, our test scores are reflecting the
> failure of the administrators to get it right.
>
> My point is this though....why do teachers allow this? Why do
> they go along with it? I have been fighting this for 29 years
> now. I don't "push in" because I refuse to. I'm sure my
> principal hates me, but so what. I've lasted this long simply
> because in their hearts they know I'm right.
>
> I go back to my original statement to please write to all the
> politicians you can. There is no mandate here or anywhere that
> says we have to "push in". And PLEASE....do NOT teach the vowels
> in Spanish and English at the same time. They are setting you and
> your students up for failure. DON'T DO IT!
>
> On 10/21/09, Vanessa wrote:
>> I'm a bilingual teacher and in my district they are doing
>> push-in. Technically,the ESL teacher and the bilingual
>> teacher should be co-teaching for two periods per day. In
>> theory it sounds great but in practice it's a nightmare.
>> There's absolutely no common planning time but they expect
>> both teachers to be on the same page at all times. We have to
>> teach the exact same skill each day and our lesson plans must
>> match in terms of the skills taught. How are we supposed to
>> achieve this? The ESL and bilingual teacher would have to
>> call or email each other frequently during non working hours
>> and prepare lesson plans way ahead of time in order to
>> fulfill this. I think this is an unfair expectation. On top
>> of that there are no clear guidelines of who does what. I
>> keep receiving different information all the time. Also, they
>> want for us to teach English language arts to the ELL
>> students who are on a level one of proficiency. The kids
>> don't understand anything I'm talking about during those
>> English language arts lessons. They're not getting much out
>> of it. They also want for us to teach the vowels in English
>> and Spanish at the same time. This is very confusing for the
>> kids. Is this how it's done everywhere else? I'm kind of new
>> to the field but still, I'm not sure if this is the right
>> thing to do. The school doesn't provide the teachers with
>> materials (only a few very basic things) either so I have to
>> buy most of the materials such as books, chart paper, writing
>> journals etc. Then the ESL teacher comes and uses everything
>> I buy. I think they just assume that the school buys this. I
>> feel bad and don't want to say anything and appear petty or
>> selfish but I can't afford to buy materials for me AND the
>> other teachers too!!! I have only been teaching bilingual for
>> one year and a few months and I'm very frustrated and
>> confused. The only good thing about this is that the two ESL
>> teachers I have worked with have been very nice people and
>> are very professional. It's just the model that just doesn't
>> work. I think I will look for a job in a district that has a
>> different model next year. I love teaching ELL, it can be so
>> rewarding but this situation is driving me nuts.
>>
>>
>> On 10/01/09, t wrote:
>>> This year my school has adopted readers workshop (two hours
>>> of literacy in a block). They have also made multiple
>>> grade levels have literacy, math, lunch, specials and
>>> recess at the exact same times. Therefore, pulling kids
>>> out has become a nightmare, because we just can't take them
>>> from class.
>>>
>>> They are killing ESL, so to speak.
>>>
>>> The literacy specialists have decided that we should do
>>> only push in. However, when we do, the teachers are doing
>>> whole class lessons, or they have the kids doing
>>> independent reading or some other activity. So we, the ESL
>>> teachers, wind up acting like overpaid assistants. We have
>>> no input on lessons, no input on books to be used (the
>>> literacy people have decided what works...)
>>>
>>> I got chided yesterday by the literacy specialist because
>>> she decided I was going too fast in a book SHE had chosen
>>> (it was a 30 page book with one or two sentences per page.
>>> The kids thought it was dumb) she chided me for not
>>> previewing vocab, not stretching it out, not finding all
>>> sorts of meaning. When I pointed out that I had JUST
>>> walked into the class when the classroom teacher handed me
>>> a new-to-me book to "teach" that day, I am only in the
>>> class 1/2 hour two times a week, I don't even work at that
>>> school 1/2 the week, when was I supposed to preview the
>>> book? The specialist didn't even realize the kids were
>>> ESL, she gave them a book filled with idioms, yet no plot
>>> to speak of...
>>>
>>> This is how it is going for us...no input to lessons, no
>>> consideration that we have things to teach these kids,
>>> too. It's assumed that ESL is English "lite" or that there
>>> is something wrong with these kids. Our schools scored
>>> keep dropping, we get more ESL kids every year, and yet
>>> they won't let us teach them in the way that is most
>>> effective for them!

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