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On 2/24/15, MCB wrote:
> What fresh madness is this that New York State has cooked
up for
> English as a Second Language Teachers? Oh wait, I meant
to say,
> English as a NEW Language, our new appellation. All of a
sudden we are
> not "qualified" to teach a stand- alone ELA class and we
now must push
> in to a "qualified" read certified English Language Arts
teacher's class?
> And while ELA teachers have been offered the opportunity
to obtain an
> ancillary ESL license, the same courtesy has not been
extended to ESL
> teachers. Why couldn't we apply for an ancillary English
license? What
> misguided madness is this? Why is there no one in Albany
advocating
> for us? We have decades of researched best practices
behind us. Why is
> it that zero English students must now endure the stress
of being
> included in a mainstream English Language Arts class? Is
anyone in
> Albany awake?

Because, plain and simple: ESL (oh, sorry, ENL) is looked
upon as the stepchild of "real" education, as are its
teachers. TPTB in Albany couldn't give a rat's petootie
about research and best practices if it doesn't jive
w/their agenda. What I'd like to know is: what dingbat
came up with the idea that ELLs esp. at the secondary
level, no longer need real English language instruction in
order to be able to handle academic courses in English?
And that answers the question of what TPTB's agenda is:
whatever is cheapest. Case closed. And who ultimately
loses out? The ELLs, of course.

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