TEFL Headlines from the United States
Gov. Janet Napolitano let a bill that allocates an additional $40 million for English instruction become law without her signature Monday, expressing concern that the state still has ‘unfinished’ business on the matter reports AZ Central. The action on the eve of a court deadline should avert the $2 million-a-day fines U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins threatened to impose. He gave the state until today to present an adequate funding plan. But the governor said the $40 million and the way it is allocated are “far from a perfect solution” to the problems posed by the state’s long-standing debate over how to educate students struggling to learn English.
Colorado: English Language Learners Make Great Strides
Greeley-Evans School District 6 officials last week got some news they hope will increase graduate rates. English Language Learning students showed improvement or significant improvement in nearly every category and grade level in the Colorado English Language Assessment test. CELA is given to students who entered the district having no proficiency or limited proficiency in English. The assessment, given to 3,600 District 6 students in January, measures how well these students have progressed in learning to read, write, speak and listen in English.
The results were nothing short of “spectacular,” said Larry Kleiber, director of assessment for the district. Good for you, that’s what I say.
Arizona: Get ELL Out of the Way of Court Intervention
Raner Collins, the federal judge in the litigation over Arizona’s educational funding for English-language learners, now faces a moment of truth, reveals the Tuscon Citizen Online. Until this point, he was superintending a very bad case he inherited (isn’t that always the case?). In 2000, a previous judge, Alfredo Marquez - looking only at one school district in the state, Nogales - concluded that the state’s entire system of financing education for English learners violated federal law.
The law in question is vague and likely violates the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It purports to require states “to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by (their) students in (their) instructional programs.” Sounds like trouble if you ask me.
Florida: San Pedro Mission Teaches English to Those Who Want to Learn
Before Lariza Abarca began attending the San Pedro Mission’s English as a Second Language program, she had to speak to people through a Spanish translator. Now, a year later, Abarca is in the mid-level ESL classes at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, where she also is learning some basic living skills.
“We’re here in this country, so we need to speak English,” she said. “It is very important.”
Like many of the students in the program and the country’s president, one of Abarca’s main goals is to be able to talk to her children’s schoolteachers without having to bring a translator. She said she appreciates the opportunity to learn English, and she likes being able to communicate with others outside the Spanish-speaking community.
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