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Bill cutting ESOL teacher training advances

Ohanian Comment: When my own relatives arrived in Broward County primary grades not speaking English, special attention to the needs of English Language Learners consisted of putting the children back a grade and sending home a Language Master machine with a stack of vocabulary cards. My loud screaming did no good.

One thing that is disappointing about the list of groups asking for the Governor's veto is who's missing. Where's NCTE? IRA? Where are concerned citizens? Junior League? Rotary Club? Where are the teacher unions? And so on.



The following non-profit groups requested the
Governor’s veto last year:

National



• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
  (TESOL, Inc.)


• National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE)


• Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL)


• National Council for Languages and International Studies (NCLIS)


• Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)
  Institute for Language and Education Policy
  ASPIRA Association


• National Council of La Raza ((NCLR)


• League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)


• Cuban American National Council (CNC)


State


• Sunshine State TESOL of Florida (SST)


• Bilingual Association of Florida (BAF)


• Florida Association of Bilingual and ESOL Supervisors (FABES)


• Florida League of United Latin American Citizens (Florida LULAC)


• Florida Chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)


• Coalition of Florida Farmworker Organizations (COFFO)


Miami-Dade County


• Miami-Dade County Public Schools


• Spanish American League Against Discrimination (SALAD)


• Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center
  Centro Campesino


• Hispanic Coalition


• American Hispanic Educators Association of Dade (AHEAD)


NOTE: Broward County Public School District sent a thank you letter to the Governor for the veto of the bill.

By Nirvi Shah

Some state lawmakers are trying for a second time to slash training requirements for reading teachers who work with students learning English, although scarcely a third of those students read at grade level and only half graduate from high school.

North Florida legislators sponsoring the bill say the required training -- equivalent to 15 college credits or 300 hours -- is cumbersome and unnecessary. In some North Florida counties, only a tiny fraction of the students in public schools are learning English, but in Miami-Dade and Broward combined, about 80,000 students are getting help to learn English.

While Hispanic legislators, including many from South Florida, helped convince Gov. Charlie Crist to veto last year's bill, new leaders at the state Department of Education endorse the proposed changes. The bill took a first step Friday, when it was unanimously passed by a House committee.

Miami parent Myriam Orta, a native of Peru, said her difficulties with English limited her to taking low-paying jobs when she came to the United States 22 years ago. She endured ridicule for speaking Spanish and struggled with English classes.

"I had so many barriers when I came to this country. Those barriers are still engraved in my skin," Orta said. "I saw doors close on me because I couldn't speak English. Hopefully, because my children are bilingual, they will have three or four doors open for them."

Orta's sons, Miguel Angel and Leonarado, attend Kensington Park Elementary and son Alek attends Kinloch Park Middle, all in Miami.

"I did what I could to help at home, but it was the teachers who pushed them to learn," Orta said. "What will happen to the kids taught by teachers with less training?"

For reading teachers, the specialized training is in addition to 15 college credits they need to teach reading. New rules allow reading teachers to use some of those courses toward certification for teaching students learning English -- called ESOL, or English for Speakers of Other Languages -- but the bill would cut training further.

While the bill cuts training for reading teachers, teachers of language arts -- essentially, English for English speakers -- still need 15 credits.

"The teachers of reading to English-language learners will be less prepared than the teachers of language arts, which makes no sense," said Joanne Urrutia, who oversees bilingual education for Miami-Dade schools. "You do not teach reading separate from language arts."

Florida Atlantic University professor Joan Friedenberg, who teaches teachers how to help English-language learners to read, said the proposal doesn't make sense when English-language learners remain one of the state's worst-performing groups in school.

While there may be complaints that the training is too much, she notes that teachers who study at FAU and other schools can turn the lessons into credits toward a master's degree.

"Everyone seems to want the easiest way out. They don't want to spend the money or the time," she said. "But what about the little kids?"

But lawmakers say the hundreds of hours teachers are commanded to spend in class to become certified, on their own time, is too much. The courses should be about quality, not quantity, said Senate co-sponsor Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.

"When teacher-training time during school time and after school is diverted to training that is not necessary . . . it creates a backlash for parents who want teachers to be trained in things that really matter," Gaetz said.

For Lyons Creek Middle teacher Amy Kenny, the classes did matter. While time-consuming, she now feels she knows the best ways to reach her students. In one class at her Coconut Creek school, her students' native languages are Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese and Spanish.

Kenny was taught to use hand gestures, lots of audio and visual aids and to pair students new to the country with those here for a while. Although she was apprehensive about teaching students learning English, now she relishes it.

"You get that `a-ha' moment," Kenny said. "You can really see the learning going on."

During a recent lesson, Kenny asked her students why reading Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham might be enjoyable for young children who can easily finish reading it -- it uses just 50 different words.

"You feel good," said Jullyana Peres, 12, whose native language is Portuguese. "Like you achieved something."

But new leaders at the state Department of Education say the amount of training is arbitrary. They will change the training regardless of what happens in the Legislature, said Frances Haithcock, the state's new K-12 chancellor of education.

Haithcock said the goal is to find what works best.

"What isn't arbitrary: What is it that really will increase the capacity of reading teachers to teach [English-language learning] kids?" she said.

Worries about the results of changes to teacher training are unfounded, she added.

"I spent too much time in South Florida to not understand what these children need," said Haithcock, who worked for the Broward school district for 36 years.

But reducing the training would be illegal, say those monitoring how Florida adheres to a 1990 legal settlement -- a federal consent decree -- that led to special lessons for teachers of students learning English.

"This is about children, about civil rights," said Rosa Castro Feinberg, a former Miami-Dade School Board member. She heads the education advisory committee of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which fought for the settlement.

If reading teachers' training is diminished, she fears students who aren't native English speakers will be shortchanged.

"There is nothing as important to school success as the ability to read well," she said, "and nothing matters as much to instruction as the preparation of the teacher."

Crist said as much in a letter vetoing last year's bill, writing that he could not lower standards for reading teachers because it is "imperative that our students learn to read English from the highest-quality instructors so that they can succeed more readily in other subjects."

State Hispanic Legislative Caucus Chairman Rep. J.C. Planas, R-Miami, predicts a similar outcry for a veto this year.

Aside from Hispanic legislators, a litany of groups opposed the change, including the state's NAACP chapter, the National Association for Bilingual Education, the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center and a dozen others.

Teacher unions in Broward and Miami-Dade did not respond to requests for comment about the training. The state teachers union has no official position on the bills.

The Florida Education Association said it is in talks with the state, parents and groups representing students learning English to find the best way to change teacher training, spokesman Mark Pudlow said.

But the argument that the requirement is too much for teachers simply isn't convincing, said Tania Mena, director of bilingual programs in Broward.

"I would say maybe it's too much for the teacher," Mena said, "but we want to make sure it's not too little for the students."

Miami Herald staff writer Ani Martinez contributed to this report.

— Nirvi Shah
Miami Herald
2008-03-07
http://www.miamiherald.com/466/story/448049.html#re

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