Comptroller Finds ‘Profound Failures’ in City Services for English Language Learners

These failures disproportionately impact Spanish Chinese Russian Bengali and Arabic-speaking communities with Spanish-speaking students representing percent of all ELLs disclosed the Comptroller s office New York City Community Schools disputes the findings A scene from the first day of school in New York City last week Michael Appleton Mayoral Photography Office The office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander identified profound failures in English Language Learners ability to access services and programs designed for them at the city s general schools An audit published Monday uncovered that a a key percentage of the school system s English Language Learners ELLs hadn t received the services they re legally entitled to such as required courses or a minimum number of instructional minutes They have also been denied other legally mandated services the audit uncovered such as being identified as ELLs through the Home Language Identification Survey being tested and placed through the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners and receiving a bilingual coaching or access to an English as a New Language project function d u ac var s d createElement 'script' s type 'text javascript' s src 'https a omappapi com app js api min js' s async true s dataset user u s dataset campaign ac d getElementsByTagName 'head' appendChild s document 'u kmqsczew vunxutxmd' These failures disproportionately impact Spanish Chinese Russian Bengali and Arabic-speaking communities with Spanish-speaking students representing percent of all ELLs the Comptroller s office commented in a press release Since Spring of over asylum seekers have come to New York City multiple from Latin America and their kids have been filling the classrooms of the city s constituents schools which saw new ELL students a percent jump ELL students represent percent of total attendee enrollment according to the Comptroller s office Numerous migrant students are also living or have lived in the city s shelter system which was home to migrant families with children as of July though not all those families have school-aged kids After a participant is first enrolled or re-enrolled schools should identify English Language Learners and test their English skills If students total below commanding on the state s English Language Learners NYSITELL test they are considered ELLs and are entitled to receive services under these regulations A New York State Schooling Department Commissioner s Regulation CR Part was created to ensure ELLs are not left behind and achieve the same educational goals and standards as non-ELLs It means parents or guardians should be informed about their child s English language skills and the project options available to them Additionally CR Part mandates that every school district provide ELLs with either a Bilingual Development or English as a New Language ENL Undertaking A bilingual activity teaches students in two languages their native language and English to achieve proficiency in both while ENL programs prioritize English language acquisition with advocacy in the novice s first language The audit revealed that NYCPS did not provide the required courses the minimum number of minutes of ENL instruction or the minimum number of minutes of bilingual instruction to almost half percent of the students in the audit surveyed out of When demanded New York City Citizens Schools NYCPS formerly the Department of Development refuted the findings stating that the statement included students who were enrolled for less than days meaning they couldn t be identified as ELLs or take the exam to assess their skills The Comptroller s Office emphasized in response to NYCPS objections that the audit results were shared with the department on several occasions and that tuition agents did not criticize the figures and methodology or ask for revisions during that process Coaching advocates declined to comment on whether the evidence is accurate or not or whether the comptroller s office did a good job reviewing it All I can speak about is our experience on the ground reported Rita Rodriguez-Engberg director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at the nonprofit Advocates for Children We see families that we serve who are not provided services on time students who are not identified on time parents who have never been invited to the mandated parent meeting that they re supposed to have A scene from the first day of school in September Michael Appleton Mayoral Photography Office NYCPS announced it has multiple avenues to ensure that ELLs are identified and placed on time training by each borough s ELL agenda promotion staff daily and monthly updates on eligible students sent to superintendents and district staff and extra help and visits to schools that don t follow the rules The department revealed it is already complying with one of the account s recommendations which is to keep major records on ELL students and is looking into new methods to collect digital records in a new learner information system that s being developed Those records include the Home Language Identification Survey which determines whether a language other than English is spoken at home as well as parent surveys and effort agreement forms Advocates were surprised to learn that percent of students sampled by the comptroller s audit were taught by teachers who do not have the full qualifications to teach ELL I was greater part shocked that teachers were not qualified because that s just something that we as advocates and on the side parent advocacy we don t have access to that information mentioned Rodriguez-Engberg When requested NYCPS disagreed saying that English as a New Language courses are often taught by an ENL coach and a instructor of the subject being studied In the last school year percent of ELLs received either bilingual schooling or ENL instruction from a professor who was certified the department mentioned School districts must meet certain requirements in offering bilingual schooling programs but can also request a waiver if they re unable to do so According to the audit during the last school year NYCPS requested Bilingual Guidance Campaign Waivers It doesn t come as a surprise to me that schools fill out a waiver to not create a bilingual initiative because that requires organization it requires a budget it requires hiring a bilingual educator to be able to teach the class And I m just not sure that there are enough teachers in New York City to be able to cover the need Rodriguez-Engberg mentioned Between the and school years the city opened new bilingual learning programs and with an additional new programs anticipated for the current school year leaders noted NYCPS didn t specify but noted it s also progressing new programs to help teachers who work with students who speak low-incidence languages which are languages spoken by fewer than percent of the statewide English Language Learner ELL population excluding Spanish and Chinese NYCPS revealed they re offering over programs in various languages including Arabic Bengali Albanian and other low-incidence languages and assured that every child regardless of language background will receive their required instruction and advocacy to succeed in the classroom Well before the release of the auditor s analysis we had already implemented strategic systemwide initiatives to strengthen language instruction compliance indicators and ensure equity in access to higher quality mentoring a NYCPS spokesperson stated in a announcement By expanding hiring for English as a New Language and Bilingual Learning teachers and continuing advance of our bilingual training programs we have taken action to meet the linguistic and academic requirements of every novice the spokesperson added To reach the reporter behind this story contact Daniel citylimits org To reach the editor contact Jeanmarie citylimits org Want to republish this story Find City 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