Just shows what opportunity can bring for our nation's young people. -Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
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High-quality High School Turns Former Gang Member Into Community Organizer
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Ely Flores remembers the day when, at six years old, he first saw gunshots fly in his neighborhood as rival gang members fired back and forth. Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, where gangs and drugs dominated, presented many obstacles to success.
"My father left the family when I was young," Flores says. "That left my mom very sad and pushed my older brother and me into gangs.
"Eventually, Flores was kicked out of his local high school because of gang involvement. He was committed to house arrest several times. With regard to education, Flores experienced a situation familiar to many Latinos. Fewer than six in 10 Latino students in the U.S. graduate from high schools on time with a traditional diploma, and more than two in five drop out, according to an Education Week study.
But after enrolling at LA CAUSA YouthBuild in East Los Angeles -- an alternative school supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation --Flores envisioned a new future for himself.
LA CAUSA is one of 29 schools belonging to YouthBuild USA's National Schools Initiative, which brings alternative high school models to low-income students who had previously been dropouts. The program helps these students earn a high school diploma and prepare for college or the workforce.
Teachers in YouthBuild schools show students -- many of whom have been incarcerated or otherwise fell through the cracks -- that they can succeed despite their troubled pasts. Students enjoy small class sizes and supportive learning environments as well as leadership development training and career counseling. Students gain construction skills through hands-on learning while taking high school courses. In some cases, they can also earn early college credits.
For many students, the YouthBuild model is transformative.
"These schools and programs are trying some very interesting new things and are on the cutting edge of education," said Lissette Rodriguez, YouthBuild's vice president for field services. "Most people agree that youths who have dropped out deserve a chance. But it is more challenging for them to believe that these young people can achieve at a high level and go on to graduate from college.
"YouthBuild leaders are already proving that students who were cast off in the past can succeed. In the 2006-07 school year, roughly two out of three YouthBuild students either earned a high school diploma or received their general equivalency degree (GED). Four in 10 students were accepted into a college program.
Ely Flores was an early YouthBuild success story, graduating from LA CAUSA in 2005 with his high school diploma and GED.
"Ely was always a leader. He was just using his leadership for the wrong things," said Alejandro Covarrubias, who founded LA CAUSA YouthBuild in 2002. "He needed to see a model for positive behavior.
"After some rocky periods and with the school's help, Flores left his gang. Now 21 he is a young father, college student, and student mentor for students. Flores developed a passion for community organizing through LA CAUSA and now leads workshops for young people on leadership, youth empowerment, and human rights.
Turnarounds like Flores' are not uncommon in the hundreds of schools nationally that use grants from the Gates Foundation to transform the traditional high school. While each grantee takes a slightly different route, the foundation is most interested in smaller schools with high expectations and high-quality teaching.
The Gates Foundation and its partners are acutely concerned with the historically poor high school graduation rates and college attendance rates for Latino students. Since 2000, the foundation has invested more than $1.9 billion in more than 1,800 schools across the country.
Flores says experiences like his prove that high schools with fresh approaches can change the course of students' lives.
Flores wanted to show his newborn son a new way of life. But for years he was torn, feeling like leaving his gang would be the ultimate act of disloyalty. "LA CAUSA finally taught me what was really going on [with the gang]," Flores said. "And instead of just running with my friends, I began to tell myself that I could help my homies out by empowering them. I just realized there was something bigger in my life."
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
With struggling economy, I.E. Latinos fear deportation (from San Bernardino Sun)
Story about home...-Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
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With struggling economy, I.E. Latinos fear deportation
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 09/21/2008 06:56:36 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO - With U.S. financial markets tanking and the economy reeling, Latino activists fear a repeat of history.
During the Great Depression, one-third of the country's Mexican population was deported or pressured to return home. Many of them were American citizens.
The recession of the early 1950s forced nearly 3 million Mexicans to be sent home as a consequence of "Operation Wetback."
A similar economic and financial meltdown could precipitate another massive deportation and removal program, activists say.
"In times of recession and times of depression, there is an escalation and intensification of anti-immigration politics," said Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights. "Immigrants become the scapegoats."
The National Alliance has scheduled a meeting Tuesday at the Villasenor Library to discuss ways to counteract what it sees as a resurgence of nativism.
The meeting also will focus on the progress of local efforts in support of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Several "Viva Obama" clubs recently formed to mobilize Latino voters to back Obama.
The Illinois senator is preferred by many Latinos who favor a path to citizenship for the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Latino immigrant communities in several states have been hit hard by workplace raids and other enforcement measures that have created a climate of fear and anxiety.
In a well-publicized case, federal immigration agents in May arrested 389 workers during a raid at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa.
Closer to home, federal agents this month served a search warrant and arrested 51 illegal immigrants at a Palm Springs bakery. Two supervisors also were charged with employing illegal immigrants.
A Pew Hispanic Center survey released last week showed that a growing number of Latinos in the United States are worried about being deported. Fifty-seven percent said they are concerned that they, a relative or close friend may be deported. That's a 4 percent increase over last year, according to the survey.
"They're getting real strict with the law," said Jorge Reyes, a Fontana resident who is vice president of political affairs for the Ontario Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "They are going to the factories and the companies and going after the workers. This is getting really bad for us."
Mel Albiso, who heads a statewide nonprofit that helps Latino students, said there is a correlation between workplace raids and school attendance.
"The immigrant parents will keep their children home because they're fearful of their families being split apart," said Albiso, president of the Association of Mexican-American Educators. "You can't educate children the way you need to when they're scared about having a place to go home to. No group of people should have to live in fear."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
With struggling economy, I.E. Latinos fear deportation
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 09/21/2008 06:56:36 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO - With U.S. financial markets tanking and the economy reeling, Latino activists fear a repeat of history.
During the Great Depression, one-third of the country's Mexican population was deported or pressured to return home. Many of them were American citizens.
The recession of the early 1950s forced nearly 3 million Mexicans to be sent home as a consequence of "Operation Wetback."
A similar economic and financial meltdown could precipitate another massive deportation and removal program, activists say.
"In times of recession and times of depression, there is an escalation and intensification of anti-immigration politics," said Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights. "Immigrants become the scapegoats."
The National Alliance has scheduled a meeting Tuesday at the Villasenor Library to discuss ways to counteract what it sees as a resurgence of nativism.
The meeting also will focus on the progress of local efforts in support of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Several "Viva Obama" clubs recently formed to mobilize Latino voters to back Obama.
The Illinois senator is preferred by many Latinos who favor a path to citizenship for the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Latino immigrant communities in several states have been hit hard by workplace raids and other enforcement measures that have created a climate of fear and anxiety.
In a well-publicized case, federal immigration agents in May arrested 389 workers during a raid at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa.
Closer to home, federal agents this month served a search warrant and arrested 51 illegal immigrants at a Palm Springs bakery. Two supervisors also were charged with employing illegal immigrants.
A Pew Hispanic Center survey released last week showed that a growing number of Latinos in the United States are worried about being deported. Fifty-seven percent said they are concerned that they, a relative or close friend may be deported. That's a 4 percent increase over last year, according to the survey.
"They're getting real strict with the law," said Jorge Reyes, a Fontana resident who is vice president of political affairs for the Ontario Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "They are going to the factories and the companies and going after the workers. This is getting really bad for us."
Mel Albiso, who heads a statewide nonprofit that helps Latino students, said there is a correlation between workplace raids and school attendance.
"The immigrant parents will keep their children home because they're fearful of their families being split apart," said Albiso, president of the Association of Mexican-American Educators. "You can't educate children the way you need to when they're scared about having a place to go home to. No group of people should have to live in fear."
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Measure 58's goal of English-only classes already a reality (from The Oregonian)
Once the numbers of English Language Learners are at a level of "critical mass" in states with booming ELL populations, we should expect similar proposals to emerge, particularly in the South. Such proposals will probably be accompanied by ideas that are not based on research, driven by political purposes, and led by people who are the most removed from public education. -Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
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Measure 58's goal of English-only classes already a reality
Posted by sroux September 20, 2008 21:27PM
Doug Beghtel / The Oregonian
Verenise Hernandez, a fourth-grader at Cornelius Elementary, practices reading in Spanish with help from teacher Marcia Camacho. Forest Grove educators say teaching Spanish-speaking students to read and write well in Spanish is the best way to help them become strong readers and writers of English.
Voters are being asked to decide how Oregon schools should teach nearly 70,000 students learning English as their second language.
Measure 58, one of five measures on the November ballot authored by Bill Sizemore, would prohibit schools from teaching English learners in their native language after one year in elementary school or two years in high school.
Sizemore wants to plunge them into all-English classrooms as soon as possible because, he says, schools intentionally delay getting students fluent in English.
His proposal, and the strong opposition it is generating among educators, spotlight how little most people know about the way the children spend their days in Oregon classrooms.
Roughly 85 percent are taught exclusively in English, without any teaching in their native Spanish, Russian, Somali or Vietnamese, an analysis by The Oregonian shows.
They rely on their teachers' gestures, pictures, diagrams and carefully enunciated English words to learn their new language and math, history, science and literature at the same time.
Oregon's English language learners
80% are in sheltered instruction, in which students learning English go to regular class with English-speaking classmates but the teacher uses extra visual clues, vocabulary lessons, etc.
8% are in short-term instruction in the first language, along with instruction in English, until the student gains basic literacy in the first language plus gains English skills. This is usually done in primary grades.
5% are in dual-language immersion programs, in which English-speaking students learn Spanish, Japanese or Mandarin, while native speakers of those languages learn English.
4% are in long-term instruction in native language and English so they become and stay bilingual. (This happens almost only in Woodburn and Canby.)
3% are in separate ESL classes taught exclusively in English.
Source: Oregon Department of Education
The rest of Oregon's English learners are taught part of the day in their native language, in either Spanish, Russian or Chinese.
Most are in classes exclusively for students learning English. But some, such as those in immersion magnet programs in Portland, are in classes designed to help both native English speakers and those learning English become bilingual.
The idea behind teaching English learners partly in their own language is twofold: Students learn to read and write faster when taught in their first language, and those literacy skills then transfer to English. During the years students are still shaky in English, they can learn meaty academic content in their native tongue.
A coalition that includes every major education group in the state is working to defeat Measure 58.
Schools agree that getting nonnative speakers proficient in English is the paramount goal for those students, says Diana Fernandez, director of English as a second language instruction for Portland Public Schools, where about 90 percent of English learners are taught only in English. She acknowledges that some students still languish with only intermediate English skills.
But the approach to teaching English should be based on research and on individual needs of students -- whether they can read and write in any language, for example, or whether they have a learning disability, says Wei-Wei Lou, director of English as a second language instruction in Beaverton schools.
Although it seems counterintuitive, teaching students to read and write in their first language, then transitioning them to English, leads to students who are the strongest at reading and writing English, says Perla Rodriguez, principal of Cornelius Elementary.
Research consistently finds that teaching students literacy in their own language makes them stronger readers of English, agrees Claude Goldenberg, a Stanford professor who directs the Center for Language Minority Education and Research.
A time limit, as would be set by Sizemore's measure, makes no sense, Beaverton's Lou says. "All children are very different. So if you say cap it at one year or cap it at two years, that's not appropriate."
Most-common approach
Unlike other states, such as California and Arizona, Oregon has never been a battleground over bilingual education, in part because the number of students not fluent in English was small.
That population has grown in the past decade, however, and now almost one of every eight students in Oregon is learning English as a second language.
Under federal law, all 68,000 English learners are guaranteed two things: They are entitled to special teaching in English to help them write, read and speak English, and they must be taught the same core academic content as native English speakers.
Oregon school districts have developed a host of different approaches to do that.
By far the most common is what's known as "sheltered instruction," which calls on teachers to use gestures, visual aids, repetition, simplified terms and other cues to teach math, social studies, writing and other subjects. There is no teaching in or translation to students' native language.
With 40 different languages sprinkled across hundreds of Oregon schools, it is impractical to teach each student in his or her native language.
Michael Lloyd / The OregonianWestview High teacher Brian Squire gives Abdi Somow, a refugee from Somalia, feedback on a writing assignment. Like most Oregon students learning English as their second language, Somow is taught exclusively in English with no teaching in or translation into his first language. Students who arrive in the United States as teenagers with little formal education in any language face a steep learning curve to master reading and writing English.
At Beaverton's Westview High, for example, Brian Squire's seventh-period class has 23 students who speak 11 different languages -- Cantonese, Somali, Hebrew, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, German, Spanish, Taiwanese, Korean and Uzbek. Most of them are recent arrivals. The biggest group, Spanish speakers, make up one-third of the class.
The school cannot afford and could not find qualified teachers fluent in all those languages. So Westview groups students by their English level and gives them targeted help in English with biology, global studies and other subjects as well as English instruction.
Squires speaks slowly, gestures emphatically, rephrases and repeats his key messages and tries to tie new ideas in English to familiar ideas and details from students' home cultures.
"I can understand my teacher, just sometimes it's hard," says Alice Morgenva, who arrived from Uzbekistan six months ago after her family won a green card that allowed them to immigrate. "I know information, but to write in English, it's hard for me."
Dual-language instruction
School districts in Woodburn, Forest Grove and Salem-Keizer -- where at least 20 percent of the students speak Spanish as a first language -- together account for about 60 percent of all Oregon students who get taught in a language besides English for part of the day. How are students taught English in Oregon?
Exclusively in English: 85%
Part of the day in English, part of the day in their native language: 10%
In a dual-language immersion program, where some students learn their first language plus English, and native English speakers learn to become bilingual: 5%
Source: Oregon Department of Education
Other school districts, including Portland, Corvallis and Phoenix-Talent, offer popular immersion programs that allow native English speakers to gradually become bilingual in Spanish, Mandarin or Japanese -- and allow speakers of those languages to gradually learn English -- while they learn academic subjects in both languages. Woodburn has switched to that approach in primary grades and will move almost entirely to dual-language immersion one grade at a time.
In most Forest Grove elementary schools, students who speak Spanish at home are taught reading and writing in Spanish for 90 minutes a day, along with a 30-minute English language development class.
Once they have mastered reading and writing in their own language -- by fourth or fifth grade for those who start in kindergarten in Forest Grove -- they are put into an English reading and writing class.
Fourth-grader Alberto Acension came to Cornelius Elementary in second grade. Last week, he was taught in Spanish about techniques for strong, independent reading. "Leer a si mismo" ("to read on your own") read the chart he helped create. He read a biography of Cesar Chavez in Spanish.
Later that day, Alberto learned how to search for books in the school library, eagerly tracking the librarian's directions in English. He checked out a book about soccer, written in English.
"In my house, I already know how to speak Spanish," he says. "In my class, I speak English, too. It's fun."
Which language does he like to read in? "Both," he says.
Forest Grove students show strong results in English. More than half moved up a full level in English proficiency last year. By high school, 60 percent of Latino students read at grade level -- nearly the statewide average for all Oregon sophomores.
But Woodburn, which also teaches its students to read and write in their first language, posts poorer results. After five years getting help with English, only 13 percent of its students were proficient. Only about 40 percent of its Latino 10th-graders passed the state reading test.
That's why the district has switched its approach to be more like Forest Grove's, Superintendent Walt Bloomberg says. The district knows it must do better at getting students fully proficient in English.
Sizemore's reasoning
Sizemore says he got the idea for his ballot measure from a pair of teachers who told him their students were sidelined for years in classes for English learners when they could have done fine with regular all-English lessons.
Schools receive nearly $3,000 in additional money from the state for each student in English as a second language. Sizemore says many schools keep students in the program just to get the money.
"My message is that if you're going to come here, we want you to be successful, and you have to learn English, because it's the gateway to success," Sizemore says. "Instead, for the first two years here, we teach them to be proficient in Spanish or Laotian or whatever their language is. That's nonsense."
Educators say he is misinformed -- no Oregon students are taught in Laotian, for instance, and every English language learner is taught in English for part of every day.
Eduardo Lopez, a second-grader at Cornelius Elementary, is glad he gets to learn about animals and other second-grade subjects in two languages. It allows him to communicate with people who speak only Spanish, like his parents, and only English, like many of his schoolmates.
"That way you can understand and talk to them," he says.
-- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@news.oregonian.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Measure 58's goal of English-only classes already a reality
Posted by sroux September 20, 2008 21:27PM
Doug Beghtel / The Oregonian
Verenise Hernandez, a fourth-grader at Cornelius Elementary, practices reading in Spanish with help from teacher Marcia Camacho. Forest Grove educators say teaching Spanish-speaking students to read and write well in Spanish is the best way to help them become strong readers and writers of English.
Voters are being asked to decide how Oregon schools should teach nearly 70,000 students learning English as their second language.
Measure 58, one of five measures on the November ballot authored by Bill Sizemore, would prohibit schools from teaching English learners in their native language after one year in elementary school or two years in high school.
Sizemore wants to plunge them into all-English classrooms as soon as possible because, he says, schools intentionally delay getting students fluent in English.
His proposal, and the strong opposition it is generating among educators, spotlight how little most people know about the way the children spend their days in Oregon classrooms.
Roughly 85 percent are taught exclusively in English, without any teaching in their native Spanish, Russian, Somali or Vietnamese, an analysis by The Oregonian shows.
They rely on their teachers' gestures, pictures, diagrams and carefully enunciated English words to learn their new language and math, history, science and literature at the same time.
Oregon's English language learners
80% are in sheltered instruction, in which students learning English go to regular class with English-speaking classmates but the teacher uses extra visual clues, vocabulary lessons, etc.
8% are in short-term instruction in the first language, along with instruction in English, until the student gains basic literacy in the first language plus gains English skills. This is usually done in primary grades.
5% are in dual-language immersion programs, in which English-speaking students learn Spanish, Japanese or Mandarin, while native speakers of those languages learn English.
4% are in long-term instruction in native language and English so they become and stay bilingual. (This happens almost only in Woodburn and Canby.)
3% are in separate ESL classes taught exclusively in English.
Source: Oregon Department of Education
The rest of Oregon's English learners are taught part of the day in their native language, in either Spanish, Russian or Chinese.
Most are in classes exclusively for students learning English. But some, such as those in immersion magnet programs in Portland, are in classes designed to help both native English speakers and those learning English become bilingual.
The idea behind teaching English learners partly in their own language is twofold: Students learn to read and write faster when taught in their first language, and those literacy skills then transfer to English. During the years students are still shaky in English, they can learn meaty academic content in their native tongue.
A coalition that includes every major education group in the state is working to defeat Measure 58.
Schools agree that getting nonnative speakers proficient in English is the paramount goal for those students, says Diana Fernandez, director of English as a second language instruction for Portland Public Schools, where about 90 percent of English learners are taught only in English. She acknowledges that some students still languish with only intermediate English skills.
But the approach to teaching English should be based on research and on individual needs of students -- whether they can read and write in any language, for example, or whether they have a learning disability, says Wei-Wei Lou, director of English as a second language instruction in Beaverton schools.
Although it seems counterintuitive, teaching students to read and write in their first language, then transitioning them to English, leads to students who are the strongest at reading and writing English, says Perla Rodriguez, principal of Cornelius Elementary.
Research consistently finds that teaching students literacy in their own language makes them stronger readers of English, agrees Claude Goldenberg, a Stanford professor who directs the Center for Language Minority Education and Research.
A time limit, as would be set by Sizemore's measure, makes no sense, Beaverton's Lou says. "All children are very different. So if you say cap it at one year or cap it at two years, that's not appropriate."
Most-common approach
Unlike other states, such as California and Arizona, Oregon has never been a battleground over bilingual education, in part because the number of students not fluent in English was small.
That population has grown in the past decade, however, and now almost one of every eight students in Oregon is learning English as a second language.
Under federal law, all 68,000 English learners are guaranteed two things: They are entitled to special teaching in English to help them write, read and speak English, and they must be taught the same core academic content as native English speakers.
Oregon school districts have developed a host of different approaches to do that.
By far the most common is what's known as "sheltered instruction," which calls on teachers to use gestures, visual aids, repetition, simplified terms and other cues to teach math, social studies, writing and other subjects. There is no teaching in or translation to students' native language.
With 40 different languages sprinkled across hundreds of Oregon schools, it is impractical to teach each student in his or her native language.
Michael Lloyd / The OregonianWestview High teacher Brian Squire gives Abdi Somow, a refugee from Somalia, feedback on a writing assignment. Like most Oregon students learning English as their second language, Somow is taught exclusively in English with no teaching in or translation into his first language. Students who arrive in the United States as teenagers with little formal education in any language face a steep learning curve to master reading and writing English.
At Beaverton's Westview High, for example, Brian Squire's seventh-period class has 23 students who speak 11 different languages -- Cantonese, Somali, Hebrew, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, German, Spanish, Taiwanese, Korean and Uzbek. Most of them are recent arrivals. The biggest group, Spanish speakers, make up one-third of the class.
The school cannot afford and could not find qualified teachers fluent in all those languages. So Westview groups students by their English level and gives them targeted help in English with biology, global studies and other subjects as well as English instruction.
Squires speaks slowly, gestures emphatically, rephrases and repeats his key messages and tries to tie new ideas in English to familiar ideas and details from students' home cultures.
"I can understand my teacher, just sometimes it's hard," says Alice Morgenva, who arrived from Uzbekistan six months ago after her family won a green card that allowed them to immigrate. "I know information, but to write in English, it's hard for me."
Dual-language instruction
School districts in Woodburn, Forest Grove and Salem-Keizer -- where at least 20 percent of the students speak Spanish as a first language -- together account for about 60 percent of all Oregon students who get taught in a language besides English for part of the day. How are students taught English in Oregon?
Exclusively in English: 85%
Part of the day in English, part of the day in their native language: 10%
In a dual-language immersion program, where some students learn their first language plus English, and native English speakers learn to become bilingual: 5%
Source: Oregon Department of Education
Other school districts, including Portland, Corvallis and Phoenix-Talent, offer popular immersion programs that allow native English speakers to gradually become bilingual in Spanish, Mandarin or Japanese -- and allow speakers of those languages to gradually learn English -- while they learn academic subjects in both languages. Woodburn has switched to that approach in primary grades and will move almost entirely to dual-language immersion one grade at a time.
In most Forest Grove elementary schools, students who speak Spanish at home are taught reading and writing in Spanish for 90 minutes a day, along with a 30-minute English language development class.
Once they have mastered reading and writing in their own language -- by fourth or fifth grade for those who start in kindergarten in Forest Grove -- they are put into an English reading and writing class.
Fourth-grader Alberto Acension came to Cornelius Elementary in second grade. Last week, he was taught in Spanish about techniques for strong, independent reading. "Leer a si mismo" ("to read on your own") read the chart he helped create. He read a biography of Cesar Chavez in Spanish.
Later that day, Alberto learned how to search for books in the school library, eagerly tracking the librarian's directions in English. He checked out a book about soccer, written in English.
"In my house, I already know how to speak Spanish," he says. "In my class, I speak English, too. It's fun."
Which language does he like to read in? "Both," he says.
Forest Grove students show strong results in English. More than half moved up a full level in English proficiency last year. By high school, 60 percent of Latino students read at grade level -- nearly the statewide average for all Oregon sophomores.
But Woodburn, which also teaches its students to read and write in their first language, posts poorer results. After five years getting help with English, only 13 percent of its students were proficient. Only about 40 percent of its Latino 10th-graders passed the state reading test.
That's why the district has switched its approach to be more like Forest Grove's, Superintendent Walt Bloomberg says. The district knows it must do better at getting students fully proficient in English.
Sizemore's reasoning
Sizemore says he got the idea for his ballot measure from a pair of teachers who told him their students were sidelined for years in classes for English learners when they could have done fine with regular all-English lessons.
Schools receive nearly $3,000 in additional money from the state for each student in English as a second language. Sizemore says many schools keep students in the program just to get the money.
"My message is that if you're going to come here, we want you to be successful, and you have to learn English, because it's the gateway to success," Sizemore says. "Instead, for the first two years here, we teach them to be proficient in Spanish or Laotian or whatever their language is. That's nonsense."
Educators say he is misinformed -- no Oregon students are taught in Laotian, for instance, and every English language learner is taught in English for part of every day.
Eduardo Lopez, a second-grader at Cornelius Elementary, is glad he gets to learn about animals and other second-grade subjects in two languages. It allows him to communicate with people who speak only Spanish, like his parents, and only English, like many of his schoolmates.
"That way you can understand and talk to them," he says.
-- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@news.oregonian.com
Study: Many 8th-graders can't handle algebra (from USA Today)
Study: Many 8th-graders can't handle algebra
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Peering beneath the hood of a national push to have all students take algebra by eighth grade, a new study out today finds that many of the nation's lowest-performing middle-schoolers are in way over their heads. They take algebra and other advanced math courses before they've mastered basic skills such as multiplication, division and problem-solving with fractions.
For more than a decade, "algebra for everyone" has been a high-minded mantra for the idea that virtually all students should take algebra by eighth grade. Since the mid-1990s, schools nationwide have pushed more and more students into challenging middle-school math courses. Last year, 38% of eighth-graders were enrolled in advanced math (Algebra I, Algebra II or Geometry).
But when Brookings Institution researcher Tom Loveless looked at the skills of eighth-graders taking advanced math, he found something startling: Between 2000 and 2005, the percentage of very low-performing students in advanced math classes more than tripled.
Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, he found that among the lowest-scoring 10% of kids, nearly 29% were taking advanced math, despite having very low skills.
How low? On par with a typical second-grader's, Loveless says. They lack a solid foundation in multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, rounding or place value. Yet they were tackling fairly sophisticated math.
"It's hard to teach a real algebra class if you have kids who don't know arithmetic," he says.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Adam Gamoran, who has advocated pushing more low-achieving high schoolers into algebra classes, says these students get more from algebra classes than from general math classes. "In their zeal to extend this reform ever more broadly, some mistakes have been made," he says, but he hopes the findings don't cause a backlash against challenging low achievers to do harder math.
Loveless, who directs Brookings' Brown Center on Education Policy, estimates about 120,000 kids are inappropriately enrolled in classes that are supposed to level the playing field and too often don't. "It's really counterfeit equity," he says, noting that the mismatch inordinately affects black, Hispanic and poor kids in urban schools.
Gamoran says algebra concepts "should be introduced earlier in students' mathematical studies — it's not like there should be no algebra and then, in eighth grade, all algebra."
Loveless agrees. But he says for kids who don't have adequate skills in eighth grade, schools should hold off on placing them in algebra until high school.
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Peering beneath the hood of a national push to have all students take algebra by eighth grade, a new study out today finds that many of the nation's lowest-performing middle-schoolers are in way over their heads. They take algebra and other advanced math courses before they've mastered basic skills such as multiplication, division and problem-solving with fractions.
For more than a decade, "algebra for everyone" has been a high-minded mantra for the idea that virtually all students should take algebra by eighth grade. Since the mid-1990s, schools nationwide have pushed more and more students into challenging middle-school math courses. Last year, 38% of eighth-graders were enrolled in advanced math (Algebra I, Algebra II or Geometry).
But when Brookings Institution researcher Tom Loveless looked at the skills of eighth-graders taking advanced math, he found something startling: Between 2000 and 2005, the percentage of very low-performing students in advanced math classes more than tripled.
Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, he found that among the lowest-scoring 10% of kids, nearly 29% were taking advanced math, despite having very low skills.
How low? On par with a typical second-grader's, Loveless says. They lack a solid foundation in multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, rounding or place value. Yet they were tackling fairly sophisticated math.
"It's hard to teach a real algebra class if you have kids who don't know arithmetic," he says.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Adam Gamoran, who has advocated pushing more low-achieving high schoolers into algebra classes, says these students get more from algebra classes than from general math classes. "In their zeal to extend this reform ever more broadly, some mistakes have been made," he says, but he hopes the findings don't cause a backlash against challenging low achievers to do harder math.
Loveless, who directs Brookings' Brown Center on Education Policy, estimates about 120,000 kids are inappropriately enrolled in classes that are supposed to level the playing field and too often don't. "It's really counterfeit equity," he says, noting that the mismatch inordinately affects black, Hispanic and poor kids in urban schools.
Gamoran says algebra concepts "should be introduced earlier in students' mathematical studies — it's not like there should be no algebra and then, in eighth grade, all algebra."
Loveless agrees. But he says for kids who don't have adequate skills in eighth grade, schools should hold off on placing them in algebra until high school.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Hispanic immigrant college students impacted by court ruling
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Hispanic immigrant college students impacted by court ruling
MALDEF URGES CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT REVIEW OF IN-STATE TUITION RULING
AB 540 Still Remains in Effect Pending Final Resolution
Press Release
LOS ANGELES, CA - Yesterday, a California Appellate Court issued a ruling that calls into question the continued validity of California’s AB 540. AB 540 is a California law which provides a waiver of the out-of-state tuition fees at California’s public colleges and universities for any student – regardless of immigration status – who has completed three years at a California high school and has attained a high school diploma.
Specifically, the Court of Appeal held that under AB 540 eligibility for in-state tuition is based on residency and therefore violates federal law. The Court so ruled despite the fact that eligibility is based on attending a California high school and receiving a high school diploma, criteria that are unrelated to residency. The case likely will be resolved through an appeal to the California Supreme Court.
“Yesterday’s appellate decision must not close the door to higher education for undocumented immigrant students in California. They are graduates of our public schools and they, and their parents, have paid taxes to the state. California needs them for our future and ignoring their California ties makes us all poorer,” said MALDEF Western Regional Counsel Nancy Ramirez.
AB 540 remains in effect, and will likely continue to remain in effect until there is a final resolution of the case. In the meantime, students who are eligible should continue to receive the tuition waiver. If AB 540 is ultimately overturned, undocumented students who would have been eligible for the AB 540 tuition waiver will still be allowed to attend California public colleges and universities but will be required to pay out-of-state rather than in-state tuition.
The decision is yet another reason for the next President and Congress to fulfill their constitutional authority by enacting comprehensive immigration reform. Many of these students and their parents work in the most dangerous and difficult jobs in our state and country. Their hard work and aspirations for higher education can not be ignored.
“We will continue this fight in the California Supreme Court, if need be. Current AB 540 students, the vast majority of whom are United States citizens, must not be discouraged. Their place in college remains intact,” said Cynthia Valenzuela, MALDEF’s Director of Litigation.
MALDEF sought to intervene at the trial level and filed an amicus brief with the appellate court. MALDEF will work with legislators, state officials, students and the community to permit AB 540 students to remain and pay in-state tuition.
Founded in 1968, MALDEF, the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization, promotes and protects the rights of Latinos through litigation, advocacy, community education and outreach, leadership development, and higher education scholarships. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: http://www.maldef.org/.
Hispanic immigrant college students impacted by court ruling
MALDEF URGES CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT REVIEW OF IN-STATE TUITION RULING
AB 540 Still Remains in Effect Pending Final Resolution
Press Release
LOS ANGELES, CA - Yesterday, a California Appellate Court issued a ruling that calls into question the continued validity of California’s AB 540. AB 540 is a California law which provides a waiver of the out-of-state tuition fees at California’s public colleges and universities for any student – regardless of immigration status – who has completed three years at a California high school and has attained a high school diploma.
Specifically, the Court of Appeal held that under AB 540 eligibility for in-state tuition is based on residency and therefore violates federal law. The Court so ruled despite the fact that eligibility is based on attending a California high school and receiving a high school diploma, criteria that are unrelated to residency. The case likely will be resolved through an appeal to the California Supreme Court.
“Yesterday’s appellate decision must not close the door to higher education for undocumented immigrant students in California. They are graduates of our public schools and they, and their parents, have paid taxes to the state. California needs them for our future and ignoring their California ties makes us all poorer,” said MALDEF Western Regional Counsel Nancy Ramirez.
AB 540 remains in effect, and will likely continue to remain in effect until there is a final resolution of the case. In the meantime, students who are eligible should continue to receive the tuition waiver. If AB 540 is ultimately overturned, undocumented students who would have been eligible for the AB 540 tuition waiver will still be allowed to attend California public colleges and universities but will be required to pay out-of-state rather than in-state tuition.
The decision is yet another reason for the next President and Congress to fulfill their constitutional authority by enacting comprehensive immigration reform. Many of these students and their parents work in the most dangerous and difficult jobs in our state and country. Their hard work and aspirations for higher education can not be ignored.
“We will continue this fight in the California Supreme Court, if need be. Current AB 540 students, the vast majority of whom are United States citizens, must not be discouraged. Their place in college remains intact,” said Cynthia Valenzuela, MALDEF’s Director of Litigation.
MALDEF sought to intervene at the trial level and filed an amicus brief with the appellate court. MALDEF will work with legislators, state officials, students and the community to permit AB 540 students to remain and pay in-state tuition.
Founded in 1968, MALDEF, the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization, promotes and protects the rights of Latinos through litigation, advocacy, community education and outreach, leadership development, and higher education scholarships. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: http://www.maldef.org/.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Summit links state, a half-million Hispanics (from Associated Press)
Recognizing the Latino presence in the mid-Atlantic area. -Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
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Summit links state, a half-million Hispanics
By the Associated Press
September 19, 2008
CHESTER, Va. - Gov. Tim Kaine is scheduled to deliver remarks to about 300 people attending the 2008 Virginia Latino summit.
The gathering Friday at John Tyler Community College in Chester is sponsored by the Virginia Latino Advisory Board.
The summit is intended to provide information about state services and resources to those who serve Latinos in education, health, human resources, public safety and commerce.
Approximately 508,000 Hispanics live in Virginia.
Then-Gov. Mark R. Warner created the Virginia Latino Advisory Commission in 2003. The commission was made into the permanent Virginia Latino Advisory Board in 2005.
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Summit links state, a half-million Hispanics
By the Associated Press
September 19, 2008
CHESTER, Va. - Gov. Tim Kaine is scheduled to deliver remarks to about 300 people attending the 2008 Virginia Latino summit.
The gathering Friday at John Tyler Community College in Chester is sponsored by the Virginia Latino Advisory Board.
The summit is intended to provide information about state services and resources to those who serve Latinos in education, health, human resources, public safety and commerce.
Approximately 508,000 Hispanics live in Virginia.
Then-Gov. Mark R. Warner created the Virginia Latino Advisory Commission in 2003. The commission was made into the permanent Virginia Latino Advisory Board in 2005.
Report finds Latinos gloomy over economy (from The Desert Sun)
Interesting findings as the presidential election approaches. -Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
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The Desert Sun
September 18, 2008
Report finds Latinos gloomy over economy
Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun
One in two Latinos say their situation is worse now than a year ago, according to a poll released today.
The news comes on the heels of multi-billion government bailouts, low consumer confidence and an increasingly shaky Wall Street.
In 2007, just 42 percent of all Latinos said their situation had worsened, according to the poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Among the report’s findings:
• 15 percent say that finding and keeping a job is difficult because they are Latino
• 81 percent say immigration enforcement should be done by the federal government, not local law enforcement.
• 76 percent disapprove of workplace raids and 70 percent disapprove of criminal prosecution for employers who hire undocumented workers.
• 10 percent say police and other authorities have stopped them and asked about their immigration status.
• The majority of Latinos worry about deportation, 57 percent.
The poll of 2,015 Latinos – 44 percent of who report they are registered to vote – was conducted June 9 through July 13.
This gloomy outlook is most prevalent among immigrants, 63 percent of whom say their situation has worsened in the past year as the down turn in the economy and rising unemployment has hit Latinos especially hard and the federal government steps up enforcement.
Founded in 2001, the Pew Hispanic Center conducts research on Latinos and their impact in the United States to foster education. The Center does not take policy positions.
To read the full report, go to www.pewhispanic.org.
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The Desert Sun
September 18, 2008
Report finds Latinos gloomy over economy
Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun
One in two Latinos say their situation is worse now than a year ago, according to a poll released today.
The news comes on the heels of multi-billion government bailouts, low consumer confidence and an increasingly shaky Wall Street.
In 2007, just 42 percent of all Latinos said their situation had worsened, according to the poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Among the report’s findings:
• 15 percent say that finding and keeping a job is difficult because they are Latino
• 81 percent say immigration enforcement should be done by the federal government, not local law enforcement.
• 76 percent disapprove of workplace raids and 70 percent disapprove of criminal prosecution for employers who hire undocumented workers.
• 10 percent say police and other authorities have stopped them and asked about their immigration status.
• The majority of Latinos worry about deportation, 57 percent.
The poll of 2,015 Latinos – 44 percent of who report they are registered to vote – was conducted June 9 through July 13.
This gloomy outlook is most prevalent among immigrants, 63 percent of whom say their situation has worsened in the past year as the down turn in the economy and rising unemployment has hit Latinos especially hard and the federal government steps up enforcement.
Founded in 2001, the Pew Hispanic Center conducts research on Latinos and their impact in the United States to foster education. The Center does not take policy positions.
To read the full report, go to www.pewhispanic.org.
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