Interests and Representation: Ethnic Advocacy on California School Boards

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-682
Author(s):  
Luis Ricardo Fraga ◽  
Roy Elis
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
School Boards ◽  
English Language ◽  
Latino Students ◽  
Original Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Latino Teachers

Background/Context Researchers have found that school districts with greater representation of Latinos and African Americans on their school boards tend to also have higher percentages of Latino and African American administrators and teachers. This increased presence of coethnics in the educational bureaucracy was then found to predict more favorable educational outcomes for these students. Purpose We determine if these relationships hold for Latinos in California, which has the largest Latino population in the United States and where Latino students make up just under half of all students enrolled in public schools. Research Design Using an original data set of all California school districts in the 2004–2005 school year, we tested these relationships for Latinos in California using multiple regression. Conclusion Contrary to previous research, we found that Latino representation on California school boards was not greater in systems of single-member district election. We did, however, find that the greater presence of Latinos on school boards did increase the likelihood that Latinos would be hired as administrators, but only in Latino-majority districts. After appropriate controls, districts with more Latino administrators also tended to have more Latino teachers. Last, and again contrary to previous research, we found no systematic impact of having more Latino teachers and administrators on enhancing student outcomes for either all Latino students or for English language learners.

scholarly journals Mainstreamed English language instruction in a low-incidence rural school district : a case study

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Margaret René Watring Yoesel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Teacher Perceptions ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Low Incidence

Classrooms in the United States are changing as the population of the United States becomes more diverse with growing numbers of English language learners (Banks, 2005; Capps, Fix, Murray, Ost, Passel and Herwantoro, 2005; Cartledge, Gardner, and Ford, 2009; DeVillar, Faltis, and Cummins, 1994; Diaz, 2001; Dilg, 2003; Hernandez, 2001; Ovando and McLaren, 2000; Sadowski, 2004; Sleeter and Grant, 1994). Immigrants and their families have traditionally settled in larger urban communities, but recent trends indicate a growing number of English language learners are enrolling in rural mid-west public schools. Many rural districts have very little experience or resources to meet the needs of this new diverse group of students. As a result teachers, especially in rural and low-incidence districts, are experiencing academic and cultural challenges of educating students whose first language is not English (Berube, 2000; Hill and Flynn, 2004). The purpose of this study was to examine elementary teacher perceptions regarding experience with instructing mainstreamed English language learners in a low-incidence district. This study also explores issues these teachers feel most influence their ability to successfully teach students from diverse cultures and who speak a first language other than English. Research examining teacher perceptions should provide important insight to teachers, administrators and policy makers regarding teacher needs and support in the education of English language learners.

Representations of immigrants and refugees in US K-12 school-to-home correspondence: an exploratory corpus-assisted discourse study

Corpora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Berger ◽  
Eric Friginal ◽  
Jennifer Roberts
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Text Simplification ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
K 12

This study details a comparative, corpus-based discourse analysis of corpora containing educational documents distributed to parents and guardians of K-12 children in public schools in the United States (US). The exploratory local corpus (n=152,934) contains parent-directed educational documents collected from four public schools in a city located in the south-eastern US with an unusually high percentage of foreign-born residents. The comparison corpus (n=147,796) contains parent-directed documents collected from a sampling of K-12 schools across the US. Following Baker et al. (2008) , keyness and collocations were utilised as central theoretical notions and tools of analysis, in addition to a lexical sophistication comparison, in order to investigate text simplification across corpora. Results show that while the first corpus used labels for students that were superficially inclusive, English language learners themselves were discursively represented as outsiders facing barriers to inclusion that native-English speaking monolingual students do not face. Furthermore, the first corpus revealed an emphasis on identifying and categorising language learners so as to provide them with immediate services, while the non-geographically specific corpus focussed more on the long-term development of learners and on preparation for post-secondary education. We discuss the implications for language policy in public education and for policies related to K-12 school-to-home correspondence.

The Digitally Excluded Learner and Strategies for Success

2015 ◽  
pp. 2400-2408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia E. Garland
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Language ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
The United States ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Digital Exclusion

Disparities in Information Science and Communication Technologies (ICT) skills exist both globally and nationally, between developed and developing countries and also between digitally included and digitally excluded students in developed nations such as the United States. Recent research and policy initiatives are recognizing the connections between achievement levels and Internet access. Students in families of poverty, minorities, immigrant children, and special needs students are more likely to have lower levels of academic success than their more affluent, white, non-disabled peers. This article addresses the need to provide effective ICT resources and teacher training to meet the specific needs of these groups of digitally excluded learners in elementary and secondary level American public schools: low socio-economic status (SES) students, minority students, English Language Learners (ELLs), and students with disabilities. Recommendations for moving from digital exclusion to digital inclusion are made at the end of the article.

Expanding Promise, Debating Means: Separate and Integrated Schooling for Immigrants, English-language Learners, Girls, and Boys,

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Minow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
English Language ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
The Government ◽  
Integrated Or

Spurred by the social and legal struggles surrounding Brown, parents and advocates during the twentieth century and into the present have pursued equal schooling along other dimensions of exclusion and inequality by working through court challenges, legislation, and other initiatives. Brown enshrined equality as the entitlement for all students, even as the work leading to and following Brown identified avenues for advocates concerned for students learning English, immigrants, girls, boys, and others left out or mistreated by public schooling. American public schools have grown preoccupied with the aspiration of equality and the language of inclusion. Yet no less pervasive is the struggle over whether equality is to be realized through integrated or separate settings. The debates involve politics, prejudices, and social science studies. Shifting political tides and cultural attitudes, as well as legal debates, reflect and also aggravate uncertainties about what kinds of instruction actually promote equal opportunities for all children. Often called “a nation of immigrants” (with the elision, then, of Native Americans and slaves), the United States has offered opportunities but also presided over mistreatment of newcomers on the basis of language, accent, derogatory ideas about their country of origin, or general negative attitudes toward foreigners. Such attitudes include the conflation of “foreign” with “illegal,” the confusion of immigrant with noncitizen, and the equation of being a speaker of Spanish (and other native tongues) with being “non-American.” The tradition of forced assimilation starts first not with immigrants but with the Native Americans, beginning with the Civilization Act of 1819, under which the government removed Indian children from their family cultures and placed them in federally funded missionary schools, not to further integrate them with other students but to “civilize” them. In addition, as the United States displaced Mexico in parts of the Southwest, families who never moved gradually found themselves dealing with a contest over language, race, and culture.

Special Education Policy Change

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda L. Barrio
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rural School ◽  
Disproportionate Representation ◽  
Rural School Districts

Research suggests that disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education has been a recurring topic of concern in the field of special education within the United States. Over the past few years, this concern has shifted to focus on the disproportionate representation of English Language Learners (ELLs) in categories of mild to moderate disabilities, specifically within the category of learning disabilities. Although improvements in educational policy have been made through federal legislation, local rural school districts continue to battle this concern, especially those in rural areas. The following article focuses on the recommendations for development, implementation, and evaluation of local policy change to improve the disproportionate representation of ELL students within rural school districts.

Elementary physical educators’ positioning in teaching English language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takahiro Sato ◽  
Jennifer Walton-Fisette ◽  
Insook Kim
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
English Language ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Positioning Theory ◽  
Language And Culture

Public schools in the United States (US) have become more linguistically diverse. With the rise of English as a global language, English Language Learners (ELLs) experience “transnationalism”, which requires them to gain a critical and reflective knowledge of diverse cultures and the valuing of a new language and culture. Many teachers do not recognize the importance of language as a tool for teaching academic subjects. Teachers struggle to shape and guide conversations using language to help ELLs further their development. The purpose of this study was to explore elementary physical education (PE) teachers’ experiences with teaching ELLs. Based on positioning theory, this study employed an interpretive case study research design. Six PE teachers volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected from a survey questionnaire, face-to-face interviews and follow-up e-mails. Three major interrelated and complex themes emerged from the data analysis. These recurrent themes were (a) race and cultural-based stereotype, (b) social inclusion and communication challenges, and (c) PE teachers’ learning experiences. Although each of the PE teachers expressed the view that there were challenges in working with ELLs, they believed that they should implement effective pedagogical methods (inclusive pedagogy), address social justice and diversity issues of ELLs, and develop a positive learning atmosphere for all students.

scholarly journals An analysis of how restrictive language policies are interpreted by Arizona’s Department of Education and three individual school districts’ websites.

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita Jimenez-Silva ◽  
Katie Bernstein ◽  
Evelyn Baca
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Individual School ◽  
One Year

Restrictive language policies for education have been passed in several states in the United States. In 1998, 2000, and 2002, California, Arizona, and Massachusetts passed the most restrictive of these policies, impacting 4.4 million students classified as English language learners (ELLs). This study examines how these policies are currently interpreted and presented to the public on Arizona’s Department of Education website, as well as how they are interpreted and presented on the websites of three of the state’s largest school districts. We seek to understand how three key elements of the laws—one-year programmatic time limits, Structured English Immersion (SEI) programs, and waiver processes—are conveyed by each text. Using tools from critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003, 2013, 2015), we trace the endurance or disappearance of these elements between texts and across time. Textual differences are discussed as reflecting and perpetuating important contextual differences among the districts.

Evaluating the Effect of No Child Left Behind on U.S. Music Course Enrollments

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Elpus
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
English Language ◽  
Interrupted Time Series ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Enrollment Patterns ◽  
Nationally Representative

The purpose of this study was to investigate nationwide enrollment in high school music courses from 1982 until 2009 to determine what trends in music enrollment existed and whether these trends were affected by the passage and implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). With data from 10 separate nationally representative high school transcript studies conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, a unique data set was constructed that tracked the transcript-indicated 9th- through 12th-grade music course enrollment patterns for the U.S. graduating classes of 1982, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005, and 2009. Descriptive results showed that overall music enrollment patterns were relatively stable in the public schools, with roughly 34% of all students consistently enrolling in at least one music course during high school across all cohorts. Abbreviated interrupted time series analyses suggest that NCLB had no effect on overall music enrollment rates but exacerbated the preexisting underrepresentation in music courses of Hispanic students, English language learners, and students with Individualized Education Plans.

Pre-Referral Procedures: Meeting Unique Needs of English Language Learners

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Joanna Burton ◽  
Betsy Wendt
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
School System ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public School System ◽  
Language Difference ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
School Team

An increasingly large number of children receiving education in the United States public school system do not speak English as their first language. As educators adjust to the changing educational demographics, speech-language pathologists will be called on with increasing frequency to address concerns regarding language difference and language disorders. This paper illustrates the pre-referral assessment-to-intervention processes and products designed by one school team to meet the unique needs of English Language Learners (ELL).

Working With Interpreters to Support Students Who Are English Language Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henriette W. Langdon ◽  
Terry Irvine Saenz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Second Best ◽  
Support Students

The number of English Language Learners (ELL) is increasing in all regions of the United States. Although the majority (71%) speak Spanish as their first language, the other 29% may speak one of as many as 100 or more different languages. In spite of an increasing number of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who can provide bilingual services, the likelihood of a match between a given student's primary language and an SLP's is rather minimal. The second best option is to work with a trained language interpreter in the student's language. However, very frequently, this interpreter may be bilingual but not trained to do the job.

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