Those who follow education know that No Child Left Behind defined English as a Second Language (ESL) students and tied educational mandates with this identification. This has morphed into English Language Learners (ELL), which also has implementation and accountability mandates tied to it. With the amount of immigration that has taken place in our nation in the past few years, one can understand why there was interest in federal legislation to deal with the influx of non-English speaking students.
The concept of dealing with the immigration itself rather than the problems that it brought to our communities and schools apparently eluded our elected representatives in Washington. Hopefully, these legislators were never involved with our space program. With this kind of problem-solving, NASA still wouldn't be able to launch a rocket that would clear Shade Mountain in Middleburg.
But, this column today is about tiny tots, not adults. Young people who attend our schools and do not speak English obviously have some hurdles to clear that require some help. Some bilingual programs in schools designed to help students learn English have been abject failures and some of the programs have been highly successful. Bilingual programs that have served non-English speaking students by teaching them in their native (non-English) language have been judged by many educators to be ultimately hurtful rather than helpful. Bilingual programs that help students get started in school and then weans them away from their native tongue and allows them to eventually become totally immersed in English have been highly successful.
I recently read of a new plan in education that has me shaking my head. The Illinois Board of Education is proposing the imposition of the same requirements on Illinois school districts about educating English learners (ELL) at the preschool level as NCLB requires for older students in the K-12 program. NCLB legislation does not contain accountability provisions for preschool students. This action follows a change in Illinois state law that took effect January 1, 2009, which extended the definition of limited-English-speaking ability of ELLs in school districts to include 3- and 4-year olds. By 2014, Illinois would have to ensure that all of their preschool teachers who work with ELLs would have an endorsement in bilingual education or ESL. Incidentally, Illinois is one of the few states that requires districts to offer traditional bi-lingual education where students are taught in their native tongue. Meanwhile, California and Arizona, with their high number of ELLs, have significantly reduced the number of bilingual education programs. What the people in Illinois and the other 49 states should be considering is teaching a language other than English to all students in the elementary grades and not waiting until high school where the success rate of teaching a second language is dismal. During a child's early years, it is easy for them to learn a language, develop the muscles required to form words, etc., while at the high school level it is difficult.
The idea of taxpayer-supported preschool for all students makes sense, and I believe America will have it eventually. Other developed nations have universal preschool for all, and America needs to stay competitive. However, to mandate preschool only for ELL students, and to require language certification for these preschool teachers is quite another matter, and is ill advised.
School districts are having trouble funding the K-12 programs they currently run, and working parents have to pay to send their children to preschool.
Here is a news flash for Illinois from central Pennnsylvania: All 3-and 4-year olds in America are English learners. Some 3-year-olds from English-speaking homes have delayed English speaking skills that may lag that of many bilingual students, so to assume a child from a non-English speaking home is less of an English learner than students from English speaking homes is a false assumption. Requiring certification of teachers in pre-schools will drive the cost of preschool up, and make it less accessible to students. We need preschool for all students, not just non-English speaking students, and we should be looking at teaching a second language to all students in elementary school where students learn languages with little effort.
n Wesley Knappp, Ph.d., is superintendent of the Midd-West School District in Snyder County.
