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UFT Testimony

Testimony regarding current and new methods to support and improve the academic success of English language learner students

UFT Testimony

Testimony of UFT Vice President for Education Evelyn DeJesus before the New York State Assembly Education Committee

Good morning. My name is Evelyn DeJesus, and I am the Vice President for Education for the United Federation of Teachers. I want to first thank both Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan for their passionate support for public education and for championing that which all children across our state need to succeed.

This is a critical historic moment for children and families who rely on our public schools and for their educators who’ve dedicated their lives to teaching. We anticipate the need for an unprecedented level of support from our state legislators for all children attending public schools, especially the most vulnerable who experience barriers to learning. We are especially heartened that the Assembly’s Education Committee wants to hear from our union, the state agencies and the stakeholders to best ensure that our English language learners receive themost appropriate instructional tools and resources to help them thrive. These concerns resonate deeply with our members, the union’s leadership and the children and families that we serve.

By way of background, I was an English language learner whose first language was Spanish and for over 25 years I taught in Chinatown where English is a new language for many of the students. Today, I’d like to share some of the steps the union has taken to advance Continuing Teacher and Leader Education for our members serving ELL students. I’d also like to discuss our advocacy for policies and best practices supporting language acquisition skills for the 150,000 students in New York City who need and deserve targeted resources. I’ll conclude by discussing what you, as elected officials and policy makers, can do to move the agenda forward so that these students will graduate ready for college and careers along with their native English-speaking peers.

The UFT takes a proactive role to better serve ELLs

The mandates contained in the 2015 update to the New York State Commissioner’s Regulations Part 154, while crafted to strengthen supports for ELL students, have resulted in some significant system challenges. At the onset of the 2015-16 school year, in response to the new mandates for teaching and assessing our ELL students, the union convened a 26-member focus group, under my leadership, of bilingual and ENL educators representing all K-12 grade levels. We were charged with crafting a response and a set of practical recommendations for regulatory and guidance modifications to enhance the learning experience of students and the professional practice of educators.  

Our detailed findings and recommendations will be released in short order, but we’ve scrutinized each regulatory change, assessed what is working, examined the challengesencountered, and reviewed potential quick fixes and  regulatory changes, if applicable.

This past October, the UFT, in collaboration with Fordham University, the NYC Department of Education, our parent union, the American Federation of Teachers and our state affiliate, the New York State United Teachers, spearheaded its first-ever professional learning conference on the needs of English language learners. Our conference offered 18 distinct workshops packed with research-based techniques and practices for UFT members charged with educating ELL students. Participants earned five credit-hours of Continuing Teacher and Leader Education.

Although our members frequently acknowledge the system-wide challenge of providing an equitable education to the city’s English language learners, the feedback we received from many of the 800  teachers, administrators and advocates who attended the Oct. 29 event was that the conference was a welcome addition to their professional development and they hoped we’d hold another one next year.

Additionally, through the UFT Teacher Center collaboration with the New York State Education Department and the NYC DOE, teachers receive school-based professional development as well as certified workshops on weekends covering a range of resources to support their students. For example, the Teacher Center recently offered the workshop, “English as a New Language: Academic Language Development across Content Areas.” This session provided teachers with strategies enabling them to provide explicit instruction to increase a student’s ability to understand and use academic language in content-area classrooms. Through our partnerships with the state and city university system and private colleges, we also offer courses year-round. This past October, for example, in partnership with Fordham University, our members learned about the steps to establish in their schools a New York State Seal of Biliteracy program. The Seal of Biliteracy was established in 2012 to recognize high school grads who have attained a high level of proficiency in a foreign language.

Policies and best practices for educating ELL scholars

As we all know, we offer too few supports for our ELL students. On the 2016 English Language Arts test, only 2 percent of 8th grade students scored at Levels 3 and 4. For all grades, the percentage held steady at 4.4 percent reaching 3 or 4. In terms of math, 8.8 percent of 8thgrade ELLs scored a 3 or 4 in 2016, down from 10.3 percent the previous year. 

New York ranks 47 out of 50 states in graduating ELLs which translates to about a 36.5 percent graduation rate; only Nevada, Alaska and Arizona fall below this threshold. Our students deserve better.

As educators, we need to look at schools and districts nationwide that have successfully moved ELL students to proficiency in language acquisition and content knowledge. Specifically, NYC educators need to researchinstructional models with standards and testing practices that have stronger outcomes for ELLs. Additionally, the state education department needs to factor in the needs of ELL students and their teachers as it revises state standards. While tests and assessments play a role in every student’s education, we need to address practices that may mitigate the ill effects of testing our ELL students to the point of discouraging them.

How our elected officials can help

Our union has ceaselessly lobbied at the city and state levels to ensure fairness in our public schools. While the State Education Department has brought pressure to bear on the city’s DOE to comply with an agreement to prioritize services to ELL students, the state has not resolved its commitment to fund the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE). This is the right time to make a significant investment to provide financial relief to district schools serving English language learners and high-needs students. According to our calculations and those of the Alliance for Quality Education, the state still owes $3.9 billion to the districts statewide including $1.63 billion to New York City. Infusing these dollars into the DOE’s budget would definitely help finance our union’s recommendations.

We hope this committee will review the following recommendations and support them:

a)      Fully fund $3.9 billion in foundation aid over the next two years, including $1.63 billion to the city, enabling the DOE to build capacity and hire more certified bilingual teachers, guidance counselors, paraprofessionals and other specialized professionals;

b)      Adjust accountability measures for student Common Core test results to align with the level at which ELLs fall within the language-acquisition spectrum;

c)      Simplify the steps soEnglish as a New Language (ENL) teachers can gain dual certification;

d)     Provide additional targeted funds to establish tests so children can take tests in their native languages; and

e)      Challenge the State Education Department to enforce existing state law and ensure that our city’s charter schools enroll their fair share of English language learners and other students requiring special resources and supports.

I ask you to contemplate several truths as you tackle the issues that affect our ELL students:

  • Not all ELLs are the same and a one-size solution will not work for them.
  • Students who are highly proficient in their native language do not learn new languages at the same rate or in the same way.
  • Students with interrupted formal educations often lack requisite skills in core subject areas as well as basic interpersonal communication skills especially when compared to students who are quicker to learn English.
  • Students with interrupted formal educations may be spotty in one topic, advanced in another.
  • In any population of students, statistically speaking, some will have intellectual, learning, emotional, hearing or vision disabilities.

Closing thoughts on how we can do better for ELLs in New York

While our union certainly takes credit and ownership of the initiatives we’ve conceived of and promoted to support ELL students, we are very appreciative of the partnership we have with Milady Baez, deputy chancellor for the Department of English Language Learners and Student Support. The UFT welcomes her as an educator who identifies with the students and families arriving from other nations and cultures. She shares with us a strong belief that students must learn English to acquire all of the necessary skills to achieve at grade level and graduate, ready for college and careers. Our teams are working to make this a reality. 

We welcome the opportunity to work with the New York State Assembly Education Committee to ensure that our English language learner students succeed. Putting politics and bureaucracy aside, we need to look in our collective mirror and ask:Are we really doing all we can?

Thank you.