Sounding the alarm that students just learning English are not getting the services and support they need, UFT Vice President for Education Evelyn DeJesus told the City Council Education Committee on Feb. 25 that the Department of Education needs to hire more teachers with bilingual or English as a Second Language certifications.

In addition, she testified, English language learners who enroll in city public schools should not have to take state English Language Arts exams after just one year.

Council members, several of whom spoke in native languages other than English during the hearing, listened to testimony from the DOE that it has created a standalone division to improve ELL education, under new Deputy Chancellor Milady Baez. Baez told the Council that the DOE plans to launch 40 new dual language programs this September. Baez will also be placing new ELL experts to serve the districts.

DeJesus welcomed the DOE’s latest moves to address the issue but warned that for years the school system has not kept pace with the needs of ELLs. Change needs to be swift, she told the Council.

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“Our passion for teaching and learning calls us to act,” said DeJesus, herself an English language learner when she attended city schools and later a teacher of ELLs in Chinatown. “Our ELL students have no more time to lose.”

The Bloomberg administration did not abide by a formal agreement with the state to recruit more teachers with ELL credentials and “barely moved the needle” on graduating

English language learners ready for college and careers, DeJesus testified. Instead, bilingual programs were dismantled.

The UFT is joining advocates to call for at least a two-year grace period for English language learners before they must take the ELA exams. In addition, the union is advocating that accountability based on Common Core test results be adjusted to account for where ELLs fall within the language-acquisition spectrum. “I ask you to accept that one size does not fit all,” DeJesus testified.

There are approximately 140,000 ELL students in the city’s public schools who speak over 160 different languages.

Read DeJesus’ full testimony.