As this population continues to swell, the achievement gap between ELLs and their non-ELL peers continues to widen. Many educators and legislators point to early childhood programs as a solution.  “This is the best investment we can make,” says Maria Ott, superintendent of Rowland (Calif.) Unified School District, which lies within Los Angeles County. Rowland schools have a large number of ELL students, including 65 percent Latino, 9 percent Filipino, and 22 percent Asian other than Filipino. The district has strong early learning programs, including Head Start, offered to all students who opt in; a prekindergarten program funded through the state of California; and funds from a state grant, First Five, which provides districts with money to create robust early learning programs.

In one decade, 1998 to 2008, the number of pre-K students increased by 8.5 percent, from 46 million to 49.9 million. Disproportionately, during this same period, the number of identified ELL students increased by 53.2 percent, from 3.5 million to 5.3 million, according to MPI.

“If you invest in one year of additional education when they’re young and get them on target when they come into kindergarten, they can potentially stay on target and be reading at grade level,” says Ott. “If you don’t, you’re looking at remedial courses, interventions, long-term ELLs, gaps in learning that districts cannot overcome, and ultimately, students who don’t graduate. Investing in early education saves money in the long run and keeps kids working toward leading productive lives.”

No Child Left Behind played a large role in bringing ELL and minority students to the forefront. One decade later, however, the accountability numbers are still staggering. In the 2008-2009 school year, only 10 states met their target goals for ELLs under NCLB, according to the “National Evaluation of Title III Implementation,” a study released May 11 by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and the U.S. Department of Education. The study is the most comprehensive report to date of the federal Title III program, which under NCLB gives federal aid to states and districts for English-language-acquisition programs.

Federal initiatives such as President Obama’s $1.1 billion Early Head Start investment in 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Race to the Top, and a competitive federal Head Start grant announced last fall for states totaling $7.6 billion have put early education in the spotlight.

Just as NCLB has raised the bar for ELLs, the Common Core State Standards and the impending revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), of which NCLB is the latest incarnation, will do so even further. Despite large pushes in funding at the federal level, individual state funding still lags. This is in part due to state budget deficits, but also because some legislators lack the gumption to invest in the early years.

“Funding for [early learning] has become a political hot potato,” says Ott. “It’s difficult enough for elected officials and districts to carve out enough funds for the basic core K12 programs. These are not easy decisions in a budget crisis, but the cost of students not being ready is greater, and it only starts appearing when they’re already behind.”

Start at the Very Beginning

There is a vast body of research linking students’ performance in their early years to their success in the K12 arena. Achievement patterns in language and reading are established largely in the period from birth through the end of the primary grades, according to a 2010 white paper “Young English-Language Learners: Current Research and Emerging Directions for Practice and Policy” by Eugene Garcia and Ellen Frede, National Institute for Early Education Research Advisory Board member and co-director, respectively.

Researchers have also linked early learning to a number of long-term benefits, including high employment and lower crime rates. “Early learning programs help bridge the gaps in school readiness, and it’s in those younger years when the brain is best suited for language acquisition,” says Park.

Head Start was founded in 1964 under President Lyndon Johnson as part of his Great Society campaign. According to 2007-2008 data, the program served 906,922 children nationwide and spent an average of $7,909 per child.

To date, Hispanic students, despite comprising the vast majority of enrolled and identified ELL students, are the smallest subgroup to attend Head Start programs, which some attribute to lack of community outreach for these programs. Only 40 percent of Hispanic students—who comprise 73 percent of ELL students, according to MPI—are enrolled in Head Start programs, compared to 60 percent of their white and African-American peers.

The Key Is Quality

Norberta Anderson, director of ELL instruction for Clark County (Nev.) School District, has been with the district for a decade and has seen its population of ELLs increase by roughly 2 percent each year. CCSD has the sixth-largest population of ELLs in the country is currently serving 54,398 ELL students. While Anderson says the district’s schools have met accountability targets for ELLs under NCLB, preschool is not mandatory in the state of Nevada, and having more early learning programs certainly would improve overall student achievement.

“We do have early learning programs, but not at all the schools, and they’re not always full day,” says Anderson. Because pre-K programs are not funded by the state, it is up to the districts to implement programs when they can afford them. In Clark County, ELL students are not identified until they are in kindergarten; therefore, students in pre-K are not officially taught as ELLs. “These programs are absolutely critical,” says Anderson. “We’ve seen from our peers in Miami, Chicago, New York City, and St. Paul that by making pre-K [available] in their states, they’ve seen some phenomenal academic growth of the ELL students in those areas.”

Since 1988, Miami-Dade County (Fla.) School District has used Title I dollars to provide full-day preschool at 194 schools to students whose parents choose to send their children. The state offers voluntary prekindergarten for three hours per day for all 4-year-olds.

“A full-day program offers greater exposure for students,” says Marisel Elias-Miranda, director for the Office of Early Childhood programs in Miami-Dade. “Students—ELLs in particular—make significant gains in vocabulary, oral language development and letter knowledge. Increasing participation in a high-quality program is a huge asset for ELLs.”

The quality of the program can also be tied to the needs of the students it is serving. The Title III study conducted by ARI and the U.S. DOE found wide variations in how each state defines students that are English language learners and when they reach a point of proficiency. For instance, in Clark County, the district has 94,431 ELLs identified, but given the students’ proficiency of English is only serving 54,398.

In the 2009-2010 school year, the state of Arizona saw a 33,000-student drop in its ELL population, which was due to a shift in the surveys used to identify ELLs. Not properly identifying students who need ELL education can result in a lifelong struggle for them academically, while filling classrooms with students with greater English proficiency than others can make instruction less intensive for those who need it.

California’s legislature passed the Kindergarten Readiness Act in 2010, which creates a transitional kindergarten program. The 2012-2013 school year will be the first phase of implementing this two-year kindergarten program, which uses a modified kindergarten curriculum to better prepare students for first grade. “We know how important it is to get in there as early as possible,” says Ott. “ELL students have opportunity gaps we must address.”

Teacher Preparation

Maki Park with the Migration Policy Institute says that early childhood programs are less developed and standardized than K12. Finding quality teachers and generating a robust curriculum present their own challenges.

The Center for American Progress released a study, “Preparing All Teachers to Meet the Needs of English Language Learners,” on April 30 that says there is insufficient information on what teachers should know about teaching ELLs and greater inconsistencies across states in the required knowledge regarding ELLs for all teachers as part of initial certification. Arizona, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York require specific coursework, 17 states only make general references to the special needs of ELLs, and 15 states have no requirement whatsoever.

“I think, unfortunately, teacher preparation programs are not adequately preparing them to teach this population,” says Melissa Lazarin, director of K12 education policy for the Center for American Progress. “We need to look beyond ESL and bilingual education. We need all mainstream teachers prepared, and very few schools and states actually require that.”

Delis Cuellar, assistant professor in early education at Humboldt State University in California, found that teacher-preparation programs don’t provide many teachers with the skills needed to handle sensitive cultural relations. According to the New Journalism on Latino Children, a project that offers research on Latino students based at the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Cuellar found a cultural gap between first-generation Mexican-born parents and some Head Start teachers in Arizona. There is a general perception that Latino families in particular want to keep their children at home instead of sending them to preschool. As a result, when Mexican-born parents brought their children to preschool, the teachers would leave the parents alone with their children when they first arrived in the classroom. While the teachers thought they were being sensitive, given the big adjustment for parent and child, the parents thought the teachers were being rude or racist by ignoring them. There were also differences in understanding literacy, with parents focusing on penmanship and teachers focusing on comprehension. “It is very important to build collaboration and a strong partnership between parents and teachers,” says Elias-Miranda. “Parents need to feel comfortable enough to ask questions, learn about the curriculum, and know how the school system operates. It’s also important that they have access to this information in their home language as well.”

Spotlight on ELLs

For all its flaws, NCLB did raise the bar for ELLs and minority subgroups across the board. “ESEA certainly put a huge spotlight on ELLs, and there is definitely a formula now for tracking the outcomes of these students,” says Liz Eisner, education research analyst with the U.S. Department of Education and contributor to the Title III report between the DOE and ARI.

Although progress has been made, there is still a long road ahead in terms of getting ELLs on target with their non-ELL peers and increasing data collection on this subgroup, particularly in the improvements of early childhood learning.

“Half of the nation’s English learner students were in districts that didn’t meet [AYP] targets for two consecutive years,” says James Taylor, project director with ARI. “With the Common Core, more states will be approaching their content from a common set of standards and assessments. If Common Core standards are raising the level of challenge of standards, it seems like that underscores the importance of Title III and providing state English learner services.”

Conveying this issue to policymakers remains a struggle. “The Common Core State Standards require a more sophisticated thinker,” says Ott. “We’re seeing a huge jump in terms of expectations. It’s going to be an even greater challenge if we have students that haven’t had those foundational experiences. I think there will be a big push politically to support early learning programs, but I’m not sure how it will fare economically in terms of where the dollars actually go.”

With the population of ELLs growing exponentially each year, Ott says educators and legislators must look at this population as resources rather than as a challenge. “There is a resource and a value in that student’s native language,” she says. “How do we ensure they become proficient in English and still value the language they bring? [Legislators] speak about the importance of bilingual students and international jobs. We have students right here we can tap into, but we need to make sure they’re ready to learn and ready to rise to those challenges.”

District Administration, July/ Aug 2012

Even if you haven’t seen Bully, you most likely recognize it as the documentary, featuring six students from nationwide, who were tormented physically and verbally in school for simply being viewed as different by their peers. One of the leading storylines was of Alex Libby, a student at East Middle School in the Sioux City (Iowa) Community Schools. The camera crew filmed students taunting Alex with degrading names, aggressively choking, shoving and jabbing him on the school bus, and ignoring him during recess. Also caught on camera was Assistant Principal Kim Lockwood, who has received fierce criticism since the film’s release for what appears to be a nonchalant and rather lax approach to the complaints of bullying in East Middle School. 

The sad irony? Of the six students, Sioux City was the only district that allowed the Bully crew to film the documentary inside its schools because the district had been working on improving its school climate for nearly a decade.  “They’ve heavily invested in social emotional learning at the district level—and clearly they’re still struggling,” says Lee Hirsch, the film’s director.

A stark contrast to East Middle School was the district’s West High School, where Hirsch spent time filming, although it was not featured in the movie. “You could really feel the difference between these two schools because of the tone set by the leadership in that building,” Hirsch says. “They worked with students to create a school spirit and climate that’s all about kindness. The kids at the top of the social ladder are the nice kids.”

Although West High failed to provide a compelling storyline to feature in Bully, the dichotomy between the two schools within the same district represents real struggles of administrators to create systemic change in school climate. As bullying continues to be brought to the forefront as a national issue, public consensus is becoming increasingly critical of the excuses used by schools that fail to intervene in cases of serious bullying. Conquering bullying is a choice administrators must make, says Hirsch.

“You can make the choice to take a stand on it and say, ‘Social emotional learning or school culture will be part of my administration,’” says Hirsch. “There are administrators coming up with the most incredible solutions to these issues every day. Although excuses such as not being properly trained to tackle bullying and other pressures such as paperwork and testing are real and substantial, it’s not something we can continue to stand on.”

Although the film was released in March 2012, Bully is forging ahead with its message into the new school year. The Bully Project has partnered with Donors Choose, an online charity that supports classrooms in need, to create the 1 Million Kids project, which allows classes to see Bully for free at local theaters through November 2012. Classes in places such as Salt Lake City, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Hirsch’s hometown of Rockville Centre, N.Y., have seen the film.

It’s been three years since Hirsch and his crew left Sioux City. Since then, Alex Libby and his family have moved to Oklahoma, and Alex told Anderson Cooper on CNN in March that he has made a lot of friends at his new school and that many of his former bullies have reached out to him since the film’s release to apologize. In addition, Sioux City Community Schools has remained more committed than ever to improving school climate and has joined the Bully Project movement. The community was offered a free screening of the film in November 2011 prior to its release, which over 1,600 citizens attended. At this community event, Assistant Principal Lockwood offered an emotional apology to the crowd for her unsatisfactory handling of bullying portrayed in the film.

Hirsch, who himself was bullied as a child, hopes the film can be a change agent in creating a society that no longer tolerates bullying. “We’re at a tipping point,” says Hirsch. “There’s no reason why this is something we can’t abandon as a society. Bully doesn’t overprescribe, but rather invites you to make the choice and make the change. Can we end bullying? I’m incredibly hopeful.”

To become involved in the 1 Million Kids project, visit action.thebullyproject.com/million.

District Administration, July/ Aug 2012

The district was found out of compliance by the state of Arizona according to HB 2281, which orders districts in the state to stop teaching courses that promote ethnic solidarity. The district’s Mexican-American studies courses came under fire in early January 2012 after a review by the department of education. In a swift decision made days after the state ruled their program was out of compliance, the TUSD school board voted to eliminate all Mexican-American studies classes and associated books on Jan. 10.

“The approved motion required that district staff revise the core social studies curriculum to increase its coverage of Mexican-American history and culture and to provide a balanced view of diverse viewpoints on controversial issues,” said TUSD Superintendent John Pedicone in a letter to parents in the district on Jan. 12. “It is important to know that this decision was difficult and not without consequences.”

This is the not the first time TUSD’s program has come under fire. The district’s Mexican-American studies program was first ruled in violation of the law last June by Arizona’s state superintendent, John Huppenthal. The district appealed this ruling, although it was overturned by a state judge. This past January was the second time the district was found failing to comply, which is why the state has threatened financial sanctions.

“It’s discriminatory and anticonstitutional,” says Norma Gonzalez, a former Mexican-American Studies teacher with TUSD and the founder of a campaign against the law through Change.org. Gonzalez says these courses are what engaged the Hispanic students, who make up roughly 60 percent of the 60,000 students in the district.

Since the decision in January, many teachers have been left in the dark about how they will go forward. “For lack of a better term, I’m in limbo right now,” said Gonzalez on Jan. 31, nearly three weeks after the decision. “The district has not come forward yet and said what I or my colleagues are allowed to do. The only thing that is definitive is what we’re not allowed to teach.” Gonzalez’s petition to make banned Hispanic books available, and not be stored in an off-site storage facility, garnered nearly 15,000 signatures within one week of its launch on Jan. 24. To view the petition, visit www.change.org.

District Administration, March 2012

Many legislators are asking that climate change be treated in a similar fashion to their handling of the evolution vs. creationism debate—that equal time is offered for their skeptics to weigh in. Tennessee, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Kentucky have introduced state laws with these standards, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit providing resources to schools and parents, has made one of its core missions advocating for evolution and now climate change in classroom discussions.

“We have been hearing for several years now that teachers were getting pushback on teaching climate change, and some of the playbooks used by those promoting teaching ‘both sides’ was very similar to the attempt to have evolution ‘balanced’ by creationism and intelligent design,” said Mark McCaffrey to Oregon Public Broadcasting in January. McCaffrey is spearheading the Center’s new initiative. “From my experience working with teachers, it is clear that the so-called ‘controversy’ about climate change science is a major impediment to teachers and the polarized political climate around teaching the topic is a big problem.”

New national K12 science standards are expected to debut at the end of this year that many predict will include climate change. Educators and legislators alike foresee the debate will only intensify from here.

District Administration, March 2012

Since Apple’s venture into K12 e-books, one primary concern has been financing the new devices. The iBooks application is free to download, and all textbooks cost $14.99 or less. Apple, however, has yet to announce a plan to lower the prices of iPads, which currently begin at $499 a pop. Ensuring that each student, rich or poor, has access to an iPad before the digital curriculum can be rolled out in a district is key. Genachowski acknowledges the fiscal constraints on schools and anticipates aiding districts as much as the department can without additional money from the government. The U.S. spends $7 billion per year on textbooks.

While the U.S. appears to be united in its move toward e-books, they are far from being in the hands of every student. Until then, Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will continue to make digital content to supplement traditional textbooks.

District Administration, March 2012