U.S. Department of Education Grants Reprieve for English Language Learners in Florida

Early in the week the U.S. Department of Education granted a two-year reprieve on teachers and English language learners (ELLs) in Florida, especially for those schools located in South Florida. Previously the Department of Education wanted to have the test scores of students who are learning English for the first time to be counted in the department’s accountability measures after a year.

This is a huge victory, according to the superintendent of Miami-Dade county schools, Alberto Carvalho. It means a lot to their district, he said, because they are educating about 77,000 English learners. Miami-Dade County has the highest number of English language learners according to the superintendent and it is unreasonable for these students to quickly and efficiently perform as well and in the same level as native-born students.

Timely decision

The lifting of the one-year policy before the accountability measures take effect was very timely because South Florida had just received over 2,000 unaccompanied immigrant children from Central America this year. These children are now with families in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The students’ test scores play a huge role in the education department’s decisions. Schools could either be forced to close or receive additional funding. Likewise, these test scores are used in teacher evaluations, which could mean they either get a raise or be fired from their jobs.

Appeal to the Department of Education

Early in the year, the Department of Education denied Florida’s request for an extension. In August, Florida education Commissioner Pam Stewart, Superintendent Carvalho and Florida governor Rick Scott presented an appeal to the education department. They wanted more time to teach the English language learners before their test scores could be counted.

Superintendent Carvalho explained that in Miami-Dade schools, the performance of ELLs at-grade level goes up by 28 points when they get to their second year of learning English.

Pros and cons of the reprieve

Although the relaxation of the accountability policy was welcome news for the educators of Miami-Dade, they say that there should be additional changes to be implemented so that the progress of the ELLs could be fairly assessed.

Hialeah Gardens High School guidance counselor Yvette Pinto does not think that the extension will make a difference to the students. There will always be kids who get discouraged and drop out of school because they cannot pass their reading test and therefore cannot graduate in high school or go to college.

Teachers are getting nervous about the evaluation, not because they are incompetent but because they want more than just the one year extension. They say that their students are all learning English but they have observed that many of the students are also illiterate in their native language. They also point to the fact that the students could only fully learn a new language after several years of study.

Image credit: Alberto Carvalho with students at Holmes Elementary School in Miami, Flickr photo by Knight Foundation under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.