Arizona Grades Teachers on Fluency (Teachers Deemed Heavily Accented, Ungrammatical Ordered Removed)

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 30, 2010 | Miriam Jordan

[lbryce]

As the academic year winds down, Creighton School Principal Rosemary Agneessens faces a wrenching decision: what to do with veteran teachers whom the state education department says don't speak English well enough.

The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English.

State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly. But some school principals and administrators say the department is imposing arbitrary fluency standards that could undermine students by thinning the ranks of experienced educators.

The teacher controversy comes amid an increasingly tense debate over immigration. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer this month signed the nation's toughest law to crack down on illegal immigrants. Critics charge that the broader political climate has emboldened state education officials to target immigrant teachers at a time when a budget crisis has forced layoffs.

"This is just one more indication of the incredible anti-immigrant sentiment in the state," said Bruce Merrill, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who conducts public-opinion research.

Margaret Dugan, deputy superintendent of the state's schools, disagreed, saying that critics were "politicizing the educational environment."

In the 1990s, Arizona hired hundreds of teachers whose first language was Spanish as part of a broad bilingual-education program. Many were recruited from Latin America.

[lbryce]

The thing to bear most in mind about The Arizona Board of Education's decision to order teachers deemed heavily accented, speak English ungrammtically removed applies only in cases for students still learning English. a distinction that needs to be pointed out to those who continue demonizing Arizona undeservedly.

[Ann Archy]

FIRE THEM!

[garyhope]

Imagine that, a teacher that has to speak and write clearly and competently.

What will these evil right wing fascists think up next?

[heye2monn]

Yes!

With Washington DC gone mad, is Arizona the last bastion of common sense?

[blueyon]

Bush’s fault

[chickadee]

Now if only our major universities would require the same of the Chinese born graduate students teaching math on their campuses, it might be possible for U. S. born students to actually learn.

[Carley]

Imagine the nerve!!!! Caring about the students enough to assure they get an education that will prepare them for a real job in the real world.

As opposed to subsisting on welfare their entire lives.

[Ben Ficklin]

The US educational system doesn't produce enough bi-lingual teachers(spanish-english) so they have to import them from Latin America or the Philippines, except the anti-immigration hardliners have constricted the number of temp visas that are used for teachers, so there is a shortage of bi-lingual teachers.

[garyhope]

Yeah, that Bush is a busy, busy guy to be causing all that bad luck and trouble.

[DH]

Even better, teachers must be an EXPERT on the subjects they teach. How can you be an EXPERT in the teaching of English if you can hardly speak it yourself?

Ah, forgot about PC, diversity and the NEA.

[RoadTest]

Is it too much to ask that teachers speak English?

[Oldexpat]

In CA it is difficult for a “Gringo” to get a ESL job, even when they are fluent in Spanish. Same goes for many teachers aides and school staff. They prefer to have correct “cultural” examples for the kids. No Gringos need apply.

[meadsjn]

With Washington DC gone mad, is Arizona the last bastion of common sense?

I hope it is among the first of many.

Bilingual education was an ill-conceived, poorly executed, bottomless money pit, designed to prevent assimilation and to ensure a large sub-culture of poor, ignorant, dependent, Democrat voters.

[livius]

This is very good. I think California did something similar a few years ago, because this was a real problem.

I worked in the California public school system for a couple of years, and I was amazed at the complete unintelligibility of some of the teachers and teachers’ aides they hired. They had such heavy Spanish or Chinese accents that there was no way the kids were going to be able to learn decent English from them.

Kids learn very quickly and they want to learn, but it’s not going to be possible unless they have a good model.

[lbryce]

Haz Youse Forrgoton Abouot Ebonics and Teechers dezzire toos putting politix ahead of teeching Englissch good?

Wikipedia:Ebonics
In 1996, the term became widely known in the U.S. owing to a controversy over a decision by the Oakland School Board to denote and recognize the primary language (or sociolect or ethnolect) of African American children attending school, and thereby to facilitate the teaching of standard English.[12] Thereafter, the term Ebonics became popularized, though as little more than a synonym for African American Vernacular English, perhaps differing in the emphasis on its claimed African roots and independence from English. The term is linked with the nationally discussed controversy over the decision by the Oakland School Board, and is avoided by most linguists.

[elpadre]

in a way all students are still learning English.

And there are some minority teachers whose English is no better than the “gangstas” they each.

In certifying English teachers, speaking and writing proficiency should be a high priority.

[RoadTest]

Well, you don’t have to teach Ebonics or sin; they both come with the territory.

[RoadTest]

So - - - the California school system is even more dilapidated than other school systems?

[wildbill]

A study in Houston some years ago found that 33% couldn’t speak, write or read English well enough to pass the test.

[GVnana]

ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly

I sincerely doubt that the word "flawlessly" appears in any related document, and suspect this writer of a political motive.