Posted on 07/25/2003 10:22:59 PM PDT by buccaneer81
17 Lawrence teachers fight fluency rule
By Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff, 7/25/2003
eventeen Lawrence teachers who failed an English fluency test required by the state's new English immersion law have hired a lawyer to challenge the rule and persuade the district that they should keep their jobs.
Attorney Jennifer Rieker met yesterday with Lawrence school officials to try to negotiate a compromise for her clients, a week after four Cambodian-born Lowell teachers filed discrimination complaints over the test, arguing that they were singled out to take it because of their race.
In Somerville, at least three teachers who failed the test have also said they are consulting with a lawyer to explore legal options.
The actions signal mounting discontent over the state requirement that all public school teachers who teach in English must be fluent and literate in the language. The provision is a result of Question 2, the hotly debated law that voters approved last November, replacing bilingual education with English immersion. ''People are just starting to realize just what Question 2 is,'' Rieker said. ''I don't think people had any idea how it was going to be implemented at all.'' The state Department of Education issued rules in March requiring that teachers who do not meet the ''fluent and literate'' standard must prove their English-speaking ability on an oral test and providing that those who fail will face being fired.
Now that the state's Aug. 15 deadline for proving fluency is approaching, dozens of foreign-born teachers in school districts across Massachusetts are scrambling to clear the testing hurdle or change the rules in time. Those subject to the law -- who come from countries including Brazil, Cambodia, and the Dominican Republic -- were hired as immigrant populations grew and as school districts needed teachers to ease the new students' transition. Under bilingual education, they taught the newcomers in their native tongue, with the aim of eventually moving them into mainstream classes. In Somerville, all five teachers who took the test failed and are receiving tutoring to help them improve their speaking ability. In Lowell, 22 of 25 teachers failed, and school officials provided them with information about private tutoring programs.
In Lawrence, 20 teachers who failed the test face unpaid leaves of up to one year if they cannot pass a retest by the deadline. If they do not become fluent in that time, they will lose their jobs. Meanwhile, the district is paying $14,580 for English classes for six of the teachers who failed.
''These people have families, longstanding service to the district, and the superintendent has been very sensitive to this issue,'' said Salvatore Petralia, director of human resources for the Lawrence schools. Rieker argued that the state's rules for how districts should administer the fluency tests are unfair. For example, she said, the state leaves it to principals to decide, through classroom observation, which teachers should take the test. Some administrators are not qualified to make those judgments, she contended.
In addition, Rieker said the state set the passing score on the oral proficiency test too high.
''Our plan was really to go after the root of the problem, which, as we see it, is the regulations,'' said Rieker, who is with the Boston firm of Pyle, Rome, Lichten, and Ehrenberg.
Department of Education spokeswoman Kimberly A. Beck defended the rules, saying they were developed with input from educators. She also said it was appropriate for principals to decide who needs to take the oral exam. Most school districts are using a fluency test recommended by the Department of Education and called the Oral Proficiency Interview.
Produced by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, it is a 20- to 30-minute interview that includes role-playing. For example, teachers might be asked to describe their jobs or to say how they would handle situations such as going to a restaurant and realizing they do not have their wallets. The English-immersion ballot question was financed by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz, who bankrolled similar measures in California and Arizona. But teacher fluency requirements appear to be tougher in the Massachusetts version of the initiative.
In California and Arizona, for example, teachers must possess ''a good knowledge of the English language.'' But in Massachusetts, the ballot question called for ''teaching personnel [who] are fluent and literate in English.'' The law applies to teachers of any class in which instruction is in English, not just English-immersion classes for limited-English students.
Unz said he toughened the language after hearing from supporters in Massachusetts that some bilingual teachers did not speak English well. But Songim Imm, who emigrated from Cambodia in 1983, objects to that label. He has taught in Lowell public schools for 15 years, mostly in bilingual math classes. Next year, he was told, he might teach a regular math class and therefore must be tested.
Imm refused to take the fluency test, and he and three teachers who failed filed a complaint Friday with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. They also are contemplating seeking a court injunction to block Lowell from using the test to fire them. ''It just came as a shock to me that teachers have to'' take a fluency test, said Imm, 52. ''I feel that all the work I have done for the past 20 years does not count.''
-PJ
You must have gone to Ohio State!
How about "long derision", and "calcurus" ?
Careful!! That kind of question will get you arrested in Massachusetts, California and Madison, Wisconsin.
My roommate dropped the class after a week.
-PJ
''We have an obligation to children to find the best math teachers we can find, wherever we can find them,'' he said.
At first it seemed as though the Philippine teachers wouldn't make it. Bureaucratic problems with obtaining visas for the teachers delayed their arrivalfor several weeks. US Representative Michael Capuano and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, both Massachusetts Democrats, worked with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to speed up the process.
'Their arrival means that a significant number of students will be able to get the good education they need and deserve,'' Kennedy said in a statement welcoming the teachers.
Really. I would think all of these communities have free options for immigrants to learn English. Of course, who knows if the teachers of those classes speak English...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.