CNN recently produced a story about how schools in the Midwest are trying to adapt to the population growth of ELL students. In part, the article states:
Nationally, 9% of students in the U.S. are considered to have limited proficiency in English, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
About 11% of those students attend school in rural settings like Columbus Junction, [Iowa]. A quarter of the Columbus Community School students are English language learners, a large enough number to have an impact on the classrooms.
"The English language learners don't have vocabularies big enough to learn at the rate and speed they need to -- that their native English-speaking counterparts do," Bridenstine said.
Columbus Community Schools is a majority-minority school district that pulls in students from Columbus Junction and four other nearby communities. Bridenstine says 66% of the 895 students are Hispanic and 31% are white.
To help with the language skills, the teachers in Columbus Junction are encouraged to have students explain what they have learned to a student partner using English.
"We are making gains, but it isn't enough with what No Child Left Behind is requiring of us," Bridenstine said.
Under No Child Left Behind, schools are required to reach 100% proficiency in math and English by the year 2014.
There’s no doubt that the landscape of what we need to do to teach English and reading is changing. This is complicated by the fact that many teachers are not given the right tools and strategies they need in order to effectively teach reading to all students.
The real question is, can we adapt quickly enough to provide ELL students with the reading resources they need while sustaining and growing the reading aptitude of native English readers?
Weigh in here. How will we serve the needs of our growing ELL student population?