Not Speaking Same Language
Teachers in the city public schools' bilingual education classes often don't speak their students' native languages, according to a survey released yesterday. The survey of 227 city teachers, conducted last month by Advocates for Children of New York and the New York Immigration Coalition, found that of the 69 bilingual-education teachers polled, 35 percent said they had students in their classes whom they could not communicate with. Under the program, students are supposed to be taught in English and in their native language. The survey also found a lack of coordination between English as a Second Language and general education teachers, a shortage of adequate curriculum materials for students learning English, and educators who are often frustrated that they can't communicate with immigrant parents because of language barriers. "There's a feeling they [education officials] are [spending] all these resources without carefully planning what they need to do," said Daria Witt, an ESL teacher at IS 227 in Bensonhurst who was among those surveyed. The release of the report comes a week before the Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the schools chancellor's proposal to revamp programs for students whose native language is not English. Levy's proposal would give parents more choices for their children and include weekend classes. "They've missed the forest for the trees," Jill Chaifetz, executive director of Advocates for Children, a nonprofit educational advocacy group based in Manhattan, said of school officials. "It's not about which program is better. It's about getting resources for these kids." Some 160,000 children - or 15 percent of the student population - in city public schools are considered English-language learners. The students speak a total of more than 140 languages. The increasing population of English-language learners, coupled with new graduation and promotion standards, has catapulted discussions on the city's bilingual and ESL programs into the spotlight. Schools Chancellor Harold Levy was critical of the report released yesterday. "The problems identified ... are ones that are known to me and were addressed in my report to the Board of Education," Levy said in a written statement. "However the study underlying their conclusions is seriously flawed and will not guide my thinking." Levy criticized the study because he said it was based on a small and nonrepresentative sample of the city's teachers. He said the survey was poorly designed and "constructed to elicit negative responses." But Witt, a second-year teacher, said she needs a more defined curriculum for her ESL students, standards to assess the students' progress and a better system for working with other teachers. Without that, she said, she has been forced to put together a patchwork of solutions. For instance, she said, teachers meet informally in the hallways to discuss what they are teaching their students. "Teachers work in isolation," Witt said. "It definitely gets frustrating." |