District ELL programs: a troubled past

The District's ELL programs are now under scrutiny as an outgrowth of a lawsuit brought in 1985 by the Education Law Center on behalf of a group of Asian students with limited proficiency in English. A 2001 settlement in that case requires the District to assemble an independent panel of experts to evaluate its ELL program every three years.

A panel convened in 2004. Their evaluation of the District's ELL programs stated:

• Many teachers serving ELL students have no professional training in ESOL instruction.
• Overcrowded classrooms limit teachers' ability to provide individualized instruction for ELL students.
• Low expectations of ELL students are common, with little emphasis on "cognitively demanding activities" in the classroom.
• While leadership is strong at some individual schools, there is no clear districtwide guidance on how to implement ESOL programs.

The evaluation report included 37 specific recommendations and stated the District should create a strategic plan for acting on the recommendations by no later than July 2005.

In addition, a 2004 Pennsylvania Department of Education audit found the District to be in violation of a series of state requirements concerning ELLs. For example, 60 percent of the District schools surveyed failed to collect the state's mandatory Home Language Survey, which identifies children from families whose primary language is not English.

In the wake of these findings, in August the School Reform Commission passed the first-ever systemwide policy committing the District to ensure ELL students fair access to high-quality educational opportunities.

-Beandrea Davis

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