Advocates Complain ED Focus On ELL Instruction Waning

Education Week (12/12, Maxwell) reports that advocates for English language learners are concerned "that the distinctive needs of those students and the educators who work with them are receiving diminishing attention from the US Department of Education." The piece notes that despite the rising ELL population and roughly $750 million in annual Federal spending, ED's Office of English Language Acquisition "has seen its clout steadily shrink. In mid-October, the office lost its director, Rosalinda B. Barrera, who was appointed in August 2010 and became the first permanent political appointee in that post since 2008. The department did not publicize her departure, and no one has been named to replace her." Education Week notes that OLEA also declined to renew a contract with George Washington University to manage ts National Clearninghouse for English Language Acquisition without explanation. Meanwhile, "Raúl Gonzalez, the director of legislative affairs for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic-advocacy group in Washington, said ELL issues have not been front and center in the Education Department in President Barack Obama's first term because officials have been focused on major initiatives such as the Race to the Top grant program and No Child Left Behind Act waivers." The piece quotes Gonzalez saying, "I think there's an opportunity in the second term to engage the department more intensely on English-learner issues."

 

Lesli A. Maxwell writes at the Education Week (12/13) "Learning the Language" blog about the above article written by her, noting that advocates complain about "the splitting of responsibilities over Title III, the provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that provides roughly $750 million in federal aid to states and local districts for English-language acquisition programs. Since 2008, authority over the funds has been in a division of the department's office of elementary and secondary education, a change made at the tail end of President George W. Bush's administration and continued under President Barack Obama. That move has left the Office of English Language Acquisition-where authority over all of Title III had originally been placed-largely on the sidelines when it comes to major policy decisions that impact English-learners."