ArchivesDo federal courts need to intervene to make sure students in Arizona learn English quickly enough to succeed in school?
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The case originated in Nogales in 1992, when parent Miriam Flores filed suit against the state on behalf of her daughter, also named Miriam. Flores said that the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) provided “inadequate ELL instruction in the Nogales Unified School District (NUSD) in violation of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (EEOA), which requires states to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers in schools,” according to the court syllabus.
At the time, ADE allocated $150 extra per year for each ELL student, said Ana Doan Woolfolk, bilingual education director at NUSD from 1990 to 2000. The district spent its own funds to train teachers and buy materials to help the English learners, she said.
But Arizona school districts have come a long way since then, said Tom Horne, state superintendent of public instruction, who was pleased with the ruling.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has taken a major step to stop federal district judges from micromanaging the state’s education systems,” Horne said.
“In the last two years, the state more than doubled the percentage of (ELL) students reclassified as English proficient from 12 percent to 28.6 percent,” Horne said in a news release. “This is a result of a new program of four hours of intensive English instruction per day, implemented two years ago.”
The four-hour model was not required until the 2008-2009 school year, but “a lot of school districts were moving in that direction (in 2007-2008),” Horne said in an interview.
Angel Canto, school improvement coordinator at NUSD, said the Nogales schools began the four-hour model in fall 2008. By late June, she had not yet received the local reclassification rates for the 2008-2009 school year, she said. But Horne said the ADE’s English language acquisition department had the results.
Canto attributes some of the increase to testing of kindergarten students.
“All districts saw a large jump in reclassification rates because kindergartners were assessed in the spring 2008 as well as the fall,” Canto said. “(Before), you wouldn’t assess kinders until the end of first grade.”
Tim Hogan, attorney for Flores and other Nogales parents since 1996, said he would take a close look at the four-hour model to see if it is “effective in teaching kids English and maintaining their academic requirements.”
“If you teach them English all day, they’re not learning science and math,” Hogan said.
High school ELL students may not be able to complete their requirements in four years and may become discouraged and drop out, he said.
School districts are tracking ELL students better, but the test used to reclassify those students as English proficient “has changed three times in the past five years,” Hogan said. “Many people say the test has been ‘dumbed down’ so students reclassify more quickly.”
Hogan also questioned the increase in the reclassification rate that Horne described.
“That jump is related to kindergarten students,” he said. “It’s not attributed to the (four-hour) models.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered the opinion of the court, in which Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, joined. Justice Stephen Breyer filed a dissenting opinion with justices Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg.
Alito asked the appeals court to look at four changes that affected NUSD in the 17 years since the case was filed.
1. After the 2000 order was entered, Arizona voters replaced bilingual education with “structured English immersion” (SEI). “Research and findings by the State Department of Education support the view that SEI is significantly more effective than bilingual education,” reads the court syllabus.
2. Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which “provided evidence of the progress and achievement of Nogales’ ELL students through its assessment and reporting requirements,” according to the court document.
3. NUSD Superintendent Kelt Cooper reduced class sizes, improved student-teacher ratios, and improved the quality of teachers, the court said. “These reforms might have brought Nogales’ ELL programming into compliance with the EEOA even without sufficient ELL incremental funding to satisfy the District Court’s original order.”
4. All five sources of education funding increased in Nogales since 2000.
“Nogales students make up about one-half of 1 percent of the entire state’s school population,” Alito wrote. “The record contains no factual findings or evidence that any school district other than Nogales failed (much less continues to fail) to provide equal educational opportunities to ELL students.”
Alito said the District Court should not extend its injunction beyond Nogales unless it finds that Arizona is violating the EEOA on a statewide basis.
In his dissent, Breyer wrote that “the lower courts did ‘fairly consider’ every change in circumstances that the parties called to their attention.”
“How can the majority now decide that a school district “ particularly a poor school district like Nogales “ would be able to cover the additional expenses associated with English-learning education while simultaneously managing to provide for its students’ basic educational needs?” Breyer asked.
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Assistant wrote on Jul 7, 2009 11:10 PM:
repoman wrote on Jul 7, 2009 7:13 AM:
Educator wrote on Jul 4, 2009 7:49 AM:
Nogales is a unique place, and the state mandating a One Size Fits All program for all ELL students in the state does not make sense, and hampers the teachers here who would best know what their students need to succeed.
After many years in the district, I know of no parent that does not wish the best for their student and no teacher that will not go the extra mile to help students motivated to learn. The frustration comes when students are placed in a 4 hour language block that does not address content (although very creative teachers will find ways to do this). Having high school students in this block also prevents them from taking the Math and Science classes they so badly need to succeed.
Class sizes are more a function of State funding than they are of a Districts desire to cram students in one room to save money. Nogales High School recently was reported as having an 87% graduation rate, with a high percentage of those going on to higher education, including Ivy League schools.
Please support our District, our teachers and mostly our students. Politics only muddle the waters and have everyone looking behind their back. "
Yes Thoughtful wrote on Jul 3, 2009 6:50 PM:
Applet wrote on Jul 3, 2009 1:12 PM:
Ms. Flores may have struggled but her efforts earned her a high school diploma and is now en route to entering the college of nursing at the U of A. The fact is that what Ms. Flores has accomplished will never be enough for Mrs. Flores. Maybe she should enroll herself in an English language course so that she can provide reporters with a proper interview, in ENGLISH. After all, this whole fiasco is about learning the language, isnt it? Gee, can anyone say, "Open mouth, insert foot?" I bet you she cant... ugh.
This is a piece from an article published by Republic Tucson Bureau on azcentral. com
"But her mom still wonders what could have happened if her teachers had been better prepared to deal with her struggles with English."
Stop living in the past and celebrate your daughter's accomplishments to their fullest. Rejoice that she has overcome language barriers and will graduate from college. The percentage of students from Nogales that graduate from a higher educational institution are not that high in comparison to other cities in the state.
Ms. Flores came, saw, and conquered thanks to all of her wonderful teachers in Nogales, it figures that teachers, still go unappreciative. Thank you Mrs. Flores, for believing in your daughter's educators. Gee!
(I, by the way, was not one of Ms. Flores's teachers.) "
taxpayer wrote on Jul 3, 2009 1:05 PM:
1 version the truth and the other version not the truth
Nothing has changed in Nogales
I do agree with Ed M and as mentioned by Lupita a follow up story should be done on the cost-who paid and where both Miriams are today "
anonymous wrote on Jul 3, 2009 9:40 AM:
Applet wrote on Jul 2, 2009 10:08 PM:
If you are curious about the article here is the title: High court dismisses English-deficient students' case
I typed in Miriam Flores on my Yahoo toolbar and it gave me a lot of links. The one that contains the article mentioned above is the first one I clicked. The info. about Ms. Flores today is at the end of the article. "
Applet wrote on Jul 2, 2009 9:59 PM:
Ah... so the daughter is a sales person. I'm sure she uses her best English and Spanish skills to do her job to the best of her ability. And the mother, moved to Culican, where she is avidly learning English, right? Oh wait, you dont need to know English there to survive, do you? Her daughter needs to know it, and thanks to her many teachers in Nogales, she learned it and is using it to move forward in life.
Y.M. Palmer, since you know the whereabouts of the Flores's, did she finish higher ed? Just curious. I ask because I know some of the teachers, one of whom knows Ms. Flores very well, taught her and told me she was at the U of A. "
Y.M. Palmer wrote on Jul 2, 2009 7:22 PM:
The daughter Miriam sells Amway in El Paso Texas "
Applet wrote on Jul 2, 2009 4:12 PM:
Here is why i THINK the mother was not able to teach her child English: Because she did NOT make the effort to learn it herself. She depended on the educational system to do it for her. As an educator, I can't tell you how many times I hear this from parents: "No le puedo ayudar con la tarea porque no se ingles." I cringe every single time I hear that lame excuse from parents. LAZY LAZY LAZY!!! I get it every year!
Oh, and guess what? After NUSD taught the daughter everything she needed to learn, the young lady goes to college and actually makes something out of her life. She, mom, then decides to slap a suit on the district/state of Arizona because Ms. Flores didnt learn English the way she was supposed to.
I want to scream everytime this comes up! If her daughter made it to college and it deemed successful, didnt her primary and secondary education aid her in that? This was just her way to get money out of it... isnt that what most law suits are about? Especially this one?
There is an expression: Sink or swim. Many years ago, when students would come from Mexico to the US to learn English, they would have to learn English at all costs if they wanted to be successful. There were no bilingual programs in place or ESL/SEI models to folllow... nothing like what is in place right now. Those that wanted to learn would learn. I know someone who was one of those students and low and behold, she swam and became a translator for the district. Mmhmm! Indeed. It's about drive and determination. It's about the need and desire for something. When someone wants something bad enough, they will stop at nothing to get it. The mom not being able to help her daughter is, in my opinion, wanting someone else to do do it all for her. Which is the case with a lot of parents today.
So, Mrs. Flores's daughter actually learned how to swim because she had excellent teachers at one of our elementary schools who did what they were supposed to do to help her daughter succeed. She went to an elementary school that at one time had students on a waiting list because there were just too many students out of the zoning that wanted to attend. She did, after all, go to the U of A and earn a degree or is on her way to earning one. As her daughter was swimming her way to the top, Mrs. Flores was drowning everyone else with her law suits and such. Just how much did she win??? Disgusting! "
Thoughtful wrote on Jul 2, 2009 7:39 AM:
Lupita wrote on Jul 1, 2009 3:49 PM:
do a story on who paid to bring this case to Court?
do a story on where the Mother and Daughter are now "
Ed Macias wrote on Jul 1, 2009 11:50 AM:
The problem is pathetic-or sympathetic ESL Aides who only want a job and tell the students "esta bien mijo" for not encouraging these kids to learn the language
Speak with the many successful no english speakers who learned the language with no ESL Aides-it was a while ago but many young adults were in this situation and still learned english
Just another failed Federal-State-County-City Program
Almost like McDonalds-Billions spend and few were served "
Applet wrote on Jun 30, 2009 2:02 PM:
Great.... can't wait! ugh "