Section I – Identification and Assessment
The Florida Consent Decree outlines how a student’s English proficiency is identified and assessed. When a student enters a Florida school district, he or she is given a Home Language Survey which asks the following questions:
1) Is a language other than English spoken in your home?
2) Does the student have a first language either than English?
3) Does the student most frequently speak a language other than English?
If any of the questions is answered “yes”, the student is assessed for English proficiency. At this point, the school has 20 days to assess the student. After the assessment, if the student is determined to have limited English proficiency, the parents are notified in writing and the student is enrolled in an appropriate ESOL program to increase English proficiency. If it is determined the student is not limited in English proficiency, the parents are notified in writing and the student is enrolled in a basic program. If the teacher or parents feel the assessment is inaccurate, a committee is established to review the data from grades and previous testing, and a student interview. If the parents disagree with the decision of the committee, they may appeal it at an administration hearing. The Florida Consent Decree requires that funding be
…show more content…
This assures that I, as the educator, will provide appropriate access to education in both English language instruction and other core subjects to my ELL students. The Florida Consent Decree is also relevant to me, as a Florida teacher, as it ensures I will be properly trained in ESOL practices and implementation of programs which will guarantee my ELL students receive the same level of instruction as their non-ELL classmates. As a Florida teacher, I am bound to protect the rights of my ELL students as outlined in the Florida Consent
The case of the State of Florida vs. Chad Heins happened in 1994 in Mayport, Florida. It was on April 17, 1994 that Tina Heins, who was pregnant at the time, was found stabbed to death in her apartment. She shared an apartment with her husband Jeremy Heins and Jeremy’s brother Chad Heins. At the time of the incident Jeremy Heins was on a ship because he worked in the navy but Chad Heins was at the apartment. Before the incident happened Chad Heins, the defendant, who was nineteen at the time, used his brothers license to buy alcohol at a strip club near the apartment. After that Chad Heins had went to another bar where his brothers license got confiscated. He left the bar around 12:45 a.m. and went back to the apartment. He then washed his
According to the Justice Kagan, in the case of Florida vs. Harris, “we considered how a court should determine if the “alert” of drug-detention during a traffic stop provides probable cause to search a vehicle” (Kagan).
During this examination, the administration did not take into account that Serge was not proficient enough in English to fully comprehend the test. Serge was tested in English for the majority of the questions and was unable to successfully answer them due to his language barrier. When Serge was placed into the third-grade class, he had just gone through a traumatic experience wand was undergoing both a cultural and language shock. These events should have played a more prominent role in his assessment. Moreover, Serge was not correctly identified as learning disabled, because of the language barrier present in these tests. Since he was tested in mainly English, it was not that he was disabled, it was because he lacked the understanding of the English language. As specified by Salend and Salinas (2003), in their six recommendations for multidisciplinary teams, students should be assessed in both their native and secondary languages. These results should then be compared in order to determine results (Salend & Salinas, 2003,
The Florida court system is composed of four different court structures. First, there is the Supreme Court, which is the highest court system in Florida and according to Florida Courts website, “Decisions stemming from Florida’s highest court have helped shape, certainly, the state itself, but the nation as a whole.” (FL Courts, n.d.) The Supreme Court is comprised of seven Justices and at least five of those Justices must contribute in every case and four must agree so a resolution can be reached. Secondly, there is the District Courts of Appeal which provides the chance for a thoughtful review of decisions of lower hearings by a multi-judge panel. “District Courts of Appeal correct harmful errors and ensure that decisions are consistent with
Recently immigrated parents often learn English from their children. Over 70% of Hispanic Americans in California are English Language Learners (ELL) and are given the resour...
In the United States, there has been an increase in in the number of children from Spanish speaking backgrounds. The English Language Learners, commonly known as ELL’s, are being placed in Special Education without being properly tested for a learning disability. However there are a large number of ELL’s with learning disabilities in elementary grades that truly have a learning disability and are over looked. Many school districts have problems placing ELL’s. As a result these students end up in special education whether they have a learning disability or language impairment. Teachers are also indecisive when dealing with ELL’s. Most teachers recommend that ELL’s be placed in special education from day one. It is not because the child has a learning disability, it’s because most teachers are not properly trained to interact with ELL’s. Teachers also find it difficult, due to lack of training, having ELL’s with learning disabilities in their classrooms. More teachers would find their selves comfortable if they had training in dealing with ELL’s and ELL’s with learning disabilities. This paper discusses the issues and the concerns teachers have in dealing with ELLs and ELLs with disabilities, the challenges of identifying individuals with learning disabilities, and what type of assessments classify English Language Learners as having a learning disability.
...ls accountable by requiring that all English learners be tested annually (“Bilingualism for Children,” 2004).
The implementation of Proposition 227 in 1998 made California an English-only state and mandated English-immersion language instruction for all ELs. The available evidence on the impact of this policy shows that this approach to instruction of ELs did little to close achievement gaps, caused a sharp reduction in the number of bilingual educators in the state, and further segregated ELs students into the poorest and lowest performing schools.
In the United States of America we have become a large melting pot of ethnic and cultural peoples. Along with these peoples have come many different languages and alphabets. However the US has been seen as a mostly English speaking country. Yet many of this country's newcomers do not speak English. Adults and children alike come into the US speaking and writing only their native tongue. This poses a huge gap in communication. If the adults are unable to teach their children English, then it becomes the school districts' responsibility. However to make learning easier on the child, many school districts choose to teach the child in their native language, while they receive English lessons on the side.
The purpose of this assignment is to explain the impact of English language learners in the classroom. As a foreign student, English language learner in the United States faces multiple challenges for achieving academic success. To successfully complete a task, they need to master both English as a language and how it is used in core content classes especially when they are an adult. When trying to assist in instructing English language learners, they usually have many concepts and language abilities that they need to master, as do the teachers that are trying to teach them. With the incorporation of the concepts and approaches to identify and assess the issues and concerns that we have learned in our classroom instruction, such as lesson preparation,
“After the Immigration Act of 1965, legislation law was passed to contribute the public schools in dealing with the arrival of non-English-speaking students. Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 supported programs for educating these students with English as a second language, including transitional bilingual education programs” (Echevarria and Graves 2011, p.350). This Act did not completely articulate how to go about educating these students. An unclear message was received or not received in whether there was going to be a process of their first languages or a complete transition to English. “The outcome of Title VII was that most ELs were consigned in English-only classrooms without suitable instructional
The issue of bilingual education is a much debated topic in this country and especially in this state. The Spanish-speaking populace has grown tremendously in these past decades, much of which has immigrated with Spanish as their only language. This has left the public school system with an interesting problem; how to successfully transition Spanish speaking students into an English environment. Public school systems have generally adopted one of two approaches to this problem. One is to allow students several years to develop their English with lessons taught in both languages. The other is a total immersion program where students are thrust into English-only lessons with little time develop their second language. Both approaches have ardent followers with valid arguments for each approach.
...l survival in our society. I work as a counselor each summer at a sports camp in Philadelphia, and each summer I encounter very intelligent students who are placed in lower tracks or labeled as ìlearning deficientî because of their language. This disturbs me because as a speaker of both Black Vernacular speech and Standard English, I know that students can learn to use Standard English just as I have. Unfortunately, many students are not privileged enough to have the same educational opportunities that I was given by my parents, therefore, it is my responsibility to teach these students Standard English the way that I have been taught. But I must learn more about teaching students and dealing with the issues that plague the educational system, and I am looking forward to receiving more of this knowledge during my pre-student teaching and student teaching experiences.
To throw a student into a classroom that speaks a language that is not familiar to them and forcing them to adjust in three years like English immersion does is not fair to the student.
Federal Policy for ELs has changed greatly since 1968. The United States Federal Legislation Act recognized the needs of students who had Limited English Speaking Ability (LESA). The bill called for all LESA students to be included into the classroom. This act also provided grants to school districts and other entities who were eligible. The grant was through a competitive grant process. These students (LESA) were classified as students whose home language was any other language besides English. This bill; however, had multiple problems which enabled other policies to be adopted. ESEA was sanctioned six times from 1974 to 1994. ESEA gave school district options on including ELL students into state testing situations. It gave them options like whether they opted those students out the first year and test them the second year, or having them test the first year with those scores not counting for accountability and showing their growth the second year.