studentSource: Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Unified School District has been singled out by the federal government as its 1st subject of a widespread investigation by officials from the Office for Civil Rights.

The focus of the probe, by an arm of the US Department of Education, will be whether the nation’s second-largest district provides adequate services to students learning English.

Officials turned their attention to L.A. Unified because so many English learners fare poorly and because they make up about a third of district enrollment, more than 220,000 students.

“This is about helping kids receive a good education, the education they deserve,” said Russlynn Ali, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights. She plans to announce the inquiry at a news conference Wednesday.

L.A. school officials said they welcomed the federal examination.

The probe would provide an outside evaluation to help the district identify and expand successful programs, said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. “And if there are egregious areas of misconduct by the district, I will move on it immediately.”

Federal analysts will review how English learners are identified and when they are judged fluent enough to handle regular course work. They’ll examine whether English learners have qualified, appropriately trained teachers. And they’ll look at how teachers make math and science understandable for students with limited English.

The ultimate goal of federal officials is to exert pressure on L.A. Unified and other school districts to close the achievement gap that separates white, Asian and higher-income students from low-income, black and Latino students.

Federal authorities aren’t accusing L.A. Unified of intentional discrimination, but the civil rights office seeks to uncover policies and practices that result in a “disparate outcome.” Enforcement options include withholding federal money; more than 23% of the district’s $7.16 billion operating budget comes from the federal government.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan launched the ramped-up enforcement effort Monday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., where law enforcement officers beat and drove back 600 civil rights marchers on March 7, 1965. Without naming school systems, officials said 38 faced compliance reviews; on Tuesday it became clear that L.A. Unified was among them.

Some observers hailed a resurgent civil rights office they said had languished under the George W. Bush administration.

“This is a big deal after eight years of lackluster enforcement,” said Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the locally based Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

Less impressed was Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Institute, based in Washington, D.C.: “School districts are going to see this announcement and freak out, take shortcuts and just push minority kids into Advanced Placement whether they are ready for them or not,” he wrote on his blog.

In L.A., second grade is the apparent high-water mark for English learners. At that level, 33% test as proficient in English. By eighth grade, proficiency levels decline to 2%, although that includes recent immigrants and excludes students who have moved into the “fluent” category. But even among newly fluent students, only 35% test as academically proficient in English in the 11th grade.

Language problems ultimately contribute to high dropout rates as well as the inability of many graduates to complete college and compete for jobs, researchers say.

The ESL debate

“There was a litany of recommendations,” said school board member Yolie Flores. “Then nothing happened.”

She called the federal action “way overdue,” adding, “unless we get external pressure or a mandate or a lawsuit, we are derelict in what we need to be doing for some students.”

An internal district report cited numerous accomplishments, including the recent training of 15,000 teachers in English-language development strategies.

In other districts, the division also will look at equal access to college-prep classes, equal opportunity for African American students, sexual harassment, violence and services to the disabled.

__________________________

My Take: There are so many non-white US citizens who fall between the cracks when it comes to equal rights and access to a decent education. If we take resources from the federal government to infiltrate the areas where these cracks are the widest, you can bet the finest criminal attorneys will be lining up to help represent those who are accused of perpetrating these so-called disparities. They’ll rightly show, in many cases, how difficult it is to adequately address every issue impacting every non-English speaking student in the system and they won’t need a lot of evidence to back up their claim.


With classroom sizes swelling to above 30 plus across many districts, and more and more children of immigrants coming into the system each year, it’s a miracle we don’t have more problems concerning this issue. In New York, where schools have been grappling with overcrowding and immigrant issues for years, these concerns are nothing new. Every NY employment discrimination lawyer has likely had his or her share of cases involving workers’ rights and ESL issues. Ditto for the NY Long Island harassment lawyer. What makes Los Angeles so unique, I suggest, is the long-running myth that the immigration issue isn’t serious enough to merit real changes.


But the fact is, you can easily work and live as an immigrant just about anywhere in the U.S. Wanna take bus driving lessons NY while you study for your citizenship class? No problem. Academy driving school NY style has more immigrants in line waiting for their chance to man a taxi than white, educated workers. Why? Because dirty secret is that only immigrants will typically do the jobs that we white Americans look down on as ‘grunt work.’ In L.A., the

burn injury lawyer probably has a nanny from Honduras or Guatemala looking after his children, while their own struggle for a seat inside a public afterschool program.

————————————————————

Other Resources