Equal Protection and Public Education Essay PDF

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Research the implications of equal protection for K-12 students within one of the following groups:...

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Equal Protection and Public Education Lissette Mendoza GCU (Grand Canyon University) POS 500 Professor Theresa Sheridan January 12, 2022

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Equal Protection and Public Education of English Language Learners of New York State

Inequality within the public school system has always been an issue even to this day. Equal Protection and Public Education Classifications of groups are continuously under strict scrutiny to ensure that the law does not infringe a fundamental constitutional right. Current federal legislation, such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 and the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, focuses on the need for promoting high quality of education for children, including Limited English proficient students or English Language Learners (ELL). For a variety of reason, however, most ELL students find themselves in conventional classrooms instructed by regular schoolteachers that have not been professionally trained to teach ELL students (Lucas, Strom, Bratkovich, & Wnuk, 2018). In addition, each state has their own guidelines and regulations on the classification of students experiencing linguistic disadvantages. For example, the state of New York defines the English Language Leaners term as Pupils with limited English proficiency or Ell's pupils who speak a language other than English because of foreign birth or ancestry and either understand and speak little English or score below a specific threshold on a proficiency exam. The purpose of this essay is to discuss equal protection for non-English speaking K-12 students and the classification based on English Language Learners in New York state. According to the Department of Education the number of English Language Learners is the fastest growing student population here in the United States with Spanish-speaking students constituting about 4.8 million of them (2021). Kena, (2015) have also stated that the number of ELL students in public schools went from 4.1million (8.7%) in 2002-03 to approximately 4.4 million (9.2%) in 2012-13. Infact it is predicted that the number of ELL students will double by the year 2050. Thus, it is more than likely that every teacher at some point during his or her career will have Ell's students in his or her classroom. As maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (2004) the performance on national assessments indicates that language minority learners struggle to perform academically at the same levels as their native English-speaking peers. Aud (2013) found

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that the gap between ELL and non-ELL students on the NAEP reading assessment was 44 points at the 8th grade level and 36 points at the 4th grade level. During Lau v. Nichols in 1974, the decision was reached that school districts must provide and take necessary steps to help ELL student overcome any educational barriers that they may be facing (Lau V. Nichols 414 U.S. 563, 94 S. Ct. 786 (1974). To help ELL students, states and local districts must identify which students classify as English Language Learners and provide them with anything they need to achieve academic performance. An appropriate classification system and educational policies for English Language Learners. The New York City Department of Education starts the classification process by identifying the suspected student. The parents/guardians of newly enrolled students must complete a Home Language Identification Survey. The purpose of this survey is to identify the child’s primary language. If the child speaks a language other than English at home, the school proceeds to test the student with the New York State identification Test for English Language Learners. This test was developed to measure the child’s knowledge of English and to determine what services the child will need. If the child is classified the school must provide the student with services or specific programs to help the student overcome the language barrier. The Department of Education of NYC offers three basic programs and services for ELL classified students. This includes: 1) The Dual Language program in which the students can learn by using both languages English and their home language. 2) The Transitional Bilingual Education program which is a program designed to provide reading, writing and other classes in English and in the student’s home language, but as the students improve their English skills they transition to English-only instruction. 3) The English as a New Language program which was called English as a Second Language (ESL) offers instruction in English with support in the student’s home language. With this program students from different language backgrounds are taught together until they became English proficient. These programs help ELL students by allowing them to use their home language to learn English. These programs also help students to appreciate diverse cultures and open many doors for those students that became multilingual. During the classification process parents/guardians have the right to choose whichever program they think will help their children the best. Enrollment to the chosen program must be provided within ten days of enrollment. Then the school will proceed by holding a parent-teacher conference and annual English Language Learners parent meetings to report

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the students’ progress. In addition, the state of New York each spring will test the students with the NY State English as a Second Language Achievement Test which measures the students’ progress in learning English. The test results are used to determine the continuation of the program. Under federal laws and Supreme Court decisions ELL student are guaranteed the same rights and protections as any other English-speaking student. Consequently, all ELL students should receive the educational services they need to improve their language skills. This will not only help the students gain confidence but also will open the door to a variety of opportunities for them.

References:

Kena, G., Musu-Gillette, L., Robinson, J., Wang, X., Rathbun, A., Zhang, J., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., Barmer, A., and Dunlop Velez, E. (2015). The Condition of Education 2015 (NCES 2015-144). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC. Retrieved [date] from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch. Lau V. Nichols - 414 U.S. 563, 94 S. Ct. 786 (1974). Community. (n.d.). Retrieved October 5, 2021, from https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-lau-v-nichols. Lucas, T., Strom, K., Bratkovich, M., & Wnuk, J. (2018). Inservice preparation for mainstream teachers of English language learners: A review of the empirical literature. The Educational Forum, 82(2), 156–73. doi:10.1080/00131725.2018.1420852 National Center for Education Statistics. (2004). Language minority learners and their labor market indicators – Recent trends. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved September 21, 2004, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004009.pdf U.S. Department of Education. 2021. “Our Nation’s English Learners” Our Nations English Learners Link...