parents across the country are asking school districts
to stop putting their kids in E.S.L. Or english as a
second language classes. Families are worried the
programs could take away from their educational
experience and erase some of their cultural heritage,
let's get out to national correspondent axle Ter
has been talking with some of those concerned parents
Good morning axel, Good morning Alex. The parents that
I've spoke with are telling me that schools around the
nation are placing the Children in the wrong programs
classes that are meant for Children who do not speak
english. They also told me that they think the school
systems are targeting these Children just because
they're bilingual. Mhm. Almost five million students in
the United States are learning english as a second
language. But while the program known as E.S.L. Has
helped millions of Children transition to life in the
US, some families say their Children have been
incorrectly placed for these three mothers. One simple
question on the school registration form put their
families through years of stress as they struggle to
deal with english as a second language proficiency
standards. One of the questions on there was whether a
language other than english was spoken in the home at
the time my parents were visiting and what's nice about
my parents visiting is my Child get to hear a lot of
our native tongue which is Bengali and I said yes
another language is spoken in the home as I handed it
back, I thought oh no I did the wrong thing, they're
gonna think he's an english language learner And I
asked the clerk for the form back and she said no, once
you've answered it, we're done. So I immediately knew
we were about to enter some rabbit hole Sengupta
Irving's then four year old son Navin how to take an
english proficiency test at his school in California,
they asked him questions like what's the right
punctuation at the end of a sentence My son couldn't
really read at that point, let alone know what kind of
punctuation went at the end of the sentence. In other
words, there is no way for a child who's probably even
english fluent To be able to pass this exam when the
California Department of Education and Minister, that
same proficiency test, two kids from English speaking
homes, 75% failed Lisa, Garcia Bedoya's daughter, a
fluent English speaker was required to take the test
all because she noted the second language was spoken in
their home. She is a third generation Latina in
California whose family happens to have spanish in the
home, having another language i the home by the staff
leadership in the, in the district was interpreted as
by definition being deficient in english that you can't
have both. You can't actually be bilingual in their
framing because they've been categorized as non english
fluent, they're not allowed to even get into advanced
math even though it's math, you know, so that prevents
them from them taking advanced math in high school and
that might prevent them from getting into a specific
college carol Lloyd from the nonprofit education
organization. Grade schools say kids who are placed in
the wrong school programs are silently tracked away
from advanced learning. That can have a long term
implication about their, their career and their
trajectory without the parents actually knowing it. The
situation is not isolated to California paris around in
new york city is frustrated too. I think it's basic to
racial profiling because he's both english and three
years old. When cerrado son Mikey didn't pass that
english proficiency test. It flagged him even though
his entire family speaks english fluently, I'll get
pulled out of classes and it would affect my learning
from that class also. And sometimes I had to get the
notes from other classmates and it's not the same
experience as having teacher there. I think the schools
will change that the way they do the test because they
start doing some four or five years old and it's too
hard for the kids carol. Why is this happening It's a
sort of discrimination against kids who come from other
countries and low expectations, assuming that the
can't do as much assuming that they might not be as
smart. So it could be a form of racism marisa Sanchez
medina from the new york city Education Department
the assessment is fair all students regardless of race
Language. Our offer this opportunity. It's not about
their ethnicity or the race, it's about the language
component here in new york city, the nation's largest
school system. Students who need support in english are
classified as english language learners. If the parents
believe their child was misplaced in the program, they
get a window of time to appeal the decision. The
screening process is to eliminate that where we're
asking the questions and looking at student work and
ensuring that we have the correct placement for that
child. However, cerrado says her concerns were not hurt
My son. They keep him until 5th grade and I went to the
school and I speak to the teachers to make changes, b
they never changed and they wait until fifth grade.
Okay. In florida, the state's second largest school
district uses a similar system. The moment a parent
checks off yes to any of those three questions, it's
almost like a little red flag for the school to screen
the student for english, but some parents are
interpreting that so called red flag as stereotyping.
Do you think this decisions are made because of
ethnicity and background and racial backgrounds
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It's based on the three
questions. That's it. About 260,000 students attend
Broward County Public schools. Out of that number over
30,000 kids are part of the ECE program. I'd look at
say parents should be careful if their Children speak
english fluently. You might be very proud that your
family speaks spanish at home or your family speaks
chinese at home but it's probably a better idea if your
child is fluent already just say the whole family is
english speaking but parents say they should not have
to lie about their true identity and that it should be
up to the schools to create a system that is fair to
all students, we should be celebrating that people have
two languages in the home and that just because you do
doesn't mean you speak english less well than a native
speaker who only speaks english. So actually we know
that your family also went through this experience to
so he tells a lot about that and how that impacted you.
Yes Alex, I went through the same program, it actually
helped me because I learned english when I came to the
U.S.I was 13 and my sister was three, we came from
Honduras by the time she was five she already spoke
english and yet she was placed in the program but it
was until she was in fourth grade that my mom was able
to get her out of the program after going to the scho
several times and talking to the teachers and
principals after that my sister had to take a new
english placement test and then she was finally removed
from the ISO program. It sounds like it takes so much
effort to get them off once you are on that list.
Alright axel thank you for joining us, Yeah.