Arizona Grades Teachers on Fluency (Teachers Deemed Heavily Accented, Ungrammatical Ordered Removed)

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 30, 2010 | Miriam Jordan

[lbryce]

As the academic year winds down, Creighton School Principal Rosemary Agneessens faces a wrenching decision: what to do with veteran teachers whom the state education department says don't speak English well enough.

The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English.

State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly. But some school principals and administrators say the department is imposing arbitrary fluency standards that could undermine students by thinning the ranks of experienced educators.

The teacher controversy comes amid an increasingly tense debate over immigration. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer this month signed the nation's toughest law to crack down on illegal immigrants. Critics charge that the broader political climate has emboldened state education officials to target immigrant teachers at a time when a budget crisis has forced layoffs.

"This is just one more indication of the incredible anti-immigrant sentiment in the state," said Bruce Merrill, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who conducts public-opinion research.

Margaret Dugan, deputy superintendent of the state's schools, disagreed, saying that critics were "politicizing the educational environment."

In the 1990s, Arizona hired hundreds of teachers whose first language was Spanish as part of a broad bilingual-education program. Many were recruited from Latin America.

[lbryce]

The thing to bear most in mind about The Arizona Board of Education's decision to order teachers deemed heavily accented, speak English ungrammtically removed applies only in cases for students still learning English. a distinction that needs to be pointed out to those who continue demonizing Arizona undeservedly.

[Ann Archy]

FIRE THEM!

[garyhope]

Imagine that, a teacher that has to speak and write clearly and competently.

What will these evil right wing fascists think up next?

[heye2monn]

Yes!

With Washington DC gone mad, is Arizona the last bastion of common sense?

[blueyon]

Bush’s fault

[chickadee]

Now if only our major universities would require the same of the Chinese born graduate students teaching math on their campuses, it might be possible for U. S. born students to actually learn.

[Carley]

Imagine the nerve!!!! Caring about the students enough to assure they get an education that will prepare them for a real job in the real world.

As opposed to subsisting on welfare their entire lives.

[Ben Ficklin]

The US educational system doesn't produce enough bi-lingual teachers(spanish-english) so they have to import them from Latin America or the Philippines, except the anti-immigration hardliners have constricted the number of temp visas that are used for teachers, so there is a shortage of bi-lingual teachers.

[garyhope]

Yeah, that Bush is a busy, busy guy to be causing all that bad luck and trouble.

[DH]

Even better, teachers must be an EXPERT on the subjects they teach. How can you be an EXPERT in the teaching of English if you can hardly speak it yourself?

Ah, forgot about PC, diversity and the NEA.

[RoadTest]

Is it too much to ask that teachers speak English?

[Oldexpat]

In CA it is difficult for a “Gringo” to get a ESL job, even when they are fluent in Spanish. Same goes for many teachers aides and school staff. They prefer to have correct “cultural” examples for the kids. No Gringos need apply.

[meadsjn]

With Washington DC gone mad, is Arizona the last bastion of common sense?

I hope it is among the first of many.

Bilingual education was an ill-conceived, poorly executed, bottomless money pit, designed to prevent assimilation and to ensure a large sub-culture of poor, ignorant, dependent, Democrat voters.

[livius]

This is very good. I think California did something similar a few years ago, because this was a real problem.

I worked in the California public school system for a couple of years, and I was amazed at the complete unintelligibility of some of the teachers and teachers’ aides they hired. They had such heavy Spanish or Chinese accents that there was no way the kids were going to be able to learn decent English from them.

Kids learn very quickly and they want to learn, but it’s not going to be possible unless they have a good model.

[lbryce]

Haz Youse Forrgoton Abouot Ebonics and Teechers dezzire toos putting politix ahead of teeching Englissch good?

Wikipedia:Ebonics
In 1996, the term became widely known in the U.S. owing to a controversy over a decision by the Oakland School Board to denote and recognize the primary language (or sociolect or ethnolect) of African American children attending school, and thereby to facilitate the teaching of standard English.[12] Thereafter, the term Ebonics became popularized, though as little more than a synonym for African American Vernacular English, perhaps differing in the emphasis on its claimed African roots and independence from English. The term is linked with the nationally discussed controversy over the decision by the Oakland School Board, and is avoided by most linguists.

[elpadre]

in a way all students are still learning English.

And there are some minority teachers whose English is no better than the “gangstas” they each.

In certifying English teachers, speaking and writing proficiency should be a high priority.

[RoadTest]

Well, you don’t have to teach Ebonics or sin; they both come with the territory.

[RoadTest]

So - - - the California school system is even more dilapidated than other school systems?

[wildbill]

A study in Houston some years ago found that 33% couldn’t speak, write or read English well enough to pass the test.

[GVnana]

ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly

I sincerely doubt that the word "flawlessly" appears in any related document, and suspect this writer of a political motive.

[GVnana]

49th in the nation.

[wildbill]

Perhaps most of the readers of my post above will immediately leap to the conclusion that the teachers who couldn’t pass tests on English were of Hispanic heritage.

That is not true although it certainly played a part in some individual cases. I think almost all were products of the educational system of our country which encourages sloth in the educational process, touchy-feely over achievement, and lowers the goal posts of attainment of literacy skills to the minimum.

Thank you NEA.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

A huge complaint among college students here in NJ is that they cannot understand many professors and associate professors. The state charges and arm an a leg for a college education and serves up mediocre instructors.

Something has to be done nation wide.

[joe fonebone]

they learned me good english...

[ChocChipCookie]

A couple of years ago our church offered classes in Hebrew. My class was taught by a very sweet Hispanic lady who had the heaviest accent possible. It was clear that English was her second language, and she was trying to teach Hebrew in English. I couldn’t understand much of what she was saying and dropped out.

[sniper63]

Haz Youse Forrgoton Abouot Ebonics and Teechers dezzire toos putting politix ahead of teeching Englissch good shud b mo' gooder?

[EDINVA]

Professor Merrill in his Ivory Tower seems not to have noticed it’s anti-illegal sentiment in AZ, not anti immigrant.

It is appalling, not just in AZ, but across the country how many teachers (native born even) do not speak proper English. I feel so sorry for kids whose parents are ill-educated and don’t speak good English, then going to school where the teachers’ English isn’t much better. Those kids don’t have a prayer.

[CAluvdubya]

I may have to mmove to Arizona....

OT, sort of...Both of my kids had professors in college that they couldn't understand. One had to go to the TA frequently instead of the prof to find out what the guy said. AND they had the privilege of paying for a class where the teacher hardly spoke English.

[combat_boots]

Dat a goo pos

[SunkenCiv]

State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly.

Those who can't do, teach.

[metmom]

More good news coming out of AZ by the day.

This is a start.

Arizona is looking better and better all the time.

[Dacus943]

"veteran teachers whom the state education department says don't speak English well enough."

Tenured teachers would be a more accurate description.

[RockinRight]

You’re kidding, right??

[Mojave]

The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English.

Teachers from New Jersey beware!

[SharpRightTurn]

What will be done with teachers who cannot teach without teleprompters?

[lbryce]

I may be considered cruel for what is the way it happened,
I called American Express to inquire about several items on my monthly statement, the customer service agent responding with "May I AX you a question?" and in a whimsical manner retorted with "What? You want to AX me a question? , the agent attempted to correct herself but once again repeated "May I AX you a question?". This went on for awhile, astounded by her inability to pronounce the word "ask", eventually having her hang up on me in frustration.

What surprised me even more was that American Express never saw her lack of eloquence as being an impediment for the position.

[blam]

"This is just one more indication of the incredible anti-immigrant sentiment in the state," said Bruce Merrill, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who conducts public-opinion research."

What is wrong with an anti-immigrant sentiment?

It's made to sound like something hateful.

[myknowledge]

[ridesthemiles]

Imagine that, a teacher that has to speak and write clearly and competently.

What will these evil right wing fascists think up next?”

Spring Housecleaning! Love it.

[Caipirabob]

In truth, many people who have moved here to become citizens will never lose their accents. Perhaps they could serve better teaching other subjects than English if those positions are available.

OTOH, my wife has a heavy accent. Our kids have none, and somehow didn't even pick up our family's traditional Southern accent. Heck, I don't even think they like grits. : /

[Vigilanteman]

Don’t they understand that public education is mainly a jobs program for public unions and the students to be educated are merely a by-product? When will they get their priorities straight?

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Oh, are you preaching to the chior. I couldn’t understand half of the TA’s in college. I wondered to myself ‘why the hell am I paying all this money for disinterested professors and unintelligible TA’s.’

[aruanan]

Oh, are you preaching to the chior. I couldn’t understand half of the TA’s in college. I wondered to myself ‘why the hell am I paying all this money for disinterested professors and unintelligible TA’s.’

At the University of Chicago, the professors teach their own undergraduate courses.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

In the upper level physics classes, the TA’s are there to help after class and such with the problems. Not speaking English well, the TA’s became part of the the problem.

[aruanan]

In the upper level physics classes, the TA’s are there to help after class and such with the problems. Not speaking English well, the TA’s became part of the the problem.

Perhaps we were just lucky here but in our graduate level classes all the TAs spoke perfectly intelligible English--unlike some of the Ph.D. students or post-docs from the PRC.

[lbryce]

It occured to me that the reason the problem exists in the first place is because teacher pay as mandated by the state is at the low end of the salary scale. Schools wouldn't have to rely on those it considers unfit, say, to those to whom Emglish is a second, third language, if they raised salaries in attracting candidates best qualified for the job.

But that would never happen,especially with Aeizona these days facing a $5 Billion budget shortfall.

[JDW11235]

There is ZERO need for bilingual teachers.

[JDW11235]

“Bilingual education was an ill-conceived, poorly executed, bottomless money pit, designed to prevent assimilation and to ensure a large sub-culture of poor, ignorant, dependent, Democrat voters.”

I agree. Control of language and literacy is effectively a de facto control of the people. Educate meand “to lead out,” these corrupt politicians want cold, huddled masses forever, all voting for them into perpetuity.

[Tunehead54]

Disqualified! ;-)

[Vaduz]

Agree California schools have become nothing more than a daycare centers.