Bilingual Education-Blog related to my major

http://irvingblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/04/few-parents-refuse-bilingual-e.html



This is the article that caught my attention about bilingual education. The article is about a few parents refusing bilingual education support for their children. My first thought was why would a parent refuse services that would assist their children to achieve and be successful at school? The more I thought about it, the more I understood the parents’ perspective and views of why they refused services.
Each parent wants the best for their child. However, for some parents, bilingual education sounds like people are labeling their child. Having a label attached to your child's name would scare every parent. I think if the bilingual education program was appropriately introduced to the family and thoroughly explained to them it would diminish their fear.
I am a firm believer parents know their children best, and they are their child’s primary educators too. Their fear is clouding their judgments of what is best for their children. We just need to help them understand that bilingual education is not labeling their child. The bilingual support is all about helping the children be successful and complete assignments the same as their peers. It is a support system to assist their child to develop language skills, which will be provide them the best support in accomplishing and achieving a school task successfully.
As educators we need to respect the parents’ wishes and provide them many opportunities to learn and gain better knowledge about bilingual education before they make their final decision regarding their child’s education. It is not easy for a child to be in a classroom where they don’t understand what the teacher is trying to tell him or her.
Explaining the difficulties their children may face from being in a classroom where they don’t have the educational support and discussing how that may potentially be more damaging to their children may help the parents understand why the child should be in a bilingual education class. Helping the parents to understand bilingual support is temporary until their children develop the skills of the English language and then they will exit the program as soon as they achieve more language skills.








Few parents refuse bilingual education for their children
10:48 AM Tue, Apr 13, 2010 | Permalink
Katherine Leal Unmuth/Reporter Bio | E-mail | News tips

Earlier this year, I asked the Texas Education Agency for data by district on how many parents are refusing bilingual education and ESL services for their children. These would be children who are classified limited English proficient, and therefore are entitled to these special services to assist them in learning English. A parent does have the right to refuse the program and place their child in regular classes. It's unclear how many parents know they have the right, however.

-- Last year, 300 of 13,234 total Irving ISD LEP students were denials.That amounts to about 2.3% of all of those students. So how does this compare with other districts?

-- In neighboring Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, just 68 of 6,293 kids had services denied--or 1% of all students.

-- In Dallas ISD, which like Irving has a percentage of its population which are English learners, 2,737 of 55,042 LEP students, or about 5% denied services.

-- In Garland ISD, 1,281 of 13,022 refused services, or about 10% denied.

-- In Richardson ISD, 28 of 7,431 were denials--or just 0.4% of their population.

-- In neighboring Grand Prairie ISD, 628 of 6,286 children, or about 10% of students were denied services.

-- In Plano ISD, 194 of 6,441 students, or about 3% denied.

The TEA web site notes that "It is recommended that the LEP student with a parent denial on file be monitored and reviewed for academic progress. If necessary the parent is offered the instructional program once again."

Well why the disparity? Makes me wonder whether some districts make it more or less difficult for parents to gain approval.

Just curious--do you know any parents who have refused bilingual education?
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Archived Comments
Posted by sm @ 6:48 PM Tue, Apr 13, 2010

I have seen that in one district, parents are highly encouraged by the bilingual testing staff to place their children in Bilingual, even if the child is fluent in English.
Posted by JohnLocke @ 6:54 AM Thu, Apr 15, 2010

Yes, I've seen parents refuse services. Of course we're often not given a reason why - but it seems that they don't want their child singled out.

To me, it always seems to be a misunderstanding of the programs - - there's little doubt that the parent has the child's best concerns at heart. And who is the school to say what is best? Afterall, parents know their children, and ultimately they are the ones to make these decisions.

Though I support these programs and have been involved with them myself, I also acknowledge the parent's right to refuse.
Posted by anonymous @ 7:38 PM Thu, Apr 15, 2010

What is truly sad is that some of the refussals/denials that I have dealt with also come with little to no parental support thereafter. I know that this is not always the case, however, in some cases it is which is detrimental to the academic success of their chid(ren) and our students.
Posted by Concerned Educator @ 10:26 PM Fri, Apr 16, 2010

I have seen school administrators discourage some parents who want their children placed into an all English class rather than a bi-lingual class because I was told that these students "won't pass" the end of the year state exam in English.

I don't pass judgement on the parents who prefer their children in one or the other program. I too feel that most parents know their children better than do school officials and should make that decision without the "pressure" of some school administrators.

I personally would want my child to know their 1st language and if possible to know it academically as well as to be knowledgable about the 2nd language. It is important to know the predominant langage that is used to determine graduation eligibility and so I can certainly see the necessity of being in an all English class.

Research shows that it takes generally about 1-2 years to learn the "social" language of a 2nd language and it takes from 5-7 years to master the academic language used in textbooks and classrooms, it makes sense to start as early as possible to learn the 2nd language if that is necessary.
Posted by Homebrew @ 7:12 AM Tue, Apr 20, 2010

CE: I am curious about something that is not quite clear to me. If you are saying that it takes 5 - 7 years to master a language academically, would it not make sense to keep students in a ESL class? That way they could learn the "social" language through use during the second language time and if they have questions, they could be explained in their native language so as not to confuse them. I have always heard English is one of the hardest languages to learn due to the odd things such as their, they're and there, etc.

I guess my point is that for some, being thrust into all English classes may work but I would suspect for many it would be intimidating and might set up a potential pattern for failure. I am not a trained professional, but it seems to me that it would be better to have a child in ESL or one of the other options available, for a few years to be able to see exactly what their level is as opposed to possibly stunt their growth by being thrust into all English too early.

I am asking you to put aside your animosity toward the IISD Administration for just a minute and answer this question for me. Do you feel that properly trained teachers, counselors, etc. would be able to look at test results, potential parental involvement levels, a childs basic capacity for learning and any other variables I am not aware of, and be able to make a better determination of where a child belongs than just a parent? (Diagram that sentence for me!) I am not talking about specific districts, but just in theory how it should work. Please don't go off on IISD again as that is not my point. I was very interested in this area of education during my time on the DIC.

Thank you for your response.
Posted by Homebrew @ 7:29 AM Fri, Apr 23, 2010

Sarah, Concerned Educator: I asked a legitimate question of you and yet you still do not reply. Why not? If you have the credentials you say you do, you could actually answer this question in a language all can understand and not "educator speak." You refusal to answer any questions make all of your allegations look silly.

I reached out to you to get some valid information and you continue to spout your false allegations under who knows how many names. Look at how my posts stay up and yours are deleted. Let it go.

By the way, still no email from you. As I suspected from the start, you are a fraud. What a sad pathetic little life you lead.