More Thought's On Our Approach To English Language Learners

                I have already posted a few blog posts about ELL's but I feel as if its a topic that isn't talked about often enough. For a class reading we were assigned 2 articles, Preparing English Language Learners for Academic Success, and Teaching English Language Learners: What does Research Tell Us?. (I will post links to both articles below. I encourage you to give them a read.) As I read these articles, it was coming apparent that I myself didn't have a lot of knowledge about how the programs for ELL students are being cultivated and what they actually need to be successful. I imagine that majority of these students don't attend top private schools, so I was really entrigued to see how schools are helping ELL's be successful. While these articles give a general overview, I would like to do more research on my own into what  resources schools actually have.
        
           According to a study there are over 3.4 million ELL students, in our schools right now, and ELL students represent 6% of all school aged children. 79% of these students come from Spanish households and 2/3rds of ELLs come from low income families. When reading the article about Preparing ELLS for Academic Success, I was a little shocked to find out that there is no common benchmark for English Language proficiency. I guess I was so taken aback because ELL students make up a huge part of the student body of America. The government has always been very gungho about common core standards, so I was confused when they didn't really have a plan for ELLs.
  
         The types programs that are available to our students is probably the most crucial to their success. While there are many different methods that our used. The articles seem to suggest that bi-lingual programs work the best, and is most helpful for students trying to learn a new language. On average it takes students about 3-5 years to be proficient in oral English and 5-7 to be proficient in Academic English. The law however only gives up to 4 years, to get a student up "full proficiency." To me this seems a little ridiculous, how do we expect students to learn a new language proficiently in the matter of three years? I doubt that any average American Student could learn a new language "proficiently" that quickly either. I guess it just doesn't seem quite fair to put such a time constraint on something that is clearly very important. A 2015 study in Washington found that on average it takes Spanish Speaking Learners a little over 4 years to be completely proficient in the English Language.
 
     I don't know how to fix the problems, or how to make things more cohesive for our ELL students but I can see that we are making the right strides. As of 2015 , More than 45 States in the US, use 1 out of 2 of the English-Language proficiency test, in order to gauge student's success. Researchers believe that by using these assessments they will be able to gather some clearer data in regards to what is working and what is and how we can better help our students.







          Articles:

       Preparing English Language Learners for Academic Success,
         
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Instruction/What-research-says-about-English-language-learners-At-a-glance/Preparing-English-language-learners-for-academic-success.html


   Teaching English Language Learners: What does Research Tell Us?

  http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/05/11/teaching-english-language-learners-what-does-the-research.html