Bilingual Education in New York City:

Failing the Big Apple’s Hispanics

Mr. G. Heanue

mistahH_9@hotmail.com

Grace Dodge Career and technical High School

For the 151,000 English learners in New York City schools, things are getting desperate. Dropout rates for English learners have continued to rise faster than for other students. It has gotten so bad that more of them are now dropping out than are graduating from high school. This comes as especially bad news for the Big Apple’s Hispanic English learners, of whom more than half are in bilingual education. All available indicators of student progress toward English fluency demonstrate very poor patterns of progress. Less than half of the Big Apple’s English learners graduate from their bilingual or ESL programs into mainstream English classrooms within the 3 years that is the target of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. More than 1 in 6 of them remain in these “transitional” programs for 9 years or longer. It is even worse for those in bilingual education. This is bad news for Hispanic young people, who are far more likely to be placed in bilingual education than other language minorities.

You and you group are part of the Mayors Task Force to look into the problems facing Hispanic English language learners in New York City’s Public Schools and how it is failing our city’s immigrant youth. Your group must:

• present your findings with numbers and facts to define the problem
• reasons why your group believes that the current policy is working or failing
• state what is currently being done to remedy this crisis
• what policies should be implemented to improve the current trends
• provide studies and use current research being done throughout the world where other policies might provide guidance to New York City
• Etc.

Work will be done in groups of three (3) or four (4) to complete the following steps.

1. Define and describe the problem and the current public policy using worksheet #1.
2. Gather evidence, statistics, case studies, surveys or articles by experts to support your beliefs by using worksheet #2.
3. Identify causes of the problem using worksheet #3.
4. Define and evaluate the existing policy of the New York City public school system using worksheet #4.
5. Develop several policy solutions using worksheet #5.
6. Select what your group feels is the best policy using worksheet #6.

After completing these six steps you must:

1. Write a 2-3 page proposal that
1. states the existing problem
2. how policy is currently not working
3. and what solution your group has come up with to resolve the problem
2. Present your findings as a group to the Department of Education (the class) with your proposed policy to deal with the problem you have studied and researched.

A Case Study of Bilingual Education: http://www.englishfirst.org/eff/efbeny.htm

New York State Bilingual Education/ESL Network: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/nysben.html

Bilingual Education: Overview and Online Resources: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/ny/67/parent

An article on Bilingual Education in New York City: http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/education/pdf/nycbilingual.pdf

Research on Bilingual Education form online library: http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=bilingual_education&OFFID=se1&KEY=bilingual_education

Evaluation

Your final grade will be based on your written report and your oral presentation.

1. Five-Paragraph Research Paper

Quality	A (5)	B (4)	C (3)	D (2)	F (1)
Meaning & Development	-Excellent use of facts, quotes, and statistics from websites. -Fully developed, 5-paragraph research paper that follows task.	-Very good demonstration of quotes and statistics from the web. -Well-developed 5-paragraph paper that follows task.	-Average use of quotes and statistics from websites. -Average development of 5-paragraph paper.	-Poor or incorrect use of quotes and statistics from websites. -Poor development of paper; has less than 5 paragraphs.	-No use of quotes and statistics or plagiarized from websites. -No development -Paper has only 3 paragraphs or less.
Organization	-Excellent focus. -Paragraph organization perfectly follows task.	-Very strong focus. -Paragraph organization appropriately follows task.	-Average focus. -Average organization of paragraphs -Some awareness of task.	-Lacks focus. -Paragraphs lack organization and awareness of task.	-No focus. -No organization. -No awareness of task.
Language & Conventions	-Excellent vocabulary. -Varies sentence structure and length. -Perfect grammar, spelling, and paragraphs.	-Strong vocabulary. -Good variety of sentences. -Very good grammar, spelling, and paragraphs.	-Average vocabulary. -Average variety of sentences. -Average grammar, spelling, and paragraphs.	-Poor vocabulary. -Poor variety of sentences. -Poor use of grammar, spelling, and paragraphs.	-No attention to vocabulary usage. -No variety in sentence structure. -Incorrect grammar, spelling, and paragraphs.
Format	6-step Public Policy Analyst (PPA) format followed perfectly.	PPA format mostly followed.	PPA format followed Inconsistently.	Little or confused understanding of PPA format.	No use of PPA format.

2. Group Oral Presentation

Grade	4	3	2	1
Oral Presentation	Speaks loud and clear, good tone of voice. Excellent use of English language. Material is presented I a persuasive, well organized format. Strong supporting evidence and facts.	Good point of view. Good use of English language. Material is well organized and good use of supporting facts and details.	Speaks using low tone of voice. Poor use of English language. Material is not well organized and weak use of supporting facts and evidence.	Weak point of view. Poor use of English language. Material is not well organized and no supporting facts or evidence.

GRADE KEY:

A= 18-20 B =15-17 C=12-14 D=8-11 F=4-7

Reading

a	Read twenty-five books of the quality and complexity illustrated in the sample reading list.
c	Read and comprehend informational materials.

Writing

a	Produce a report of information.
e	Produce a persuasive essay.

Speaking, Listening, and Viewing

a	Participate in one-to-one conferences with the teacher.
b	Participate in group meetings.
c	Prepare and deliver an individual presentation.

Conventions, Grammar, and Usage of the English Language

a	Independently and habitually demonstrate an understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work.
b	Analyze and subsequently revise work to improve its clarity and effectiveness.

Public Documents

a	Critique public documents with an eye to strategies common in public discourse.
b	Produce public documents.

Functional Documents

a	Critique functional documents with an eye to strategies common to effective functional documents.
b	Produce functional documents appropriate to audience and purpose.

Information Tools and Techniques

a	Gather information to assist in completing project work.
b	Use on-line sources to exchange information for specific purposes.
c	Use word-processing software to produce a multi-page document.
d	Write, add content to, and analyze a relational data base.

Tools and Techniques for Working With Others

a	Participate in the establishment and operation of self-directed work teams.

Congratulations!

Your completion of this web quest should provide you with the following knowledge and skills:

· You should understand the causes of poor student success among New York City’s Hispanic ESL population.

· You should be able to suggest new approaches in policy making.

· You will have learned how to make convincing arguments to support your findings.

Upon your successful completion of this web quest, you have researched and analyzed the social problem of high drop-out rates of New York City’s Hispanic ESL population using the TIPS Public Policy Analyst guidelines. Through this web quest, you analyzed the causes and effects of low achievement among this population. Your group reviewed current public policy solutions to Hispanics as English language learners in NYC, while creating your own new solutions for more success in our own Bronx High Schools. You have learned to develop a five-paragraph research report using websites for evidence and information to complete your task.

Hopefully, you all developed some creative solutions to promote higher success of the Hispanic ESL population in Bronx High Schools. Perhaps your solutions will be considered for future success in our school.