The U.S. departments of Justice and Education reached a settlement agreement today on how the Boston public school system will fix violations of the civil rights of English-language learners.
Since 2003, the Boston district 鈥渉as failed to properly identify and adequately serve thousands of English Language Learner (ELL) students as required by the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,鈥� the Justice Department said in a issued Oct. 1. The school district cooperated with a joint investigation by the two federal departments into those violations.
The 44-page agreement requires that, starting this school year, all of Boston鈥檚 135 schools provide services to English-language learners, even if the schools don鈥檛 have large numbers of such students, something that wasn鈥檛 happening before. It also includes a mandate that the district offer 鈥渃ompensatory services鈥� to students who previously had been deemed as 鈥渙pting out鈥� of language services that they were entitled to receive under federal law. Those make-up services will be offered during out-of-school hours鈥攊ncluding after school, during summer, and on Saturdays鈥攖o make up for the ELL help that students should have gotten but didn鈥檛.
The Boston settlement agreement is the result of one of 15 investigations into ELL programs at school districts that the Justice Department has opened since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
One way that the federal agencies have found the Boston district to be in violation of federal law is that the district inappropriately categorized many students as having 鈥渙pted out鈥� of language support.
Carol Johnson, the schools superintendent in Boston, where 28 percent of the district鈥檚 56,000 students are ELLs, said in an interview today that the school system has been hard at work for a year in trying to bring its schools into compliance with federal civil rights law. The effort has involved training some 2,000 teachers in how to work with English-learners, retesting 7,000 students in their English skills, and mapping out plans to accelerate the learning of ELLs who should have previously gotten services but didn鈥檛.
鈥淲e had to be fairly aggressive in our planning. We looked school by school at who was being served and who wasn鈥檛,鈥� Ms. Johnson said.
鈥楥omprehensive鈥� Settlement
The district has agreed to spend $10 million on improving ELL services, an expenditure that began last school year and will continue this school year. About $8.2 million of that money is being supplied by the American Recovery and Investment Act, the 2009 federal economic-stimulus legislation.
Roger L. Rice, the executive director of Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy of Somerville, Mass., praised the agreement as being 鈥渃omprehensive,鈥� compared with other settlement agreements on ELL services that have had the stamp of the Justice Department.
But he said he wasn鈥檛 satisfied with the extent of the compensatory services required of the Boston district. Those services should be provided during the regular school day, he said. Mr. Rice observed that many ELLs are obligated to get jobs or babysit to help support their families, and that those duties will compete with their ability to make up the services during out-of-school hours.
In addition, he said, it seems that the compensatory services 鈥渁re not instructionally linked to what goes on during the school year.鈥�
But Eileen De Los Reyes, Boston鈥檚 assistant superintendent for English-language learners, said that ELLs have already responded well to the district鈥檚 offerings on Saturdays and during the summer. 鈥淲hat I would not want to do is disrupt their day more,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey need to participate in the life of the school.鈥�
She also stressed that the students eligible for the makeup services are already getting ELL services and academic-content classes tailored to their needs during the school day. The makeup services are also connected with what ELLs learn during the school day because the district provides the materials and teachers for them, she added.
The agreement doesn鈥檛 give a number for how many students are eligible for the makeup services. But Ms. De Los Reyes said 4,000 students who were found to be inappropriately categorized as having opted out of services are eligible, as well as 4,300 students who hadn鈥檛 been properly identified as ELLs because of testing issues.
Another important area of the agreement refers to the quality of services given to students at the secondary school level, which Mr. Rice describes as having been 鈥渉orrible鈥� in the past.
Spelling It Out
The agreement requires that ELLs be taught core academic content by teachers who use 鈥渟heltered-content instructional techniques,鈥� or teaching methods tailored for such students. Examples of approaches 鈥渢o make lessons understandable鈥� for ELLs include grouping students by language-proficiency level, adapting materials and texts, providing visuals, giving native-language support or clarification, and facilitating students鈥� ability to work cooperatively, the agreement says. In addition, the agreement specifies that those sheltered classes be taught by either certified English-as-a-second-language teachers or teachers who have received a minimum level of training in ELL strategies, which Ms. De Los Reyes said is 70 hours.
The agreement says that, by December, all core-content instruction should be provided by teachers certified in the content area and adequately trained to work with ELLs.
The federal scrutiny isn鈥檛 the only effort highlighting problems with services to ELLs in Boston鈥檚 schools. In 2008, of the school system鈥檚 ELL programs said educators told parents to opt out if programs were full or if they chose to send their children to schools that didn鈥檛 have ELL programs. A last year by the Mauricio Gast贸n Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, at the University of Massachusetts Boston, found that the district wasn鈥檛 properly assessing and identifying many students as ELLs.
In May 2009, the Boston district hired Ms. De Los Reyes and charged her with addressing the lack of services to ELLs that were featured in the 2008 state review.
She said the settlement agreement was the result of a strong collaboration with the Justice and Education departments. 鈥淭he agreement is a continuation of what we were already doing this past year,鈥� she said.
