Re:“,” Oct. 26 news story.
This story said that I “believed students should be allowed to leave ELL [English language learners] classes sooner rather than later.”
My comments were clearly misinterpreted by the reporter. Under the current plan submitted and accepted by the court, it would be impossible to exit the program at any stage, because that program no longer requires teachers to be fully qualified.
Per the article, “All new DPS teachers are required to get certified to teach English learners, but they don’t have to be bilingual.”
It is unimaginable how a teacher who is no longer required to be “fully” qualified and who is unable to speak the language of the student can provide meaningful instruction if he is unable to communicate with students. This would make it impossible for any student in Denver’s ELL “S” program to reach any required level of academic achievement or be able to meet state assessment requirements.
It is inconceivable that a student can even aspire to meet the state law, which states, in part, “The department shall administer the English versions of the state assessments and may administer any assessments adopted by the board in languages other than English, as may be appropriate for English language learners; except that any student who has participated in the English language proficiency program … for more than a total of three school years shall be ineligible to take the assessments in a language other than English.”
Based on DPS’s lack of requirements for ELL teachers and its abysmal statistics on academic achievement, students will never be able to take state-required assessments in English at the end of having been in any school district ELL program for three years and achieve at acceptable levels.
Rita Montero is a former member of the Denver School Board.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit or check out our for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
