ESL Teachers--An Endangered Species

When the geniuses in Albany put their heads together they can really come up with some inventive notions. Of course one of my faves is the new form of Part 154. This one suggests that newcomers can learn English simply by sitting in a subject class taught by anyone who's taken the magical 12 ESL credits. Once the chemistry teacher has those credits, she can teach not only chemistry, but also English. And she can do it in the same time it takes one of her non-magical colleagues to teach chemistry to American-born students.

I met a Spanish teacher who was also certified in ESL. Her supervisor asked her if she would mind, since she had the dual certification, if they recorded her Spanish students as being served in ESL. How cool is that? You're in a class, studying Spanish, and officially learning English too. After all, a whole lot of Spanish words look just like English words. Can anyone say desperation? Just change some letters, add an accent mark, and you're there.

You know what's odd? In that school, Spanish language is a subject, but English language isn't. I mean, why do you even need a Spanish class? Why not just have the social studies teacher get certified in Spanish, and then say the students learned Spanish by being in his class? You see, that's not allowed in New York State. Evidently, the only language that can be learned by means of magic is English. 

So here's the thing--imagine I'm a principal. I get a science teacher, a math teacher, a social studies teacher, and an English teacher to get the magical twelve credits. Then I just place every newcomer in one of their classes. Voila! They are served. That's good enough for New York State. All I have to do is get them one period of English while they're beginners. And guess what? Students who can't write more than two sentences in English can test advanced in the NYSESLAT.

So let's say I have a thousand ELLs in my school. If each of them passes through one magic teacher a day, I probably don't need any ESL teachers at all. Well, maybe one. But since they're magically learning English in their math classes, who cares what actually happens?

With so-called Fair Student Funding, principals have to make a lot of decisions about who they hire, and who they don't. Why bother hiring anyone to teach newcomers English when the geniuses in Albany have declared that will happen via magic? After all, don't they receive salaries higher than lowly teachers? Don't they have comfortable air-conditioned offices from which they issue their fiats? Don't they have impressive titles? What more are you gonna want?

I have been siting on the UFT Executive Board now for a year. I've heard tales of incredible behavior by principals. I don't doubt there are some so cynical they'll do whatever just to save a few bucks. Look at the one I wrote about before who wanted the kids to get English credit for attending a Spanish class. I sincerely doubt that's the worst of it.

It's 2017. We know how to help newcomers. It's really important that we fix Part 154. The notion that we ought not to give direct instruction in English is simply one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. We can do better, and it's hard to imagine any way we could do worse.