On the Backs of Bilingual Educational Assistants
This Wednesday’s Willamette Week included a blurb about proposed changes to PPS English as a Second Language (ESL) program.
The district wants to cut 23 bilingual educational assistants (EAs) and replace them with 12 ESL teachers. That would be a mistake.
The bilingual EAs are often the only ones in the schools able to speak the language of the students and their families. The district can’t even find 12 bilingual ESL teachers.
No Child Left Behind requires the bilingual educational assistants to have a minimum of 2 years of college or the equivalent. When NCLB first passed, the PPS Human Resources department asked all bilingual EAs to submit their transcripts to HR for review. Many of the bilingual educational assistants were college graduates in their home countries and some were teachers prior to moving to the United States.
Bilingual EAs submitted their foreign transcripts to HR but they just sat in a box for over a year. The assistant director of HR refused to use Title I funds to cover the cost of translation and evaluation of the transcripts even though that was an allowable use of Title I funds. She claimed it wouldn’t be fair to other employees. Never mind that she didn’t have a problem with administrators hiring their kids for “Limited Term” positions.
It would have been to HRs advantage to have the transcripts evaluated because the bilingual EAs would have been a natural pool of candidates for a career ladder program. They were already working in the schools, college educated, committed and BILINGUAL.
PPS HR administrators have long argued that they can’t find bilingual ESL teachers. While working in the PPS HR department, I researched the effectiveness of the Bilingual Teacher Pathway program. The career ladder program is a partnership between PPS and Portland State University. The PSU website says:
The Bilingual Teacher Pathway (BTP) is a teacher preparation program designed to fill critical shortages of bilingual education/ESL teachers in the Portland metropolitan area. This is accomplished by recruiting and supporting bilingual/bicultural educational assistants so they can become licensed teachers.
My research found that 1/3 of the program participants became teachers, 1/3 left PPS and 1/3 remained in bilingual educational assistant positions with the district. That meant that the district was investing their resources into a program with a 33% success rate.
The program has the potential to be effective but like most activities involving equal opportunities district administrators create barriers to equity.
Those barriers contribute to the rapidly increasing gap between Oregon’s teaching staff and student diversity. Oregon Department of Education’s State Report Card shows a 30% minority student population compared to a 5% minority teacher population. What’s worse is that the minority teacher population has remained virtually unchanged since 1998.
The ESL program clearly has problems but it’s not because of having too many bilingual EAs. They should not have to take the fall for the incompetence of district administrators.
The superintendent and board need to put their money where there mouth is and invest it in the kids. No more bull shit about how they’ve cut Central Office staff. It’s actually doubled in the last 10 years. Keep the bilingual EAs, cut twelve of those Central Office administrators (I could provide a list) and hire the 12 bilingual ESL teachers!
13 comments
Carrie,
The whole idea of investing in the kids is completely foreign to PPS. Something that everyone seems to be missing is that, in terms of meeting their own goals, PPS has been a screaming success! Nobody over there gives a damn about kids, and with the kind of news we see coming out of the BESC every day, it’s crystal clear that nothing is going to change anytime soon.
Thank you for your tireless efforts to expose it. My fondest dream is that some day the voters will decide enough is enough and elect a school board that will put the kids first.
do tell,,, who in central office should be cut??
How could you afford NOT to translate those transcripts? Unfair to who? Certainly unfair to the kids but they are just chopped liver so who cares. Underneath that ridiculous argument is that damn American exceptionalism FOX news crap.
Stephanie, the cost of translation and evaluation of the transcripts averaged about $200 per employee…less than what the district pays for one of their catered lunch meetings.
Thank you for your insights and article on this topic. I spoke at the school board budget hearing on Monday evening at Madison High School about this very issue. YOU NAILED IT!
The district treats the bilingual EA’s as second class citizens. Second class programs such as the ESL program produces second class citizens from students. It is a vicious circle and the district purposefully ignores this for decades. Two generations of ESL students have been mistreated and thrown away. For so many years, monies generated by ESL students have been misused and misspent on many other things to benefit the district as a whole. The decision to lay off bilingual staff has brought this issue up to the forefront. It is time to hold the district accountable for the $42 + million generated by the 4,700 ESL students and make sure that they provide ESL students with a FIRST-CLASS education.
It certainly appears as if PPS may be carrying administrative baggage. But the answer to that is figuring out what the real work is and who the best people are for getting the work done, not getting into an us against them mentality.
The problem with saying that “those” people should be fired and “these” people should be hired is that once that game starts, “these” people are going to turn into “those” people for somebody else right quick. Saying fire the directors and hire ESL teachers can turn into fire the ESL teachers and hire librarians or reading coaches or whatever. Don’t go there because nobody wins.
My suggestions were based on my experience working in and knowledge of the PPS Central Office. I like some of the people in the positions that I suggested cutting. The recommendations were about cutting where it would have the least impact on the kids.
A superintendent told me a story about his first job as a sup. Manager A came into his office and said that Manager B should be fired. Manager B came into his office and said that Manager C should be fired. Manager C came into his office and said that Manager A should be fired. He took a long look at things and decided that none of them should be fired but also that they all needed to get their ducks in a row.
My point is that central-office finger-pointing does not by itself carry much weight even when its stated purpose is the best interests of kids.
That said, it is true that managing its human resources is something that public education does extremely poorly. So, yes, there are timeservers, people in the wrong positions, and people who are just plain incompetent. Setting things straight is harder than it should be.
Dear Art: I understand what you say and I fully support you. However, if your statement refers to ELL students, then I want you to understand this issue: For our ELL students who generate monies to the district, it is an issue of fairness. It is not about firing someone to hire someone. It is about spending money where the mouth is. It is about supporting ELL students using the money they bring to the district and not diverting the money for a zillion other things that have nothing to do with them. If ELL students were achieving and becoming successful adults, none of us would care how they spent the money. But if these students are working at minimum wages and not getting the best education for their bucks, then it is criminal. That was my point. Now Carrie has a point about cutting waste and not hurting students. People have different thoughts and suggestions. From the outside looking in, it might be difficult to see, but from the inside looking out, her suggestions make perfect sense. PPS Central spends about 4% in administration. Let’s look at how this 4% brings forth the most effective impact on kids and their education.
What about the special education para educators. This is the second time they hav been cut in 4 years. Joanne Mabbott is millions over budget and the only way she knows how to correct it is on the backs of the people who make the least: Para educators. It would have been better to cut salaries of her administrators. She has a bunch who are totally useless.
Of course the district can find 12 bilingual ESL teachers… all they have to do is look within their own ranks. Most ESL teachers I know within the district ARE bilingual (as I am one of them, I know quite a few). The job of the ESL teacher is to teach English. The EAs provide vital extra services and support for students and teachers. Their jobs shouldn’t be cut; we need more of them, not less. That being said, the teachers also need more support from the district, but that’d be the subject of another article!
Kathy: I think there are a few bilingual ESL teachers, not many. To cut the EA’s was a hasty decision on Xavier Botana’s part. He is learning and he will find out that our district is pretty disfunctional. Teachers as well as bilingual EA’s are equally important to the ELL student education. We need to work together and support one another. The district needs to allocate more funding to the ESL program because it has not be fair. ESL gets $16.5 million with 209 FTE’s while Special Ed gets $76.7 million with 1002 FTE’s. You are very well aware that Special Ed and the rest of the district rely heavily on ESL to do their work in regards to the second language students. That was the main reason community-based organizations such as APANO and CEE rallied at PPS budget forum on April 12th.
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