Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein today announced reform measures to improve and strengthen instruction for English Language Learners (ELL) and to raise achievement for ELL students at schools throughout the City.  These reforms direct $20 million in new City funds to a range of ELL programs.  These reforms and the money to support them, will bring instructional coherence and drive professional development into ELL classrooms.  Accordingly, the Children First reforms affirm the Mayor and Chancellor’s commitment to providing all New York City schoolchildren with a quality education.  

Under the reforms announced today, ELL instruction will be strengthened by: aligning ELL programs with the new comprehensive core curriculum; appointing 107 new ELL Instructional Support Specialists to support teachers in ELL classrooms; creating a new ELL Teacher Academy to provide rigorous professional development to ELL teachers and drive best practices into ELL classrooms; and providing a coherent, system-wide language allocation policy for all ELL programs.  Furthermore, the Department will implement an effective monitoring and assessment system for ELL programs, and will hold schools and principals accountable for improvement in the academic achievement of ELL students.  Parent Coordinators in the schools will work to improve communications with the parents and families of ELL students and will support the new ELL policies.

“People come to New York City from all over the world to fulfill their dreams and aspirations,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “They want their children and grandchildren to achieve in school and reach their highest potential. Our public schools must meet this challenge.  The reforms we are announcing today demonstrate our commitment to raise the quality of ELL instruction and introduce true accountability for ELL education throughout the school system.”

“Our Children First reform agenda focuses on improving instruction and raising achievement for all the children in our schools – and that includes the children who are English Language Learners,” said Chancellor Klein.  “We are ensuring that ELL students benefit from our new core curriculum and we are providing strong professional development programs for our ELL teachers, through 107 new ELL Instructional Support Specialists and a new ELL Teacher Academy, so that our students receive high quality instruction in every ELL classroom.”

“The $20 million will help align the ELL curriculum offered at City schools with the new city-wide approach to math and literacy instruction,” said Deputy Chancellor Diana Lam. “The educational materials and professional development programs that support the new core curriculum will be brought into ELL classrooms to create coherence across the system and raise academic achievement.”

ELL students are children who come from homes where a language other than English is spoken and who score below a grade specific cutoff on an assessment of English language efficiency taken upon entry into the school system.  The Department of Education maintains three types of programs for educating ELL students: Transitional Bilingual, English as a Second Language (ESL) and Dual Language programs.

To support and improve ELL instruction in City schools, the Department is appointing 107 new ELL Instructional Support Specialists, including seven dual language specialists, and creating a new ELL Teacher Academy.  The ELL Instructional Support Specialists will work with schools that have large ELL populations.  The Academy will train the new ELL Instructional Support Specialists and, during the 2003-2004 school year, will provide at least 60 hours of training to 1,000 ELL classroom teachers and at least 30 hours of training to 100 of the school-based Math and Literacy coaches. 

In addition to providing strong professional development, the Department will further align ELL programs to the new core curriculum in literacy and math by providing ELL students with necessary materials and classroom libraries.  Initial core curriculum and supplemental materials have been ordered and will be used beginning this fall. 

The Department will ensure consistency of ELL instruction through implementation of a coherent language allocation policy for all ELL programs.  The policy will establish recommended amounts of instruction in English and in the native language.  The guidelines for the transitional bilingual program will recommend that students with limited English initially receive 40 percent of instruction in English language development and 60 percent of instruction in their native language, with a graduated increase in English instruction as students progress academically and approach English fluency. 

To enhance the ELL reforms, the Department will provide new after school programs for ELL students and will strengthen existing Saturday programs.  Summer school for all ELL students has also been preserved.  The Department will also implement an aggressive new plan to attract and retain certified ELL teachers and to increase significantly the number of ELL teachers in the Teaching Fellows program. 

A new system-wide monitoring and assessment structure for ELL students and programs will ensure that schools and principals are held accountable for the success of ELL programs.  For the first time, the Department will create and implement system-wide benchmarks for evaluating ELL programs.  These benchmarks will include targeted timelines for the mastery of language, academic achievement, and exit rates from ELL programs.  Regional Superintendents and Local Instructional Supervisors will particularly focus on evaluating and supporting schools with large numbers of high need ELL students and special education ELL students. 

Finally, the Mayor and Chancellor announced several additional ELL initiatives.  In September, the Department will open the new Asian Studies and Dual Language High School in lower Manhattan.  The high school will provide instruction to native English speakers and native Mandarin speakers in both languages.  Students will be integrated for all or most of their instruction time and will be expected to comprehend, speak, read and write in both languages.  In addition to this high school, thirteen new dual language programs are planned citywide. For students in English as a Second Language programs, the Department will work to group students by language fluency within age parameters in order to increase access to a range of educational programs.  And finally, the Department is planning to pilot in the 2004-2005 school year a program that clusters ELL programs within a targeted neighborhood or region.  This pilot will review the placement and distribution of ELL students within the targeted area and will relocate transitional bilingual, ESL, and dual language classes to create program integrity.