From Deseret News archives:

State Office of Education is targeted in complaint

Plan unfair to students learning English as 2nd language, activist says

By Jennifer Toomer-Cook

Deseret News

Published: Saturday, June 30, 2007 12:28 a.m. MDT

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The ELL Master Plan allows for an R-ELL endorsement, "which does not replace the ESL endorsement but serves the instructional needs of K-3 teachers to gain the knowledge, skills and dispositions to teach ELL students to read," the online document states.

But hybrid and ambiguous nature of the R-ELL concerns Charlene Lui, Granite District director of educational equity and part of the ELL Master Plan committee.

Lui says the R-ELL idea surfaced in committee meetings about two years ago and was immediately questioned. "In fact, they said 'No,"' she said. "The majority of the ALS (alternative language services directors) did not support ... the idea there, either."

The idea was pitched as a way to possibly secure additional funding and make the endorsements more attractive to teachers seeking them. But Lui said no one has ever spelled out what exactly it would look like.

"As people are going through endorsements and teachers are overwhelmed with compliance issues ... it's just an enticement: Hey, go through this reading endorsement and you're also going to come out with an ELL endorsement," Lui said. "But if you collapse it ... how do we know it will be an effective ELL endorsement? What will the teacher be equipped with? A lot of questions are being left unanswered."

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Clara and Lui said the R-ELL was not in master plan drafts. Their groups later learned it was included in the document forwarded to the State Board of Education.

The Coalition of Minorities Advisory Committee to the State Board of Education on Thursday voted to seek the R-ELL's removal, the complaint states.

The master plan is supposed to take effect in July.

Harrington said the matter will come up again; the state school board is scheduled to discuss the achievement gap plan in September. Input, she said, is welcome.

"We want great-quality teachers for English language learners — a great assignment and a significant challenge ... so of course we want masterful teachers there," Harrington said.

E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com