By Aretha Miller,  Founder and President of The Venn Group, Inc.

A review of the 2011 grade 3-8 results for the New York State mathematics and English Language Arts exams shows that both New York City and New York State continue to struggle to raise the overall academic achievement of English Language Learners. In New York City, 12.4% of English Language Learners scored levels 3 & 4 in English Language Arts while 34.5% scored levels 3 &4 in math; statewide, 12.6%  scored proficient and/or advanced in English and 32.3% did so in math. This is beyond outrageous.

Educators and policy makers spend a lot of time discussing, drafting and implementing policies and regulations designed to close the achievement gap for black and Latino students as well as those receiving Title I services. There is much outrage that districts, particularly urban districts, have not been successful in closing the achievement gap for blacks and Latinos despite the amount of resources we have  expended to address this issue. This outrage is necessary because it keeps us focused on addressing this very vexing problem of closing the achievement gap. However, where is the outrage for districts’ failure to raise the performance of ELLs?  Where are the advocates for English Language Learners? Have they become our invisible minority? 

In a society that is becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse, I shudder to think what our inability (or unwillingness?) to successfully educate English Language Learners says about us. Nevertheless, as an educator, I continue to be hopeful. I am hopeful that conscientious and dedicated teachers and school leaders will make it a priority to systematically raise ELL academic achievement. I will continue to be hopeful that families of English Language Learners will refuse to remain silent and speak out and hold schools accountable for their children’s education. And, I will continue to be hopeful that policy and community leaders will wake up and see just how egregious this issue is.  Since the powers that be continue to be inconsistent and wishy washy in their approach to the education of ELLs, I will continue ring the alarm that another group is not being educated in our schools.

This blog post is part of the Charter Notebook, sponsored by the Network of Independent Charter Schools, a project of the Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association.

The views expressed in Charter Notebook blogs represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association or the U.S. Department of Education.