The State Education Department (SED) needs to improve its
oversight and work to remove barriers to ensure school districts are providing
the required services for students learning English, according to an released
on September 18, 2024 by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The audit
examined whether SED was adequately overseeing if school districts outside
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SED data show
that, as of August 2022, the four-year dropout rate for ELLs was 16%, notably
higher than the average overall dropout rate of 5%. At the same time, ELL
enrollments have risen, with the number of ELL students outside of
Each year,
school districts are required by state regulation to estimate ELLs by school
and grade as well as the number of ELLs who speak the same home language.
Students who are eligible for ELL services are placed in one of two programs:
Bilingual Education (BE) or English as a New Language (ENL).
School districts are required to provide BE programs if 20 or more ELLs of the same grade level and home language are enrolled in the district. Nine of the selected 20 districts in the audit sample met this criterion for one or more languages and, therefore, required BE programs absent an exemption. Seven of the nine did not have a program or an exemption from BE requirements for all required languages and grade levels. These nine school districts enrolled 7,317 ELLs entitled to bilingual education; however, 5,632 (77%) students did not have programs available in their home languages and/or grade levels.
Two
districts (22%) offered BE programs for all entitled students (
Five
districts (56%) had BE programs available but not for all required languages
and/or grade levels (
Two districts
(22%) did not have the required BE programs (Sachem,
DiNapoli’s
auditors surveyed another 80 school districts and received responses from 61.
Of those, only 18 (30%) self-reported having BE programs available for all entitled
students. Another 21 (34%) reported not having any BE programs available, and
22 (36%) reported not having programs available for all required languages and
grade levels.
To teach ENL
and BE classes, educators are required to have a base teaching certificate and
be state-certified as a teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages
and/or have bilingual extension certifications, which authorize the holder to
teach not only the subject they are already certified in but to also instruct
ELLs in BE programs. Auditors found a lack of qualified teachers with BE
extensions in languages commonly spoken by ELLs, limiting access to BE
instruction. For some languages that require a BE program, auditors found that
exams to qualify and certify teachers have yet to be created or translated, and
SED has only recently revised some of its ELL teaching requirements to address
these issues
DiNapoli’s
audit also found:
- A
sample of 749 students from the 20 school districts visited revealed that
some students received uncertified instruction or instruction from a
teacher who was not appropriately certified.
- Auditors
could not determine if all students received the required ENL services
because school districts could not provide sufficient documentation to
support that all required ENL services were provided to 38% of the sampled
students. In addition, districts did not consistently document or retain
ELL identification process information, and auditors found at least one
required document missing from 52% of the sampled student cumulative files
reviewed.
- Many
school districts without required BE programs are not obtaining a
Bilingual Education Program Waiver from SED. While two districts obtained
waivers, an additional seven were eligible for a waiver and did not obtain
one as required.
- SED
did not conduct any building reviews to monitor compliance with the law at
individual schools during the audit scope. While reviews were suspended
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had not resumed as of the end of audit
fieldwork in November 2023.
- School
districts did not always submit accurate or consistent data, affecting
SED’s ability to effectively monitor school districts compliance with
requirements and limiting information to guide decisions that could
improve student performance, professional development, and provide needed
resources.
The audit
recommended SED:
- Enhance
monitoring activities and guidance to ensure school districts comply with
the law, provide required services, and retain necessary documentation;
- Continue
to work with the Board of Regents to increase the number of certified
instructors;
- Reinforce
waiver requirements for schools not offering BE programs for all
applicable home languages and grade levels;
- Work
with school districts to help them obtain and retain required
documentation regarding ELL identification and provision of services;
- Resume
building reviews at school districts in order to monitor compliance with
the law;
- Work
with school districts to improve the reliability of program and participation
data; and
- Provide
guidance to school districts to enable efficient sharing of information
between school districts to ensure continuity of services for ELLs who
relocate.
SED officials
generally agreed with the audit’s recommendations and have indicated actions
they will take to address them.
Click on text in color below for a summary of audit and a link to access the complete Audit posted on the Internet.
State Education Department – English Language Learners
Programs
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