We don't we teach English to ELL students?

[DaisyCake]

A school in the Chicago area dramatically improved the scores of their ELL (English Language Learner) students by teaching them in English. The teacher is bilingual and would use Spanish if needed, but kept the focus on learning English and the core curriculum.

The test scores went up -the kids were doing better, and guess what? Now state of Illinois wants to REMOVE their funding!

Educators have said for years that there is a "window" for language learning and if you miss that window it's much more difficult to learn the 2nd language. Yet they reward schools that teach in non-English until that window is passed - claiming that Spanish-speaking kids can't learn English (just paraphrasing from what my school board member told me).



So, how does this get changed?

here's the link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-english-teachingfeb27,0,1242023.story
It's not my school - but I raised the question 4 years ago when they started teaching hispanic kids in Spanish even though they speak English.

This school is going to lose $175,000 for improving their kids scores over the last several years.