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AirTalk

Should students be separated by their English proficiency?

By AirTalk Staff
Published Oct 21, 2013
Caption:TYLER,TX - SEPTEMBER 11: Monolingual Hispanic students raise their hands to answer a question during a class taught in Spanish at Birdwell Elementary School September 11, 2003 in Tyler, Texas. The first grade students spend half their school day learning reading, writing, and arithmetic in Spanish and the other half learning them in English. Birdwell, a school of 600 students, 60 percent of them Hispanic with a significant portion of them Spanish speakers, requires a dual-language curriculum for it?s kindergarten and first graders. (Photo by Mario Villafuerte/Getty Images)
Caption:TYLER,TX - SEPTEMBER 11: Monolingual Hispanic students raise their hands to answer a question during a class taught in Spanish at Birdwell Elementary School September 11, 2003 in Tyler, Texas. The first grade students spend half their school day learning reading, writing, and arithmetic in Spanish and the other half learning them in English. Birdwell, a school of 600 students, 60 percent of them Hispanic with a significant portion of them Spanish speakers, requires a dual-language curriculum for it?s kindergarten and first graders. (Photo by Mario Villafuerte/Getty Images)
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Mario Villafuerte/Getty Images
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Listen 22:55
Should students be separated by their English proficiency?
The Los Angeles Unified School District is moving toward enforcing a policy of grouping students with similar language ability in the same classes. Last week parents got together in protest, asking that their English-learning students be taught in the same way as native English speakers. Proponents of the policy say it's too difficult to teach concepts to students who are also struggling to learn English.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is moving toward enforcing a policy of grouping students with similar language ability in the same classes. Last week parents got together in protest, asking that their English-learning students be taught in the same way as native English speakers. Proponents of the policy say it's too difficult to teach concepts to students who are also struggling to learn English.

What do you think? Is grouping students based on their language abilities a good idea?

Guests:
Cheryl Ortega, Director of Bilingual Education, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA); Kindergarten Teacher for 43 years, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), currently retired

Patricia Gándara, Research Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA