Asian Americans Don't Benefit from NCLB

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

 NEW REPORT: ASIAN AMERICAN STUDENTS DON'T BENEFIT FROM NO CHILD LEFT 
BEHIND ACT--MAJOR REFORMS NEEDED
May 5, 2008

New York, NY — At the first-ever National Asian American Education 
Advocates Summit held at Columbia University last month, the Asian 
American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a 34-year old civil 
rights organization, released its new report detailing several 
provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that must be 
overhauled in order to meet the needs of Asian American students.

AALDEF’s report, Left in the Margins: Asian American Students and the No 
Child Left Behind Act, demonstrates how Asian Americans who are English 
Language Learners (ELLs) are currently set up to fail under NCLB. Citing 
Census statistics and numerous examples in school districts around the 
country, AALDEF illustrates how this marginalized community is falling 
through our public education system’s cracks. Left in the Margins puts a 
spotlight on particular school districts where Asian American ELL 
students are the most visible and also highly vulnerable due to the lack 
of appropriate services.

Margaret Fung, AALDEF executive director, said: “Since the No Child Left 
Behind law was enacted, we have not seen significant improvements in the 
quality of public education. Instead, Asian Americans— especially 
immigrant, poor and non-English speaking students—have been left behind 
to fend for themselves in securing basic educational services."

Key recommendations from AALDEF’s report propose several major changes 
in NCLB:

- Provide targeted language services for Asian American ELLs, since 
nearly a quarter of all Asian American students are ELLs. Among those 
between the ages 5 and 17, over half of Hmong Americans, 39% of 
Vietnamese Americans, and 34% of Bangladeshi Americans are ELLs.

-Use absolute numerical thresholds and/or population ratios in smaller 
districts or counties (rather than states) to determine the need for 
native language materials. Asian American ELLs are densely populated in 
specific neighborhoods throughout the country. For example, 
Vietnamese-speaking ELLs in Seattle constitute 16% of all ELLs in the 
city, but only 4% of the total ELL population in the state of 
Washington. If native language materials were available only for 
language minority groups that made up at least 10% of ELLs in a state, 
then large numbers of Vietnamese-speaking ELLs would not benefit from 
native language materials.

- Use multiple forms of assessment to measure ELL student achievement 
and limit the use of testing-based sanctions to abate high dropout rates 
among ELL students. In New York City, the class of 2006’s ELL population 
had a dropout rate of 30% compared to 6.9% of all students citywide.

- Provide states with funds to hire more ESL specialists, bilingual 
education specialists, and teachers bilingual in Asian languages. 
Although Vietnamese is the second most common native language of ELLs in 
California, there is only one bilingual teacher for every 662 
Vietnamese-speaking students in the state.

-Provide states with more funds to translate school documents, hire 
interpreters, and conduct community education for immigrant families. 
Over 40% of Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese households are 
linguistically isolated.

- Require every state to collect comprehensive student data that is 
disaggregated by ethnicity, native language, socioeconomic status, ELL 
status, and ELL program type. Without this information, the educational 
needs of individual groups are concealed and will remain unaddressed.

Copies of Left in the Margins: Asian American Students and the No Child 
Left Behind Act are available at 
www.aaldef.org/docs/AALDEF_LeftintheMargins_NCLB.pdf 
<http://www.aaldef.org/%5C%22http://www.aaldef.org/docs/AALDEF_LeftintheMargins_NCLB.pdf%5C%22>. 


# # #

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in 
1974, is a national organization that protects and promotes the civil 
rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, 
and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the 
country to secure human rights for all.