Groups Say ELLs Got Short Shrift in Race to the Top

This is so shameful.

Also check out the letter NALEO sent to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stating that “future competitive selection grants processes should place more weight on the ELL criteria in the scoring and review process.” The letter also mentions that they “are concerned that state applicants are not required to offer a comprehensive ELL strategy as part of their application for [Race to the Top] funds.”

-Patricia

Federal officials promise to do better when they provide technical assistance to states
By Mary Ann Zehr | Ed Week
September 27, 2010

Three civil rights groups contend the U.S. Department of Education failed to give adequate attention to the needs of English-language learners in the $3.4 billion Race to the Top state grant competition and say they plan to hold federal education officials accountable for promises they will give them more attention in the future.

“The applications [for winners] rarely mentioned English-language learners, except in passing and rarely fleshed out any thought to how they were going to close the achievement gap for ELLs,” said Roger L. Rice, the executive director of Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy of Somerville, Mass., in an interview last week.

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