CA is doing so poorly? - I was educated in Iowa and then came to CA 40
years ago to begin teaching. My first surprise was how much better
educated and knowledgeable my Iowa teachers were than many of my CA
peers. Once had a Social Studies teacher ask me if Chicago was a city
or a state, and watched an English teacher help a student reach the
answer of 12 when the problem was how many seats in 7 rows with 5
seats in each row. These teachers may, of course, be outliers, but
after experiencing how schooling is accomplished in Iowa, California
education has seemed lacking all along. My second surprise remains how
long it is taking CA to face the fact that the second language
learners need additional time and assistance (instead of lowered
expectations)to perform as native speakers. A mere CLAD certificate
does not qualify mainstream teachers to address the individual needs
of SLLs, nor should it qualify for an ESL teaching position. There is
much more to teaching ESL than can be covered in 12 semester credits.
The rush to reclassify ESL stus without providing mainstream support
for academic language and skills isn't helping them or the State
scores. OK, that's my rant. Thanks for reading.
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