As ESL students lag behind, Rhode Island cities look to fine-tune instruction

Even though more immigrant students are learning English, it does not always mean they are learning enough to perform as well in school as their classmates. These schools are trying to close the gap. DP

By Linda Borg, Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — In spite of all the rhetoric about the surge of illegal immigrants, the number of students who speak little or no English has decreased in Rhode Island over the past five years.

State and local education officials couldn’t explain why those numbers are declining, but some educators wondered whether Governor Carcieri’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, combined with the state’s abysmal job market, has contributed to the reduction.

Central Falls had about 1,000 students enrolled in English as a Second Language classes seven years ago; now, it has 600 students who fit that category. In Providence, the number has declined slightly over the past five years, from 16 percent to 14 percent of the total student population.

Nationally, however, this population has more than doubled over the past 10 years, especially in the Southeast, where 13 states saw a growth of more than 200 percent.

But Peter McWalters, Rhode Island’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said those numbers should not obscure very real performance gaps between English language learners and their fluent peers.

According to a national study by Education Week, an education policy magazine, only 13.8 percent of English language learners in Rhode Island scored proficient on a state math test compared with more than 50 percent of all students statewide. In reading, 11.3 percent of English language learners are proficient versus slightly more than 60 percent of all students statewide.

Nationally, only 9.6 percent of ESL fourth- and eighth-graders scored proficient or higher in math on a nationwide test and 5.6 percent scored proficient in English. Across the United States, 25 percent of all English language learners are failing to make progress toward English-language proficiency.
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