Fluent in English, Idaho student was put in an English Learner class. What happened?
Jennifer Vidales struggled with English in the second grade, when she began attending Desert Springs Elementary School in Nampa after transferring mid-school year. With little communication and no collaboration with her parents, the Villavue School District placed Vidales in an English Learner class, she said, even though she spoke English fluently.
Vidales, now 19, said it’s hard not to think that she was kept in the English Learner program solely because she’s Latina.
“The only reason I would be in that class was because of how I looked,” she told the Idaho Statesman by phone.
Vallivue School District spokesperson Joey Palmer by email said an English-speaking student in an English Learner classroom is “an extreme rarity,” and that “something must have been amiss somewhere in that process.”
But according to a recent report by Bluum, an Idaho-based nonprofit charter school advocacy group, Vidales was just one of many students over the years who said they were misplaced in such classes. Bluum interviewed 45 Latino parents, several of whom reported schools “making assumptions about English fluency” and basing English Learner placements “solely on surnames.”
Vidales needed extra help in English, but not the type of help that was offered in the English Learner program, she said. Her English skills never improved, and she missed traditional English lessons and fell further behind from her peers.
“All I knew was English growing up,” Vidales said, though she knew just enough Spanish to communicate with her grandmother. “I guess their assumption was that I needed help learning English, or that I was struggling between Spanish and English. Either way, that wasn’t the case.”
EL programs can hurt chance at academic success
Experts and studies have concluded that without the proper resources, placement in English Learner classes can prove detrimental to academic performance.
It is difficult to be successful in the English Learner Program, according to a Regis University 2018 study. English learners achieve less in class than their English-speaking peers, in part because their schools have often failed to provide the accommodations they need. National studies have also shown that students in English learners are often misidentified as students with learning disabilities and placed in special education programs.
“The students would be missing something else that’s going on in the classroom during that time when they’re pulled out for language support, which can be problematic,” said Janine Darragh, a University of Idaho professor who specializes in English as a Second Language programs. “And engagement and academic ability increase by working at a challenging level.”
Being misplaced in an English Learner program can also have emotional impacts on students, Darragh told the Statesman by phone. Students like Vidales may experience identity issues and feel alienated from their peers, she said.
Typically students in high school English Learner programs are not placed on a “college track,” Darragh added, which would ensure that they’re passing courses required for college admissions.
“They potentially would be missing course requirements for admittance to colleges,” she said. “I think it could impact their choices and opportunities for post-secondary options.”
How Idaho students enter English Learner program
The State Department of Education defines students in the English Learner program as those “whose native language is a language other than English” and whose difficulties with English could impact their ability to succeed academically.
Idaho schools have 18,000 students in English Learner programs. Around 80% of those students speak Spanish as a first language, while 20% speak over 100 different languages as their first language, said Maria Puga, State Department of Education’s English learner and Title III coordinator.
Idaho has a shortage in teachers with the required “English as a new language” or “bilingual education” endorsement, Puga said, which may be part of the reason students like Vidales fall through the cracks. Out of Idaho’s roughly 19,000 teachers, 225 have a bilingual education certification and 933 have a certification to teach English as a Second Language programs — just 6% of Idaho’s teachers have the necessary credentials to teach English Learner programs.
“Just like the whole state has a shortage, the EL program specifically has a shortage,” Puga said. “Schools are having to figure out, how do we help support all our students, including our language learners and with limited teaching and/or resources?”
Puga said schools are required by state and federal law to go through a long list of requirements, including an at-home questionnaire, an assessment and parent notification.
A home language survey, required by federal law, asks parents what language they speak, what language they speak at home to their children and what languages their children speak. Any languages other than English are flagged in that survey, and those students are monitored in their classes for 30 school days, Puga said.
If teachers notice any of those students struggling with English during that time, they would let an administrator know, and the students would be eligible to take a screening test. If they score at proficient levels, they move forward in their traditional classes. If not, they become eligible for the program.
“Obviously we want students to be bilingual or multilingual,” Puga said in an interview with the Statesman. “The only way that they should move into being screened is if the lack of English is causing issues in the classroom.”
The district determines the structure of the English Learner program. Sometimes students are pulled out of class to work with a certified English Learner teacher. Sometimes a certified teacher co-teaches with a traditional educator.
But school districts are required to send letters to parents whose children are placed in the English Learner program. Parents can also opt out of the program. Puga said sometimes parents don’t know that they have that right.
Though the process to be placed in the English Learner program is extensive, Puga said mistakes can be made. The district may flag a student for an English Learner class if their parents answered the questionnaire and acknowledged that they speak Spanish or another language, but also speak English and taught their children English.
Vidales said neither she nor her parents remember school administrators offering to have a conversation with them about placing her in the English Learner program.
Do English Learner programs help?
According to the State Department of Education, about 50% of Idaho’s English Learners are “making progress,” which means they’re reading, writing and speaking English at grade level.
Desert Springs Elementary, in the Vallivue School District, had 111 students in its English Learner program in spring 2022. The elementary school has 71.7% of their English Learner students making progress. The department website said its 2022 goal was 81%.
But the percentage of students reaching proficiency in the English Learner program is dropping. Last year, only 13% of English Learner students reached proficiency in English — half the rate from two years earlier. In 2020, 26% of students had reached proficiency, and in 2022, 13% reached proficiency.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Idaho students fell behind on reading at grade level. Though most students improved after the pandemic and began reading again at their appropriate levels, English Learner program students never recovered.
Vidales, now an Idaho State University student in Pocatello, wants to be a political leader in Idaho. Her experience in elementary school drove her to want to make education more accessible and understandable for students and families like hers. Being in the English Learner program did not properly set Vidales up to be successful as a Latina student in Idaho, she said, and her goal is to push for more college prep classes for Latino students in the state.
“I’ve come to now realize how much of a disadvantage our Latinx have in Idaho school systems, especially with ESL, and I feel like a lot of them aren’t given the proper help, even if they’re in that class,” she said.
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