GUEST POST: Expanded Language Learning Could Enhance Integration & Narrow the Achievement Gap

Today we feature our first guest post, by Board of Education at-large candidate Jill Ortman-Fouse. Jill has been endorsed by the Washington Post and The Gazette, along with by Progressive Powerhouses Senator Jamie Raskin (D-20) and County Councilmember Marc Elrich (at-large). Read on below:

“There is no silver bullet to solve the achievement gap,” said Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Joshua Starr in a recent County Council meeting with the Board of Education (BOE). The officials were discussing a report that documented the widening gap among students in several performance measures and the increased segregation of students by race, income and ethnicity in county schools. Since 2010, the share of white and Asian students has grown at MCPS’s 14 low-poverty high schools, and the share of black and Latino students has increased at the 11 high-poverty high schools.

The report also showed that disadvantaged students performed better at schools with less poverty. Council members and MCPS representatives discussed using socio-economic integration as part of the strategy to attack the gap. Council members asked about using boundary changes to achieve that goal. But BOE President Phil Kaufman responded that boundary changes were a rarely used option. He explained that MCPS has used special programs including signature programs, school choice, language immersion and magnets to try to balance the schools. Obviously some of these options haven’t worked, but what about expanding the ones that have to encourage more voluntary integration?

There is clearly strong interest among families who want their children to learn a second language at a younger age in Montgomery County. The competition to get into special language programs is fierce with requests far exceeding available spaces. For example, last year over 1,000 students applied for elementary language immersion for 275 openings. So, if our schools are becoming more stratified, expanding language programs could draw families with greater resources to more high poverty schools. Schools affected by poverty are now widely dispersed throughout the county, so increasing availability could also shorten transportation time. Some students spend more than an hour by bus to get to highly desirable programs.

138 languages are spoken in the homes of our students, yet most MCPS schools don’t offer a second language class until 6th grade. And when selecting classes, students must often choose between a language and instrumental music, which is also highly valued. With the wide range of languages spoken in our homes, why are our language class options so limited? As we live in an epicenter of world politics, why are we not offering more opportunities for other languages like Arabic, Farsi and Mandarin? Language classes also develop an increased understanding of, and appreciation for, other cultures – key to both future global economic opportunities and international relations.

Studies have shown countless benefits to early language acquisition. We know it enhances cognitive development and increases critical thinking skills. It also improves understanding of one’s native language. And having more bilingual graduates could be a rich labor resource for the county. We should be encouraging our advanced language program (dual, immersion and traditional) students to become educators to meet the growing diverse challenges in our schools.

Language programs can also raise those high-stakes standardized test scores that our schools are judged by. For example, MCPS studies have shown that immersion students in all demographic groups outperform their peers on state testing from grades 4 through 8. Since these programs benefit the students enrolled in them, why don’t we open them up to more home school students? In that way, we could increase socio-economic integration and share the benefits and resources within the schools themselves—and avoid the “isolation of the school within a school” phenomenon.

County Council President Craig Rice said that “schools are a driving factor in determining where people locate.” Higher performing schools benefit the community, and their reputations matter. There is evidence that shows that our higher poverty schools with immersions and magnets have made progress narrowing the achievement gap. As the BOE is planning to review the special programs, taking a look at what is working – and what the community wants – as well as what isn’t working, should be a part of that process.

Lack of affordable housing is another factor contributing to the segregation, and we must continue to work with the County Council to make more affordable housing available. But it is not an “either/or” scenario. Certainly there are many contributing factors, and it will take a range of focused, school and community-based strategies to close the gap.

Rather than point fingers, the community and leaders must come together as a team to reverse this trend where increasing numbers of disadvantaged students of color are falling through the cracks. The County Council Educational Committee’s meeting with the BOE was a step in that direction, and Councilmember Nancy Navarro’s recently announced Ready for Tomorrow: Education and Workforce Summit promises to be an exciting opportunity for broader engagement in solutions.

Montgomery County is a talent magnet, and its extraordinary assets and commitment to public education make it uniquely suited to be a national model for closing the achievement gap. As Councilmember Navarro asked, “What will it take for all parts of our county to be excellent?” Let’s be responsive to the community and the demands of the market, continue to think creatively about what we already have that works—and take advantage of our unique resources, as well as seek to understand what needs to change. The future of our kids and our county depend on it.

Learn more about Jill: http://www.jill4allkids.com/