Education

Oregon Officials Say Portland Programs for ELLs Are Still Lacking

By Mary Ann Zehr — February 08, 2010 1 min read
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The Oregon Department of Education continues to keep Portland schools from receiving some of its federal funds, saying the district must fix its programs for English-language learners.

A story published Feb. 7 in the Oregonian says that Oregon officials have sent a letter to the Portland school district saying it has fixed some of the problems spelled out in an audit last year but laying out other new issues that need to be resolved. One of the new problems reportedly is that ELLs are being exited from programs without proof that they have learned English.

The article says that the chairwoman of the parent advisory council for Portland’s English-as-a-second-language department has filed two complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights concerning the district’s programs for ELLs.

As you can tell from my last blog post, some people in Massachusetts would like something similar to happen with Boston public schools: for federal funds to be withheld until the school district would meet certain conditions for improving its services to ELLs.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Learning the Language blog.