Rappaport Briefing
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State must address challenges in serving English language learners
By Eva Shell | Download as PDF. Between 2000 and 2010, Massachusetts saw a 51% increase in the number of public school students who are not proficient in English, called English Language Learners. Today, there are nearly 68,000 English-learners in the state. If Massachusetts is to remain competitive in the national and international market, it must invest in the growing population of English-learners by ensuring that they receive adequate education in public schools.
Prior to 2002, Massachusetts utilized a strategy for teaching English-learners called Transitional Bilingual Education. Under the transitional teaching model, English-learners were taught substantive material—such as math and science—in their first languages while simultaneously learning English. English-learners were not moved into English-language substantive classes until they became fluent in English. In 2002, voters passed a ballot initiative changing the state’s English-learner teaching strategy from the transitional model to a method called Sheltered English Immersion. Under the new model, students are taught all classes in English. English immersion requires content teachers to alter their lessons—by using simple language and providing visual learning aids, for example—so that English-learner students can understand them. Continue reading
Featured Posts
Cecilia Ugarte Baldwin, Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy 2007
by Jane Whitehead
The most predictable part of Cecilia Ugarte Baldwin’s day may be her early morning run. Baldwin, 33, Deputy Director of Cabinet Affairs in the Executive office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, is a marathon runner who gets up around 5.45 most mornings to fit in a training run before work. Once she reaches her cramped quarters under the eaves of the historic State House, says Baldwin, an Arizona native, “there’s no such thing as a typical day.” Continue reading
Eric Batcho, Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy, Summer 2008
by Jane Whitehead
Eric Batcho’s commute is a five-minute walk from his Beacon Hill apartment to the Tip O’Neil Federal Building. Since August 2010 he has worked there as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD.)
In Batcho’s ideal world, short, car-free commutes would be the norm. From the time he entered the Master’s Program in Urban Planning at Harvard Design School, to his graduation from Boston College Law School in 2010, he has been intrigued by policies and regulations that shape the built environment, and by learning how they can create “a livable environment more suited to pedestrians and bikes.” With the support of a Rappaport Fellowship in Law and Public Policy from May-August 2008, between his first and second years in law school, he was able to explore the world of land use and permitting issues as an intern at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP.) Continue reading
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