White House officials will be in Charlotte next week to discuss how to better teach English to children who have limited English skills and/or learning it as a second language.
Jose Rico, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, and Joanne Urrutia, deputy director the Office of English Language Acquisition, will lead a two-day meeting starting Monday with teachers, parents, administrators, community organizations, and policy makers at the Doubletree Hotel on Yorkmount Road near the airport.
Organizers say the meetings, part of the series “National Conversations on English Learner Education,” are part of an effort “to share best practices, challenges and recommendations for educating English language learners.” Previous meetings have been held in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Input from the meetings will help guide policy development for limited English proficient students.
Each session will be streamed online.
To register or for more information, visit http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/meetings/2011elconversation/.
WHAT:
National Conversations on English Learner Education
WHEN:
Monday, May 9, 2011 1-5 p.m. ET
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET
WHERE:
Doubletree Hotel Charlotte Airport, 2600 Yorkmont Road, Charlotte
WEBCAST: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/meetings/ncelecharlotte
I hope our City Council gets this stopped? They do not want anything that is not of benefit to all groups here in Charlotte. They have done it before and they should do it now.
ReplyDeleteNothing say's pandering like pandering. Who is paying for the cost of teaching English to deficient immigrants, many of which are illegal immmigrants? Are the immigrant familes paying for it? Of course not, the hard working American citizen taxpayer is.
ReplyDeleteFranco, Franco, Franco....how many more times will you report on the Latino community's 'plight' while ignoring the basis of the vast majority of Charlotteans' concerns? We OBJECT to using more taxpayer moneys for those who come to our country, refuse to assimilate, demand equality while praising separatism (in the name of 'diversity') and continue to defy the laws of the country they live in!
ReplyDeleteKarl,
ReplyDeleteThe spelling of your name implies you or your ancestors came to this country at some point in the last 200 years. That point is obviously something you fail to embrace, so I will say this.. Where do you get "the majority" from, the majority of immigrants and aliens I meet 1. Work hard to become part of American Culture 2. know more about American History than the average "American Natural Born" citizen. Enough of the generalizations. Stop judging and start embracing, perhaps the reason the people you refer to do not "assimilate" into your culture, is because the very hate and generalizations you speak of are not what they want to embrace.
If people want to immigrate here, come through the front door, respect and obey our laws.
ReplyDeleteIf not, you should be arrested and deported.
Period.
How about making it mandatory to learn English and then you wouldn't have to worry about those with limited English skills unless they jumped the fence or swam the river...but we all know that doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know who IS paying for this? Is this money that is coming from CMS' budget or something the Federal government is totally footing the bill for. If it's CMS or Meck County money - someone needs to tell them it's not in the budget and we're broke, we can't pay teachers so how can we afford this meeting at a hotel.
ReplyDeleteToo many people are missing the point (David...) It's not about hating anyone. It's about immigration numbers. For the past decade, our country has taken in more immigrants (unfortunately mostly illegal) than in the 40 years previous. Come on people. I love immigrants. I'm from CA.. I love Mexicans too. Our country just can't sustain an unlmiited number of people. Our current crises -- unemployment, health care, infrastructre, and on, and on and on... is a result of too many too fast. IMMIGRATION IS GREAT. I don't think anyone argues that. BUT WE MUST CONTROL OUR IMMIGRATION. Check out Immigration by the Numbers at www.numbersusa.com
ReplyDeleteThe real question is: is it in the best interest of American Citizens to use tax dollars to figure out ways to better teach English to those who have snuck into the country and are living here illegally?
ReplyDelete"David said...the majority of immigrants and aliens I meet 1. Work hard to become part of American Culture 2. know more about American History than the average "American Natural Born" citizen."
ReplyDeleteYou must be speaking of those who are here legally and striving to go through the process of becoming US citizens.
The majority of Latino immigrants I come across have limited-to-no English speaking ability and don't seem particularly interested in learning or assimilating.
So we have this English Education Seminar and I just read about the Islamphobia Meeting that is taking place in Charlotte this weekend.
ReplyDeleteAnd a few months ago the civil rights of another self interested group was violated and their hotel reservations were cancelled allegedly by the intervention of Members of the Charlotte City Council and perhaps the Mayor?
This was done to protect us. Or so the reports said at that time.
So they want to protect us from Minority outrage but not from.... wait should all forms of this type of self interested groups get the same scrutiny and treatment, or really the question should be, who deserves freedoms and rights in Charlotte?
Strange how a few of our Democratic Elected Official pick and choose our civil rights in Charlotte, and here with our Democratic Convention in just a few months.
I teach English in Charlotte, and can assure you that many of our own homegrown students face challenges in writing and speaking in a manner that will allow them to get a good job. This seminar is not just about foreign language speakers. It is about ways of helping any student that is struggling with English. That includes your kid, if he or she has trouble. Isn't education still considered a good thing in Charlotte?
ReplyDeleteto Karl and rky84. Think twice, because you are generalizing about immigrants, that is dangerous and is not true. I became a citizen few months ago. When I came to this country, legally, I had limited English proficiency, I had to learn the language first in order to learn further civics. How other people are going to learn the language without the proper resources?
ReplyDeleteHow the people that are born here are going to succeed if they do not use the language properly?
Regretfully, most of the high school graduates regarless the race, have limited knowledge of their first language. When I presented the placement test at the College, I got a much better score than the high school graduates.
I haveseen several Americans abusing of the social services and then blaming undocumented immigrants for the financial mess.