Is Trump’s nomination of DeVos as Education Secretary a bargaining ploy?
Like many of his cabinet nominations, Donald Trump’s proposal that Betsy DeVos lead the Education Department appears to be akin to asking a fox to guard the henhouse, since she is so critical of the U.S. public education system. However, the nomination may be just another negotiating ploy—lowballing—by the self-proclaimed master dealmaker.
The U.S. Department of Education has withdrawn recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) as a nationally-recognized accreditation agency. This decision will affect nearly 16,000 international students studying English language and other subjects.
ACICS previously accredited around 250 institutions in the U.S., among them 130 ESL and higher education institutes that recruit international students. Problems arose with institutions such as the now-defunct Northwestern Polytechnic University in California, which was accredited by the ACICS, that was exposed as a visa mil last year. NPU was found to be inflating students’ grades in order to ensure that they didn’t fail and lose their visas. ACICS was informed of these practices by a whistle-blower, yet continued to accredit the institution.
The Secretary of Education said during the ruling that the actions of the ACICS was “out of compliance with numerous agency criteria.”
“Because of the nature and scope of ACICS’s pervasive noncompliance, I further conclude that ACICS is not capable of coming into compliance within 12 months or less, even if I renewed its recognition for an additional 12 months,” Secretary John King Jr. said.
The department of education has advised students in ESL programs that are accredited by the ACICS to transfer to institutions that are certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). ESL students that are currently in programs that are ACICS accredited will still be able to continue their coursework.
However, ESL programs that are accredited by the ACICS alone will be prohibited from issuing new certificates of eligibility for incoming international students that allow students to receive visas. Students at institutions that are accredited by the ACICS alone will also be unable to claim federal aid after the 18 month grace period.
The ACIS has requested an appeal to regain their accreditation to no avail. The court did grant ACICS’s motion for a preliminary injunction hearing on February 1, in which the court will review ACICS’s claim that the department of education’s decision was flawed and potentially unlawful.
The accrediting body appears ready to fight the department, releasing a statement that says, “We certainly appreciate that this is a very uncertain time for ACICS accredited institutions and we will do our best to keep you updated on the legal developments as they unfold. Throughout this process, our goal is unchanged: to ensure ACICS retains its recognition and, furthermore, to renew and recover our historical role as a highly-regarded accrediting agency.”
Last month, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on the rights of indigenous peoples, stressing the urgent need to preserve, promote and revitalize endangered languages, and proclaimed 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages, inviting UNESCO to “serve as the lead agency for the Year.”
The text which is co-authored by the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Ecuador, and cosponsored by over 50 member states, draws attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the urgent need to take action at the national and international levels. It further encourages member states to work towards achieving the goals of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration in 2017.
Russia’s international network RT will be broadcasting in French next year, the Moscow Times reported. RT—a television network funded by the Russian government—has frequently been called a propaganda outlet for the Russian government, and has been accused of spreading misleading information and content.
The UK government has been forced to apologize about questions regarding students’ ethnicity that were initially implemented to address special linguistic needs.
Foreigners moving to Basel are eligible for a free voucher to learn German. Language-learning schools such as Inlingua and ECAP have reported an increase in those learning German through the voucher, still, many immigrants are yet to take advantage of the incentive program. The voucher system is set for new immigrants with a B residency permit which are resident foreign nationals from the EU/EFTA. These immigrants are valid for five years, and can attend up to 80 free German lessons during their first year in the canton. While the program has been around since August of 2015, schools in the canton are now seeing an increase in usage.
A new study from Rand Education and American Councils for International Education in conjunction with the Portland Public Schools has examined the effects of dual-language immersion (DLI) on student achievement.
The study included DLI programs in Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Vietnamese, and included two-way programs, where half the students in the program were native speakers of English and the other have native speakers of the partner (non-English) language.
85-year-old Edwin Benson of Twin Buttes on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota has died, taking the Mandan language with him. Benson was the last living fluent speaker of Mandan, despite preservation efforts. Three Affiliated Tribes Councilman, Cory Spotted Bear, has been working on a $1 million project funded by the tribe to collect and document all known records of the language. Spotted Bear told the Bismarck Tribune, “The world we live in becomes less. The language is the way the Mandan see the world.”
Most Mandan speakers died during the 1830’s smallpox epidemic. Many other speakers were deterred because of white colonial education. Benson had contributed to efforts to preserve Mandan through working with various linguists on documenting all that he knew. Benson’s daughter, Heidi Hernandez said that Benson had become exhausted of his efforts to preserve the language. “He said he’d done enough now and he was tired,” she said. “This language which made Dad so well-known across the world, I’m afraid it’s extinct.”
Tribal historian Marilyn Hudson recalls him telling her that being the only fluent speaker left had become somewhat of a burden. “He said it was lonely to be the only one,” Hudson said. Neither of Benson’s daughters speak Mandan. Their mother spoke Lakota, and his daughters said that Benson and their mother just spoke English to avoid confusion.
Benson came from an interesting familial line. His mother died when he was one, leaving him to be raised by his grandfather—a man who was born in an earth lodge and hunted the buffalo. Benson’s upbringing is what left him to be the last speaker. His efforts weren’t in vain, as tribal elder Art Smith worked with Benson to create a 2,000-page dictionary along with various recordings of grammar, writings, and recordings.
The language continues to be taught at Fort Berthold Community College in a revitalization effort.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has released a report today that suggests a “diminishing share” of U.S. residents speak languages other than English, a trend which the Academy believes “could have important consequences for business, international affairs, and intellectual exchange.”
The Academy’s new report, The State of Languages in the U.S.: A Statistical Portrait, summarizes the nation’s current language capacity, focusing on the U.S. education system. A joint venture of the Academy’s Commission on Language Learning and Humanities Indicators, the report draws on the most recent national, state, and local data sources available to draw a more complete picture of language use in the nation.
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