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Native Language Programs Awarded Grants through NEH

Three Native American language projects have been announced to have received funding from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH). One such project titled “Translating Cherokee Manuscripts” has been a grant of awarded $99,957 from the National Endowment for Humanities. The project is led by Ellen Cushman as the project director and Julia Flanders as co-project director at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. The project aims for, ” the further development of user interfaces for collective translation of the collections in the Digital Archive for American Indian Languages Preservation and Perseverance (DAILP), a digital archive of Cherokee-language manuscripts and lexical resources.” The program applies new technologies and digital methods to innovative humanities research and public programs through development of a digital archive of Cherokee manuscripts and lexical resources to facilitate collective translation and study of the Cherokee language.

The project was one of many that was received a portion of their funding through NEH’s A More Perfect Union initiative, designed to demonstrate and enhance the critical role the humanities play in our nation and support projects that will help Americans commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

Likewise out of Northeastern University comes a project titled Cherokee Lifeways: Hidden Literacies of Collective Action. The project is also led by Ellen Cushman and is focused on research and writing leading to a history of the everyday life and philosophy of Cherokee people using a corpus of newly translated Cherokee-language materials. The program was awarded $30,000, and also received funding through NEH’s A More Perfect Union initiative.

Another project based out of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colarado headed by Deanne Grant and Janine Fitzgerald was awared $148,400. The project is titled Fort Lewis College Native Language Revitalization Institute and aims to design and implementation of a Fort Lewis College summer Native American language institute.

Cambridge University Press invites the world to celebrate teachers

Cambridge University Press is asking people around the world to submit their stories about inspiring teachers, as the publisher opens its Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards for 2022. The global competition provides the chance for students, parents and colleagues to say ‘thank-you’ to a special teacher. Nominations are open between 11 January and 11 March 2022.  

Nominations can be made by going to dedicatedteacher.cambridge.org/nominate and submitting a written entry (in English) of less than 150 words or a video no longer than two minutes.  

Running for the fourth year, the awards are a chance for Cambridge University Press to show its support and admiration for the teaching community.  

“Teachers play an incredibly important part in our society – they mold the young minds that will, in turn, grow up to shape the world as we know it,” commented Managing Director for Education at Cambridge University Press, Rod Smith.  

“Indeed, teachers have had to adapt to keep schools running and students learning over these past two years. Now, more than ever before, we are grateful for the hard work that these special people put into their profession. We’d like to invite anyone who has reason to say ‘thank-you’ to a teacher to share their story so that we may do it together.” 

At the close of the nomination period – 11 March 2022 – a panel of educational experts will choose six regional winners who have made a difference to the lives of their students. These teachers will receive a trophy and feature on a ‘thank you’ page at the front of every new Cambridge University Press Education textbook for one year from September 2022. They will also win class sets of books or digital resources.  

The public will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite story when the regional winners are announced via social media on 25 April 2022. Cambridge University Press will announce the overall winner on 17 May 2022.     

In 2021, the Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards received a staggering 13,000 nominations from 112 different countries. From six regional winners, the public chose social studies teacher Annamma Lucy from GEMS Our Own English High School Sharjah-Boys’ Branch in the United Arab Emirates as the overall winner. 

The Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards stipulate that for an entry to be valid, nominators should only nominate one teacher. Furthermore, nominations may not be for family members, relatives or partners.  For more information, or for full terms and conditions, please go to dedicatedteacher.cambridge.org 

For more information, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]  

But You’re Not What We’re Looking For

GUANGZHOU PART TIME
8 a.m.–11 a.m. Monday–Friday
Located near Yuancun metro station
Nonnatives with a good accent are
accepted
White only
Pay negotiable

Please don’t add me, just posting for a friend. WeChat ID:

(Quinn, 2019)

About you:

  • Native English speakers from Canada, the UK, America, New Zealand or
    Australia
  • Have a recognized EFL qualification (TEFL/TESOL/CELTA/DELTA)
  • Have a university degree
  • Teaching experience preferred but not essential
  • A clean criminal record
  • Excellent physical and mental health
  • Must be able to commit to a 9.5-month contract

(Casal-Data, 2017)

Now (Not) Hiring: Linguistic Racial Profiling
As shocking as English teaching job advertisements like these may seem to many of us in the US, they are not unusual on a worldwide basis. In addition to teaching experience being optional, two salient aspects that assault our professional and social sensibilities are the racialized and linguicized requirements for employment. Advertisers in the global English language teaching (ELT) marketplace are at liberty to request, and even require, “White native speakers of English” from certain countries for a few reasons. One is that discrimination (based on race, age, gender, nationality, native language, or any other characteristic) is not illegal in the vast majority of countries and therefore is not always hidden when the employer wants to prioritize certain requirements and preferences. But perhaps the more insidious, underlying reasons why White native speakers of English are preferred are what we need to explore. Here are some of the causes and consequences of employment discrimination in ELT and some suggestions on ways to address it.
Because English is the key to participation in academia, science, and technology, among other areas, it is one of the most sought-after commodities in the world. We can extrapolate the magnitude of the demand for English worldwide when we consider the size of the market in only one country. “English is big business in China, with an estimated 400 million people learning the language” (Quinn, 2019). The objective here is not to target any one country or region of the world for criticism or accusations of racism but rather to present some examples of how linguicism1 and racial profiling result in employment discrimination in our profession.

Driven by Fallacy, Perpetuated by Fantasy: Reasons for ELT Employment Discrimination
The main causes of the kind of employment discrimination exemplified in these advertisements combine native-speakerism with racism and the myth of the idealized native speaker. English was disseminated throughout the world for economic, sociocultural, and political reasons, not linguistic ones. The same forces that originally associated English with power, prestige, education, and high culture continue to exist today. So, many people worldwide, including English language learners (ELLs), associate English with those who hold wealth, power, and knowledge, which is also associated with Whiteness. They fail to recognize the diversity of Inner Circle countries, comprising people of all races and ethnicities, on all levels of achievement.2 It is the self-serving images that Inner Circle countries have traditionally perpetuated of their own societies that propagate myths about who their model citizens are. These countries either ignore their populations of color or perpetuate myths about them, in which people of color are projected as poor, uneducated, unattractive, unclean, violent, and criminal. In the US, these myths are disseminated through the most powerful messengers, i.e., the mass media and the popular culture, which reach every country and are generally not questioned by those who consume them. So, when ELLs can select their teachers, they are attracted to those who represent the well-educated, the wealthy, the powerful, and therefore the best English, and these are not people of color.
Perceptions of language and race conflate to form expectations, behaviors, and practices that drive employment discrimination in the global ELT field. Phillipson argues that “linguicism has taken over from racism as a more subtle way of hierarchizing social groups in the contemporary world” (p. 241). Although I would agree that linguicism creates hierarchies, I would contend that it is inextricably linked to racism, so one cannot exist without the other, and that the foundation for both of them is Inner Circle hegemony.
In addition, the vast majority of ELT materials worldwide also perpetuate racism and native-speakerism by using only Inner Circle models and speakers of English, rather than including World Englishes and nonnative Englishes. This disregards the fact that most speakers of English are World English speakers and nonnatives and that English is a world language, not only an Inner Circle one.

“But How Can You Be Black and American and a Native Speaker of English?”: Native-Speakerism Conspires with Racism
Although the notion that native speakers are the best English teachers—native-speakerism—persists and pervades, it has been challenged in the literature for at least three decades by Phillipson (1992) and many others, including Medgyes (2001, p. 436), who outlined the advantages of nonnatives. “International teachers from outside the 10 preferred countries do not even have the chance to prove whether their skills, qualifications and experience are sufficiently matched by their English language ability” (Escott, 2021). Sometimes employers camouflage their preferences for White teachers by advertising for native speakers from the Inner Circle.
The citizenship and native-speaker status of Black Americans and other Inner Circle people of color is routinely challenged in the global ELT marketplace when they apply for jobs and/or are hired. “Indeed, the literature indicates that within ELT being a ‘native speaker’ is frequently associated with white and Western-looking individuals (Kubota and Fujimoto, 2013). For example, Javier (2016) shows how Li, a Canadian of Hong Kong descent, and Andrés, an American of Mexican descent, have their ‘native speaker’ identities questioned by students and parents, who expect a ‘native speaker’ to be white and Western-looking. This leads to racially based hiring policies whereby non-Western-looking ‘native speakers’ are discriminated against (Ruecker and Ives, 2015)” (Kiczkowiak, 2020).
The absence of qualified nonnative English-speaking teachers can corrode the linguistic self-image of ELLs by marginalizing nonnative English. Another way in which nonnative Englishes are subjugated is through ELT materials. The absence of diverse Englishes and models of English speakers in most ELT materials not only leads to an imbalanced English language education but it fails to prepare students to understand the Englishes of the real world beyond the classroom. It also perpetuates employment discrimination against nonnative speakers, World English speakers, and people of color by implicitly teaching that only Inner Circle English spoken by White Inner Circle speakers is valid and acceptable. In this way, students will not value, respect, or understand most of the English of most English speakers around the world.
Employment discrimination prevents some highly qualified nonnative speakers and people of color from being hired abroad, where the demand is highest. However, even when they can gain employment, they are often not paid at the same level as White English-language teachers. For example, “Increasing numbers of Filipinos are teaching English in Thai schools, but white colleagues get paid more to do the same job, regardless of skill” (Wongsamuth, 2015).
Because of the injustices to students and qualified teachers alike, employment discrimination needs to be addressed on a global scale. “The onus on reforming the system falls to those who benefit, particularly those educators, school leadership and recruiters… who have the ‘right’ passport” (Escott, 2021).

Myth Busters and Bridge Builders: Solutions
Several changes are needed in the field of ELT if we are to teach students more effectively and treat teachers more justly. One way to start would be to remove the norm-providing status of Inner Circle Englishes, or at least expand the domain of norm-providing Englishes. This can be done in part by creating and publishing more diverse ELT materials and requiring their use. Inclusive and anti-racist ELT materials that feature nonnative and World Englishes and people of color would indicate the pluralistic nature of English and its speakers worldwide.
As we know, many qualified ELT professionals who are nonnatives and people of color are not hired, in favor of unqualified people who fit the desired racial profile. The establishment of international educational standards for public and private language schools in which only qualified teachers could be hired would be helpful. These standards could be formulated by, and made available through, the major international ELT professional development associations and their global affiliates, based on an internationally agreed-upon set of anti-racist principles (yet to be developed).
Another role for these international ELT associations in the approach to tackling employment discrimination would be definitive anti-racist activism and advocacy. These organizations are revered by educators worldwide and wield the most influence in the profession, so ELT educators and employers are likely to follow their lead. These associations could also encourage publishers to produce and distribute anti-racist, diverse, and inclusive ELT materials.

The Resilience of a Citizen of the World: Encouragement
In spite of the prevalence of employment discrimination, qualified nonnative English speakers and people of color are employed worldwide. They are often treated unfairly, but some are, nevertheless, employed. In the US, our profession naturally leads us to explore the rest of the world. We do it academically, mentally, emotionally, and vicariously through our students, as they are a window onto the world. Our natural inclination is to see the world for ourselves. My advice would be to seize the opportunities offered by ELT, perhaps the most international profession, that allow you to explore other countries. Don’t be deterred by the threat of racism or other forms of bigotry and ignorance, because living and working abroad are the best ways to see and understand the world. They are also the best vantage points from which to see your own country because they offer perspectives that are not available to you by staying home. And most importantly, living and working abroad are wonderful ways to become a citizen of the world, discover your own resilience, and learn more about yourself. With this rallying cry for resilience, I am reminded of a civil rights anthem by one of the most influential singers of 20th-century American music, Sam Cooke, who in 1964 recorded his most eloquent social commentary, “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Oh, there been times that I thought
I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long
A long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will. (Cooke, 1964)

He wrote it at the height of the civil rights movement because “he could not ignore moral outrage right in front of him… Now much more than a civil rights anthem, it’s become a universal message of hope, one that does not age” (NPR, 2014).

Notes
Linguicism is defined as “involving representation of the dominant language, to which desirable characteristics are attributed, for purposes of inclusion, and the opposite for dominated languages, for purposes of exclusion” (Phillipson, 1992, p. 55).
The Inner Circle refers to the Kachru model of Englishes in the world, in which the Inner Circle is defined as the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, or the norm-providing countries where English originated and was first disseminated.

References available at https://www.languagemagazine.com/ptm-jan-2022-references/

Mary Romney-Schaab taught ESOL to adults in the US and Spain for over 40 years. She has an EdM in Instructional Media and an MA in TESOL, both from Columbia University. She is interested in how TESOL intersects with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Multilingual Experiences for All Students

  1. How have your experiences prepared you for this role?
    I’ll begin by sharing this: Many years before I was born, there was a teacher in Texas who stole my inheritance. Through outdated ways of thinking, this educator taught my grandmother that hers was not the language of school. The impact resonated and resulted in the stripping of both language and culture across generations, which I experienced as a sense of loss and longing. I am privileged and impassioned by the opportunity to support more positive experiences for today’s generation of multilingual learners from within the California Department of Education’s Multilingual Support Division, guided by our state’s English Learner Roadmap policy.

    My experiences in leadership, in the classroom, and in the field have helped me develop a broad sense of perspective around the assets and affordances of multilingual learning. Through early experiences as a native English-speaking student in a bilingual program, I marveled at the power of intercultural connections and multilingualism. And later, as a bilingual educator, I aspired to contribute to the cultivation of empathy and appreciation that is inherent to a multilingual, multicultural classroom. From site and district coaching lenses, I observed the benefits of high-quality dual language instruction—the highs of positive student experience, educational outcomes, and community impact. Through various jobs at the county office, I was able to assist in the emergence of new dual language programs, support aspiring dual language educators, and engage as learner and contributor to regional and state committees in the development of tools and resources geared toward the interests of multilingual learners. 

    Further, community partnerships, networking with others dedicated to the interests of multilingual learners, and supportive mentoring have helped me to understand the responsibility of advocacy in the interest of students. The English Learner Leadership and Legacy Initiative (ELLLI), for example, was pivotal in my development as a voice for multilingual learners, growing relationships across the state, and helping me understand critical history and policy on top of programs.

    This role is an opportunity to deeply engage community partnerships and promote the benefits of multilingual experiences for all students through a policy lens, and to support robust multilingual programs for emerging multilingual English learner students and dual language learners.
     
  2. What will be the priorities during your first year?
    Priorities this year center around supporting Superintendent Thurmond’s vision to further equitable access to a meaningful education for all learners, through a particular lens of service to migrant, immigrant, multilingual, and English learner students and dual language learners. Supporting the EL Roadmap policy, the Multilingual Support Division is committed to providing tools, resources, and technical assistance to improve academic achievement and language proficiency for multilingual learners.

    Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted all students, and the distance learning experience has had a disproportional effect on English learner students, making our next steps even more critical. In tandem with California’s exceptional educators, we are committed to closing the opportunity gaps that existed prepandemic.

    We’ve learned much about adapting programs, service, and supports, and we are poised to reimagine what education can be for multilingual learners and migratory and immigrant students. We are primed to tap into the learning that did occur at home and to grow stronger and more responsive to students’ experiences.

    What’s so interesting about today’s context is that, even in the wake of challenge, California is experiencing a renaissance of multilingual education backed by the historic English Learner Roadmap policy. Our team remains invested in implementation of this innovative policy with assets-oriented approaches, a focus on quality instruction and meaningful access, consideration for how systems and structures serve as cornerstones of programs, and a commitment to alignment across preschool through college. With policy implementation as our mission, my priorities are to grow access to dual language programs and to cultivate partnership in service to English learner students. 

    We are encouraged by the $10 million available for one-time grants as part of the Dual Language Immersion Grant Program and by the early interest and enthusiasm from the field. Also exciting are the long-term investments in universal preschool and transitional kindergarten.
    With these commitments in mind, we will collaborate with experts across the continuum, from early education and TK through high school and into our colleges and universities, to identify opportunities for improving access to quality dual language programs staffed with well-prepared and supported multilingual educators. Leveraging common interests in the experiences of English learner students and multilingual learners, I am also dedicated to furthering connections with and learning from advocacy groups and community partners. Together, we can move aspirational policy into practice.
     
  3. How do you plan to cope with the predicted shortage of multilingual educators?
    Increasing the bilingual teacher pipeline is a multipronged effort that includes alignment, communication, education, and investments in new programming. While we continue to message the impact and value of becoming a multilingual educator, we have the opportunity to tap existing initiatives.

    For example, the migrant program’s Mini-Corps teacher’s assistant program can help increase our multilingual teacher workforce from within. The State Seal of Biliteracy (SSB) is another promising approach and grows the cultural and linguistic capacity of California’s students, potentially cultivating interest and opening the doors for future bilingual educators.

    Over the long term, the Biliteracy Pathways leading to attainment of the SSB can further support the multilingual educator workforce.
    CDE’s Multilingual Support Division will soon roll out this new Bilingual Pathway Recognition Program, which will celebrate milestones toward bilingualism and dual language literacy from preschool through middle school. Moreover, collaboration with higher education can promote expansion of bilingual teacher education programs and increase the bilingual teacher pipeline. Programs such as the Global Seal of Biliteracy offered by San Diego State University are outstanding opportunities to recruit future multilingual educators.

    Together, these programs can offer a creative avenue for inspiring multilingual capacities across the P–16 experience. We can also continue to learn from efforts such as the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program, out of San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, which has created a pathway for bilingual paraprofessionals to pursue entry into the multilingual teacher workforce.
    Additionally, Educator Workforce Investment Grant (EWIG) EL Roadmap Policy implementation programs are instrumental to growing bilingual educator capacity through ongoing professional learning experiences for multilingual teachers, administrators, and paraprofessionals.

    The English Learner Roadmap Implementation for Systemic Excellence! (EL RISE!) effort by Californians Together and CABE’s Multilingual California Project (MCAP) are empowering educators and sparking interest in dual language education across the state. These experiences can help encourage credentialed educators to pursue bilingual certification and support aspiring teachers to enter the bilingual teaching profession. Growing the multilingual educator workforce is a long-term effort, but new money and programming will put us on the right trajectory.

Backward Design

Comprehensible input. Movies. Language clubs. Guest speakers. Pirates. Conversations. Fly-swatter vocabulary matches. Video pen pals. Study abroad.

A language program can take many forms and have some—or none—of these. But how do you achieve one that is authentic, fun, and successful all at once? You use backward design to make your curriculum match your goals, and a reliable assessment to measure student success and adjust instruction.

Our goal: Seniors will earn the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy, i.e., perform at the intermediate high level in all domains.1 Research shows that most students need five years to achieve this goal, so we built an eighth-grade program. We redesigned our curriculum to move students from novice low to intermediate high with engaging topics along the way. We chose the AAPPL (ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages) because it is specific, reliable, accurate, cost-effective, and flexible. In the first two years, only a couple students scored intermediate high or better in all four areas to earn the Seal. Our students averaged intermediate high for listening but well below in the other areas. So, what did we do? We kept the language clubs, pirates, and fly-swatter games, but we added a new library and refocused our instruction and assessments on comprehension and production. We expanded our pen pal program, added more guest speakers, and got the attention of our community and administrators. We have been featured in the local newspaper twice to honor our Seal of Biliteracy recipients.

Last year, seven students scored intermediate high or better; this year, at least ten. By focusing on areas of weakness identified on the AAPPL score reports, last year we went above and beyond the national averages in all four communication skills, but especially in writing and speaking. The AAPPL includes technology, traditions, and family,2 so my students who are being “taught to the test” usually say my class is their most creative and interesting one. The variety of topics we now cover mean that I enjoy class more, too. We still teach grammar, but we focus on grammar in context. Our students have a solid view of their own progress, pride in what they can do, and a clear idea of where to go next. If you want to strengthen your program or design one from the ground up, maybe the AAPPL is the place to go next for you.

Reference
Wiggins, G. P. and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, USA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Links

  1. https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Foreign-Language/Ohio-Seal-of-Biliteracy
  2. www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/aappl/AAPPL_General_Content.pdf

Chris Lemon is a Spanish teacher and department chair at Northmont High School, Clayton, Ohio.

World Leaders Learn from Native Languages

World leaders at the COP26 climate summit in Scotland have been urged to shift their thinking about the climate crisis to focus on humanity’s integration with and dependency on the natural world—through an art project celebrating Indigenous minority languages.

The living-language-land project (https://living-language-land.org) has identified words from minority languages and dialects around the world—including Lakota; Murui, a native language of Colombia and Peru; and Scots Gaelic—that highlight each culture’s relationship with its lands.

The idea is to offer a platform to minority and endangered language holders to share a word and story that reflects a relationship to land and nature. It is about enlarging the lexicon we can all draw from in reflecting on those relationships. 

Contributions have been invited from around the world, acknowledging that only a tiny fraction of minority and endangered languages can be represented in this project. All contributions have been created by communities themselves, and all contributors have received some compensation to support their wider work. All contributions are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

The British founders state that they “acknowledge the enduring privilege resulting from colonial practices, and take responsibility for decolonizing our thinking. We have used wide consultation and continuous self-reflection to bring this project forth in a way that aims to respect all peoples and knowledges.”

Living-language-land is funded by the British Council under the COP26 Creative Commissions program.

Mi’kmaw to Be Enshrined as Nova Scotia’s First Language

Mi’kmaw is Nova Scotia’s first language and legislation next spring will help preserve, revitalize, and promote it, according to an announcement by the Canadian province’s government.

“It’s the right thing to do because the language comes from this land and from the people. People are losing our language, and it’s been a long fight to keep it alive. This legislation will reinforce the importance of us and our language,” explained Elder Silipay Denny, the oldest Mi’kmaq elder in Nova Scotia, Eskasoni First Nation.

The number of people who can speak Mi’kmaw is in rapid decline and the Mi’kmaw language is at risk, so Nova Scotia’s government will start working immediately with Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey, the collective voice for Mi’kmaq education, and other Mi’kmaq organizations and communities to develop legislation to support this effort.

“Language is a fundamental aspect of cultural identity, and the Mi’kmaw language reflects the culture of the First Peoples of this province,” said Karla MacFarlane, minister of L’nu affairs. “Mi’kmaw language revitalization is critical to understanding and preserving Mi’kmaw culture and supports ongoing reconciliation.”

“As a language teacher, the state of the language is constantly on my mind. In this crucial time for the Mi’kmaw language, recognizing Mi’kmaw as the first language of Nova Scotia could help to prevent the extinction of the land’s natural language, to heal the youth through the reclamation of our identities, and to ensure that the efforts of those who fought to preserve the language haven’t been in vain,” added Jasmine Ma’sl, Potlotek First Nation.

The province will support efforts by Mi’kmaw language speakers who are teaching and preserving the language in schools and communities by reinforcing the reconciliation work undertaken by the Treaty Education Nova Scotia initiative and through the collaborative development of legislation to ensure that hearing, seeing, and speaking the language becomes a normal part of life in Nova Scotia.

“The Mi’kmaw language legislation will allow for the Mi’kmaq to work in partnership with our provincial counterparts. The development of Mi’kmaw language legislation is a pivotal step in the revitalization and retention of the Mi’kmaw language. It is imperative for reconciliation that the Mi’kmaw language be seen and heard across the entire province. It is also important for society at large to see the importance of the preservation and protection of the Mi’kmaq language. This endeavor is not something our Mi’kmaq leadership can do alone, so we are very excited to begin this process together,” concluded Chief Leroy Denny, Eskasoni First Nation, chair of Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey.


There is a Mi’kmaw language app available at https://www.kinu.ca/mobile-apps.

English Learner Progress Dips during Pandemic

The latest report on how English learners (ELs) around the country coped with language development during the pandemic reveals an overall downward trend in student proficiency and growth in 2021 as compared to 2019 and 2020. The impact of the pandemic on ELs’ test scores varied by grade and domain, with the relatively larger declines recorded in elementary and middle school grades (first and sixth grades) and in the domain of speaking.

The report examines English learners’ testing, proficiency, and growth in the academic years of 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21, using population-level data from ACCESS for ELLs Online, administered across the WIDA Consortium to students identified as ELs.
The WIDA-produced report stresses that several factors should be considered when comparing aggregated and averaged test scores across years. First, for many EL students, the 2020–21 administration of the ACCESS for ELLs assessment was implemented under vastly different circumstances compared to past years. In addition to contextual and varied individual testing circumstances that affected student testing and performance, in response to challenges brought about by the pandemic, several WIDA Consortium member states and districts substantially shifted and extended their assessment administration windows, resulting in many students being tested at irregular times (e.g., nine to 15 months apart instead of twelve months apart). Therefore, students who tested in states and districts that administered ACCESS earlier than usual had a shorter time available for instruction and learning and would tend to show lower proficiency and growth. In line with this, higher proficiency and growth among students who tested into the end of the summer was recorded.

Another factor which should be taken into account is that compared to the previous years, the 2020–21 sample recorded about a 30% decline in the number of tested ELs across the WIDA Consortium. While there were still some WIDA states in testing (for the 2020–2021 school year) into October of 2021, many ELs did not participate in ACCESS testing in 2021. Therefore, for states, districts, and schools examining their students’ average proficiency and growth across years, it is imperative to consider any substantial differences in the profile (sample characteristics) of their tested students, as the pandemic has affected the educational opportunities and academic outcomes of EL students disproportionately. The report is available at https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/examining-english-learner-testing-proficiency-and-growth-and-throughout-covid-19-pandemic.

Speaking of Migration

The recent discovery that Japanese, Korean, and even Turkish all evolved from language spoken by millet farmers just 9,000 years ago in what is now northeast China (see World, p. 16) demonstrates not only how advances in science can enable us to pinpoint migratory flows of people but also how migration has always been natural human behavior, long before it was even considered a right or a privilege. All of which makes the increasingly hostile attitudes and policies toward migrants, and especially refugees, seem even more inhumane. I’d go so far as to say barbaric, but the Barbarians themselves were immigrants often blamed for upsetting the status quo.

At a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, where thousands of refugees from the so-called cradle of civilization in Iraq sit in limbo, the Pope has called the migrant situation a “shipwreck of civilization.” Further north on the Belarusian border with European Union (EU) countries Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, migrants have been used as pawns in a diplomatic war between the EU and Belarus, which could have been defused had the European bloc stood behind the principles on which it was founded. Instead, anti-immigrant positions have become entrenched in many member countries, including Austria, Hungary, and France, where an extreme-right-wing radio host whose comments on immigration verge on the criminal is the latest candidate for president of the republic.

Post-Brexit UK has even resorted to paying French security forces to block refugees from entering its waters—a policy which failed tragically when a small boat sank last month, drowning at least 27 people, after which British prime minister Boris Johnson had the audacity to make public a letter sent to President Macron asking that France take back migrants who had successfully crossed the Channel into the UK.

Here in the US, despite Lady Liberty’s pledge to welcome the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” from “ancient lands,” President Biden is set to restore and even expand the “Remain in Mexico” policy of dumping asylum seekers in dangerous, unsanitary encampments on the other side of the border where they can be kept out of sight for months, with little access to legal assistance, until their cases are heard.

A federal court in Texas ordered the administration to continue forcing migrants to wait in Mexico until it expands its capacity to detain migrants in the US. However, Biden is not just reinstating the policy; he’s extending it to cover non-Spanish speakers from Western Hemisphere countries, including speakers of Indigenous American languages and Creole, like Haitians. Somewhat absurdly, non-Spanish speakers, with the exception of Brazilians, were not previously subject to the program, on the presumption that they would have difficulty finding work in Mexico and would have no realistic means of sustaining themselves while pursuing their asylum claims in the US.

We think of the global village as a relatively modern concept and it may be only recently that we’ve recognized that shared global challenges, like the pandemic and climate change, unite us, so it’s good to be reminded that all of us share a history of migration, no matter our nationality, race, creed, color, or language. Refugees and other migrants should be welcomed and given the tools to turn their journeys into success stories.

Mail Voting Forms Finally in Diné, Apache and Yup’ik

The US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has finally released national mail voter registration forms in Diné, Apache and Yup’ik languages. This is the first time the federal commission has released mail voting materials in any Native American languages.

The EAC is responsible for maintaining the National Mail Voter Registration Form and forms are now available in 21 languages, but this is the first dedicated expansion of that effort to serve Native American communities.

To help voters from communities where languages are primarily or solely spoken have the same access to materials, the EAC is providing its first-ever audio translation of the National Mail Voter Registration Form. Voters wishing to utilize the Apache translation will have access to an audio file which talks them through the form. The EAC will look to utilize audio translations as appropriate in future translations.

“Election terminology can often be difficult to translate into other languages without the assistance of native speakers and translators,” the EAC commissioners said in a joint statement. “With access to election materials translated by native speakers from within their own communities, Native American voters will have a better understanding of the election process and greater accessibility.”

Samantha Mack, language assistance compliance manager at the Alaska Division of Elections stated, “We are so excited that the EAC is releasing content in one of our Native languages! Alaska Native people deserve equitable access to all parts of the electoral process, and translating important forms and content into our Indigenous languages is an important step in that direction.”

While the expansion of these translations is a critical step in expanding access to voter registration, the EAC will continue to identify additional ways to assist election officials in serving the Native American populations within their jurisdictions.

For more information about the EAC’s language access resources and other materials to assist voters for whom English is a second language and the election officials who serve them, visit https://www.eac.gov/election-officials/language-access.

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