Students shuffle into John Rodriguezβs beginning English Language Development class at Sunnyside High School, greeting one another in Spanish as he tells them in English to open their laptops to an English reading assignment.
Itβs the start of their 5Ζ-hour school day, four hours of which will be spent as a group in a single classroom, focusing solely on learning English, as required by state law.
But most of the classroom conversations are in Spanish.
The students hesitantly answer Rodriguezβs questions in English as he coaxes them out of their shells. But they quickly slide back to their native tongues when talking amongst themselves β which, despite Rodriguezβs stern command of the class, happens a lot.
That ironic conundrum of Arizonaβs Structured English Immersion law β which was instituted as a result of the βEnglish Onlyβ Proposition 203 in 2000, and requires Spanish-speaking students to spend four hours a day segregated from their English-speaking peers β isnβt lost on the students or teacher.
Caleb Franco, an 18-year-old senior who moved to Tucson from Agua Prieta three years ago, thinks he would pick up English faster if he were forced to use it all day in regular classes. Instead, the temptation to speak Spanish with his friends in English Language Development class is too great, he said.
βWe (are here to) learn English, but we talk Spanish in here,β he said.
And because heβs stuck in four hours of English every day, Franco, one of a handful of seniors in the 18-student classroom, wonβt technically graduate on time.
Despite taking online classes on top of his regular course load, Franco still needs a health credit and will have to attend summer school.
The other students in the class nod with understanding.
Most have taken online or summer classes to keep up. None of them want to be here four hours a day, five days a week. They want to take electives like art, photography or automotive technology, or classes they need to graduate but canβt squeeze into their schedules, like geometry, health and history.
Rodriguez said the four-hour model is a βdisserviceβ to the kids.
βI just think theyβre being cheated out of other experiences and opportunities. One, they donβt get the classes they need. Two, they lose out on the practice they need because they would be forced to acquire the language at a faster rate in classes with English speakers,β he said.
But for more than a decade, those criticisms have fallen on deaf ears at the state Capitol.
Despite years of complaints from educators that the four-hour block, which is among the strictest English-language-learner laws in the nation, is detrimental to many English learners because it segregates them and doesnβt allow enough time in the school day to take other required classes, Republican legislative leaders have rebuffed previous attempts to change the law.
But things may be changing this year.
Two bills pending at the state Capitol would drastically alter the stateβs Structured English Immersion program.
One measure, HB 2435, would cut that four-hour block to two hours for kindergarten through sixth-graders, and just 100 minutes for seventh- through 12th-graders, and allow school districts to front load that time, meaning ELL students could spend roughly their first two months of the school year in an ELL program, then integrate into mainstream classes.
Another measure, HB 2281, would allow ELL students to enter a dual-language program instead, which research shows is vastly superior for young English learners and helps students develop and retain skills in both languages, creating biliterate graduates.
Both bills are sponsored by Republicans. Similar measures sponsored by Democrats in the past went nowhere. Both bills have passed the House on unanimous or nearly unanimous votes, and both cleared the Senate Education Committee without any detractors.
But both bills have languished in the Senate Rules Committee, which they must clear before heading to a final vote by the Senate.
Republican Rep. Paul Boyer of Phoenix, chairman of the House Education Committee and sponsor of HB 2281, said in his eight years at the Capitol, βIβve never seen such consensus on an issue as I see on this one.β
βPeople are starting to figure out that the current system isnβt working, that these kids are spending years in this immersion program, which is supposed to only be a year, but it never happens that way. And they donβt get content, so theyβre missing out on math, science, history, everything else, and theyβre so far behind they either donβt graduate or are just kind of pushed along,β he said.
βI guess I should have said, βLegislators are finally starting to figure that out.β I think people in the field have obviously had it figured out for years,β he added.
But the billsβ fates are still uncertain. The Senate Rules Committee has met several times since the bills were assigned there, but Senate President Steve Yarbrough, chairman of the Rules Committee, has not yet put them on the agenda for a hearing.
Boyer said he has tried repeatedly to reach Yarbrough to urge him to hear the measures but has not heard back.
Yarbrough could not be reached for comment.
Lawmakers are aiming to close out the legislative session in the next two weeks.
LOW TEST SCORES, GRADUATION RATES
Arizonaβs Structured English Immersion model came as a result of the βEnglish Onlyβ Prop. 203, but the proposition doesnβt actually call for a four-hour block of English immersion. That was added by lawmakers later, partly in response to a lawsuit stating it wasnβt offering enough funding and instruction to ELL students.
But academic research and student data show it hasnβt worked for Arizonaβs estimated 83,000 ELL students, roughly 5,000 of whom are in Tucsonβs largest school district, TUSD, with an additional 3,500 at Sunnyside Unified School District.
A recent State Board of Education report found βsignificant deficienciesβ in Arizonaβs Structured English Immersion model. Citing a broad swath of academic literature on the topic, the report concluded that Arizonaβs model segregates students βboth physically and academically,β doesnβt allow access to rigorous courses, doesnβt provide teachers proper training, and is unrealistic in its goal of transitioning students into mainstream classrooms in one year.
In 2014, the latest year for which data is available, Arizona had the worst ELL graduation rates in the nation, at just 19 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
The Arizona Department of Education disputes those numbers, saying itβs an error in the way the state reports the data to the federal government. Instead, the Arizona Department of Education puts four-year graduation rates for students with limited English proficiency at 34 percent.
Either way, Arizonaβs ELL graduation rates are low, and ELL students are way behind their English-speaking peers.
ELL students also consistently score far below their peers on standardized tests. Roughly 40 percent of Arizona students passed the AzMerit test in 2017. For students with limited English, 3 percent passed the language-arts portion of the test, and only 8 percent passed the math portion.
Some lawmakers already understood the varied problems with Arizonaβs Structured English Immersion model and have tried unsuccessfully for years to address it.
But Boyer said the key to changing other hearts and minds at the Capitol has largely been talking about local control, parental choice and dollars and cents.
βWith some members, (the pitch that worked) was weβre paying $424 bucks a kid, and there are 85,000 kids who are in this Structured English Immersion program. And every single year these kids donβt learn English, thatβs an additional $35 million cost to the state per year,β he said.
Dual-language laws
repealed in 2006
Pam Betten, the chief academic officer at Sunnyside Unified School District, has been working with English-language learners since before the four-hour block requirement became law in 2006.
Back then, Sunnyside was in the vanguard of teaching non-native English speakers, with a successful, grant-funded dual-language program that was adopted as a model for other states.
βWhat we saw in the data then was kids would outscore our native English speakers on the standardized test of days gone by,β she said.
Julia Lindberg, an English language acquisition specialist in the Sunnyside district, remembers the early days of their dual-language program.
βIt was so fun because you read about that stuff in the literature. The literature in bilingual education says kids who are in (dual-language) classes tend to outperform even English speakers on English tests. But to see it in reality, it was like, βWhoo, it really does work!ββ Lindberg said.
There were other benefits. Students in dual-language courses were more likely to graduate. Dads became more involved with the academic life of students in dual-language programs, Betten said, though the district never could figure out why.
But state lawmakers, filling in the gaps of the English Only Proposition 203, repealed the dual-language laws in 2006. Sunnyside was able to work around the new laws for a few years but eventually had to shutter the dual-language program altogether, in favor of a four-hour block.
Betten said watching those ELL studentsβ test scores slide downward was heartbreaking.
β(The law) forced us to change that model that had been really successful for us,β she said.
And students donβt just suffer in English class. Because the four-hour block hinders studentsβ ability to take other classes like math and science, their test scores in other subjects plummeted as well, Betten said.
Dual-language programs still exist. Tucson Unified School District has successful dual-language tracks at Davis Bilingual Magnet School and Roskruge Bilingual K-8 Magnet School.
But under state law, students can enter dual-language programs only if theyβre already orally proficient in English, or with a parent waiver for students over the age of 10.
Because students have to enter dual-language programs in kindergarten or first grade to truly absorb the knowledge and benefit from the program, the law makes it hard for schools to find enough Spanish speakers who are orally proficient in English at that age to populate the programs.
HB 2811, sponsored by Republican Rep. Jill Norgaard of Phoenix, would eliminate those requirements and ensure that the four-hour block doesnβt apply to students in dual-language programs.
SETBACK, NEW HOPE
In September, TUSD asked the State Board of Education for a waiver allowing students to opt into dual-language programs without meeting the language requirements. Board President Tim Carter said he was sympathetic to the districtβs request, but after board members spoke with the boardβs lawyer in executive session, they unanimously shot it down.
βSometimes you want to take action on something, but itβs not something you have authority over or itβs not something the law allows you to do,β Carter said.
That was a setback for TUSDβs attempts to expand and replicate its dual-language programs. HB 2281, the pending legislation to allow students to opt into dual-language programs even if theyβre not proficient in English, has given TUSD officials new hope.
And now, about a decade after the Sunnyside Unified School District shuttered its dual-language program, the district is trying to rebuild it.
Administrators are also encouraged by HB 2281, but theyβre not putting all their eggs in that one basket, Betten said.
Instead, the district is starting with its preschoolers, since the English-only law doesnβt apply until kindergarten. Their hope is even if lawmakers donβt approve HB 2435, which cuts the four-hour block in half, the district can develop orally proficient preschoolers who can earn a waiver to enter the dual-language program as kindergarteners, and the program will grow naturally from there.
Of the two bills, though, Betten argues HB 2435 is probably more important to them.
βWe have ELL students come at all grade levels, not just kindergarten and first grade. We have to have a model that works for students who come in fifth and sixth grade,β she said.
BETTER THAN
SUMMER SCHOOL
Surveying his students, Ramirez, the Sunnyside High School teacher, said he has no doubt many of them could be successful with a full course load of mainstream classes and only minimal support in an ELL class.
βI think instead of giving them an avenue to work out of the program, by requiring a four-hour block, it encourages them to stay. Because theyβre all friends here, they all speak the same language, this is their safe space, this is their comfort zone,β he said.
The students pushed back, saying they didnβt want to be in the class and theyβre trying to test out. But Franco, the senior whoβs taking summer school classes to graduate, said he understood the urge to stay in the English Development class.
βThey donβt want to talk English in other classes because some guy is going to laugh at how they talk,β he said.
Still, Franco would rather get over that fear than go to summer school.
