Congressman Raúl Grijalva is looking to improve the academic performance of English-language learners with an effort that starts at home.
Legislation that he will introduce next week seeks to improve the literacy and English skills of recently immigrated families, Grijalva announced on Thursday.
The FLUEnT act — Families Learning and Understanding English Together — argues that parents who speak little to no English struggle to help their children’s English language development, are limited in their ability to effectively interact with school officials, and in their ability to reinforce the school curriculum at home.
In addition to language acquisition, services would include:
- interactive literacy activities between parents and their children;
- training for parents on how to be the primary teacher for their children and partners in the education of their children;
- parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency;
- an age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life.
The services offered by family literacy providers would have to be research-based and outcomes would be measured to determine their effectiveness. To qualify, parents would have to be 16 years or older and have at least one child under the age of 8.
Grijalva plans to ask that $1.5 billion be allocated to the effort over five years.
Last year, there were more than 66,000 English-language learners in Arizona public schools.
The state assessment showed that only 2 percent passed language arts and 6 percent passed math on the AzMERIT test.
English-language learners across the country have historically performed lower than their peers but more gains are being made on the national level than in Arizona.
Grijalva plans to introduce a second education-related bill focusing on dual language programs.
The Providing Resources to Improve Dual Language Education act — PRIDE — seeks to establish quality programming in low income communities.
Research has shown that children exposed to a second language through dual language education demonstrate higher performance in comparison to their peers in traditional classrooms.
Like the services offered under the FLUEnT act, dual language models implemented would have to be tried and true, Grijalva said.
Under Arizona law, only students who are orally proficient in English can take advantage of dual language immersion programs. There are exceptions to the rule.
Grijalva is seeking $2.5 billion for the dual language effort.
Marisol Flores-Aguirre, a parent of two at Roskruge Bilingual K-8 School, says the programming has helped inspire a love of learning in her children.
“You see engagement with youth you haven’t seen before,” she said. “I see my kids more excited, coming in and throwing around language and conversation and asking questions in ways that hasn’t traditionally engaged them.”
While the benefits of the legislation are clear to Grijalva, he is expecting some resistance.
“I think you’ll get the hysteria where people are going to go ‘it’s not necessary, everybody should know English,’ ” Grijalva said. “But the fact of the matter is … the end result is a proficient English-speaking, comprehending individual and student. The end result also is they have that capacity in two languages and so one doesn’t deter from the other.”
