ASIAN AMERICAN STUDENTS DON'T BENEFIT FROM NCLB

NEW REPORT: ASIAN AMERICAN STUDENTS DON'T BENEFIT FROMNO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT--MAJOR REFORMS NEEDED

New York, NY. -- At the first-ever National Asian American Education Advocates Summit held at Columbia University last month, the Asian American LegalDefense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a 34-year old civil rightsorganization, released its new report detailing several provisions of the NoChild Left Behind Act (NCLB) that must be overhauled in order to meet theneeds of Asian American students.
AALDEF's report, Left in the Margins: Asian American Students and the NoChild Left Behind Act, demonstrates how Asian Americans who are EnglishLanguage Learners (ELLs) are currently set up to fail under NCLB. CitingCensus statistics and numerous examples in school districts around thecountry, AALDEF illustrates how this marginalized community is fallingthrough our public education system's cracks. Left in the Margins puts aspotlight on particular school districts where Asian American ELL studentsare the most visible and also highly vulnerable due to the lack ofappropriate services.
Margaret Fung, AALDEF executive director, said: "Since the No Child LeftBehind law was enacted, we have not seen significant improvements in thequality of public education. Instead, Asian Americans-- especiallyimmigrant, poor and non-English speaking students--have been left behind tofend for themselves in securing basic educational services. "Key recommendations from AALDEF's report propose several major changes inNCLB:Provide targeted language services for Asian American ELLs, since nearly aquarter of all Asian American students are ELLs. Among those between theages 5 and 17, over half of Hmong Americans, 39% of Vietnamese Americans,and 34% of Bangladeshi Americans are ELLs.
Use absolute numerical thresholds and/or population ratios in smallerdistricts or counties (rather than states) to determine the need for nativelanguage materials. Asian American ELLs are densely populated in specificneighborhoods throughout the country. For example, Vietnamese-speaking ELLsin Seattle constitute 16% of all ELLs in the city, but only 4% of the totalELL population in the state of Washington . If native language materialswere available only for language minority groups that made up at least 10%of ELLs in a state, then large numbers of Vietnamese-speaking ELLs would notbenefit from native language materials.Use multiple forms of assessment to measure ELL student achievement andlimit the use of testing-based sanctions to abate high dropout rates amongELL students. In New York City , the class of 2006's ELL population had adropout rate of 30% compared to 6.9% of all students citywide.
Provide states with funds to hire more ESL specialists, bilingual educationspecialists, and teachers bilingual in Asian languages. Although Vietnameseis the second most common native language of ELLs in California , there isonly one bilingual teacher for every 662 Vietnamese-speaking students in thestate.Provide states with more funds to translate school documents, hireinterpreters, and conduct community education for immigrant families. Over40% of Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese households are linguisticallyisolated.
Require every state to collect comprehensive student data that isdisaggregated by ethnicity, native language, socioeconomic status, ELLstatus, and ELL program type. Without this information, the educationalneeds of individual groups are concealed and will remain unaddressed.

Copies of Left in the Margins: Asian American Students and the No Child LeftBehind Act are available atwww.aaldef.org/docs/AALDEF_LeftintheMargins_NCLB.pdf.

###The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in1974, is a national organization that protects and promotes the civil rightsof Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, andorganizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the countryto secure human rights for all.