Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.9.3/8.9.0.Beta5/980425bjb) with SMTP id QAA13747; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 16:10:32 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 16:10:32 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <19991206210519.1434.qmail@web904.mail.yahoo.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Jan Stotts <jdstotts@yahoo.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:3813] Re: academically bound X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Status: RO Content-Length: 2521 Lines: 67 I think that Theresa has a point about expecting first generation immigrant to work at the bottom of the ladder. However, we do have to keep in mind that all federally funded adult education programs, both ESL and non-ESL are defined by law as offering education up to, but not above, the high school graduation level. This means that those programs can not offer college level courses whether academic or vocational to any student, ESL or not. The sad thing is that too few federally funded adult education programs are successful in pulling students up to the level of English that is expected of a high school graduate. Another reason for this is that all states have different standards, some having no standards at all, for what constitutes English at a 12th grade graduation level. The person who wanted to focus on survival English probably was uncomfortable going any higher because she didn't know how "high" high school English should be to graduate. It's a problem that the field would do well to investigate a little further. Jan Stotts --- Theresa Pruett-Said <pruetlst@martin.luther.edu> wrote: > My impression has always been that the US government > is not really > interested in the upward mobility of immigrants in > this country. It seems > like the US has a long history of expecting first > generation immigrants to > do jobs at the bottom of the socioeconomic > ladder--and in fact this is why > some immigrants get visas to come--such as in the > case of meat packing > plants. Thus I think that would explain why you > don't see ABE > funding/categories for students who make the > decision to continue with > academic studies. During a adult ed ESL training > session I was even told > by the person who had me to train tutors that i was > only supposed to focus > on survival English even though I knew some of the > students were beyond > that point. She told me this because she felt her > funding might be > jeopardized if it appeared we were doing more than > that. I think this is > why you find at many community colleges that there > are two streams--adult > ed ESL and academic or credit-bearing ESL. At some > CC's the levels overlap > to some extent but at others the lower levels are > ABE courses and the > higher levels are credit-bearing academically > oriented courses. > > Terry Pruett-Said > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. All in one place. Yahoo! Shopping: http://shopping.yahoo.com
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