After seeking advice from the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights, Sahuarita Unified School District officials in Arizona have announced they plan to defy a state law that requires them to provide four hours of English-language instruction each day to students who are new to the language. A May 24 article published by the Associated Press says Sahuarita school officials have decided to exclude middle and high school students from the four-hour program because they believe it will prevent them from acquiring the knowledge they need to graduate in four years.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is quoted as characterizing the advice that the Sahuarita officials got from the federal office for civil rights as as an “idiotic conclusion.” He questions if it is the “final decision” from the office.
See previous blog posts on this topic here and here.
Mary Ann Zehr was an assistant editor for Education Week. Her beats included English-language learners, bilingual education, immigrants, dropouts, achievement-gap issues, and charter and private schools. She was the author of the blog Learning the Language.
A version of this news article first appeared in the Learning the Language blog.
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