Volume 2 No 1 Fall 2004


ESL Globe
An Online Newsletter

[ Link to updates for this issue ]

Ask the Experts
by Linda Starkweather


How do we modify curriculum for our ESL students, and equally important how do we show busy classroom teachers how to do it? In these days of high stakes testing, such questions are central to our role as the ESL teacher-expert in a given school.

In this issue of The Globe, we have gone to the experts, certified ESL teachers in public schools, and asked them what strategies they most recommend for mainstream teachers to use with their ESL students.

We think you’re going to like these experts’ ideas.

  1. Verena Shanin -- Greenville County Schools
  2. Jim Lehrman and Sheila Keeling -- Combs Elementary School
  3. Leah Harkness -- Millbrook Middle School
  4. Kathy Hrivnak -- Lead Mine Elementary
  5. Mary Fahle -- Apex High School

 

ESL Coordinators Speak out about NCLB
by Linda Starkweather

In this issue of the Globe we decided to go straight to the source to find out what impact the federal education legislation, No Child Left Behind, is having on ESL students in public schools throughout North Carolina. We have interviewed a cross section of ESL coordinators in counties across the state to find out what is good about the law and what is not. Also, we have asked them to look into their crystal ball to predict what impact the law may have five years from now on students and their schools.

In all, we have interviewed the four coordinators for Durham, New Hanover, Asheboro City, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg counties. Follow the links to see what each has to say.

 

Suits May Target No Child Left Behind Act
by Linda Starkweather

According to an article posted at edweek.org, on Oct. 1, 2004, 32 states have proposed resolutions and challenges to NCLB. North Carolina is not among those states. Nonetheless, twenty-one states have requested waivers, revisions, or exclusions from the law and eighteen have requested increases or full federal funding of NCLB. On a more serious note, 6 states (Arizona, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) have refused to comply with all or part of NCLB, and 5 have prohibited spending of state money on NCLB mandates (Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wisconsin.).

Now, reported by the AP on November 1, 2004, a flood of lawsuits aimed at avoiding the sanctions of NCLB are on their way.

[ Link to story ]

 

New Education Secretary Margaret Spellings
by Linda Starkweather

[ Link to story ]

 

ESL Globeis an online newsletter of NC State University