November 1, 2004 • Vol. 3, No. 16   PDF version Share this page

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Education Secretary Rod Paige presented awards to three education professionals credited for improving academic achievement among English language learners (ELLs) at the U.S. Department of Education's third annual conference on improving opportunities for ELL students, Oct. 7.

The "Excellence in Teaching English Language Learners" award was presented to Kathy Mellor, National Teacher of the Year, Davisville Middle School, North Kingstown, R.I., with awards for "Outstanding Commitment, Dedication and Contributions to Improving Education for English Language Learners" going to Carmen Pérez-Hogan, coordinator, Office of Bilingual Education, New York State Education Department, and Adela Weinstein, consultant, Illinois Resource Center.

"You shine every day, no matter how difficult your work may become," Secretary Paige said at the awards luncheon. "You ignite a passion for learning that lights the way toward the future. In many cases, your students become vital links to the outside world for their families. So it is not just one future you secure, but many."

More than 1,500 educators, policy-makers and parents attended this year's conference, which included dozens of presentations on how ELL professionals can improve the quality of education for children who enter school unable to speak English proficiently. Currently, there are more than 4 million English language learners in the U.S. public school system, of which the largest percentage is Spanish-speaking at about 80 percent.

More than $680 million in federal funding is available for ELL programs this year. For more information, visit the Department's Office of English Language Acquisition at www.ed.gov/offices/OELA.

By Russell Contreras
The Albuquerque Journal
(Published Sept. 17, 2004)

Ask Emerson Elementary third-grader Ashley Zavala about life in a homeless shelter, and Ashley repeats the word "scary," looks away and doesn't say much else about those days.

Home for Ashley and her family last fall was Joy Junction's [New Mexico's largest emergency family homeless shelter] cafeteria.

But ask Ashley about her summer at the San Pedro Library, and the 9-year-old brightens up.

There, in the quiet seclusion among stacks of books, Ashley dove into a world of princesses, castles, fairy tales and far-away places, reading at least 15 books every three days.

By the time school started, she had read 185 books.

Today, the shy child will be honored by the U.S. Department of Education and Albuquerque Public Schools [(APS)] for reading the second-highest number of books among 1,500 Albuquerque students who took part in the No Child Left Behind summer reading program.

Hannah Duckett, a first-grader at Seven Bar Elementary, came in first after reading 279 books, says APS chief of staff Tom Garrity.

Ashley smiles when she recalls books about ocean life, Clifford the Dog, nursery rhymes and, of course, Cinderella. And she giggles when she looks back at trying to convince her mom and brother to help her carry 50 books home.

Maybe she read to escape. Maybe she read to remind herself things would get better. Her mother and brother aren't exactly sure.

What they do know is that they are both proud of Ashley.

"Ashley was bitten by the reading bug," says Loretta Chavez, Emerson's parent liaison. "There's no stopping her now."

Ashley and her family have come a long way from their days in the homeless shelter, Chavez says.

For more than three months after arriving in Albuquerque from El Paso last year, Ashley and her family slept on floor mats at Joy Junction in the South Valley.

They had few options. Norberta Vasquez, Ashley's mom, had no job and little money to support Ashley and her 15-year-old brother, Jonathan.

Now Vasquez works for the New Mexico State Fair's cleanup crew and has moved the family into an apartment close to the school and the library.

This summer, Albuquerque students in kindergarten through eighth grade were invited to read at least 10 age-appropriate books, Garrity says. Albuquerque was one of 11 cities chosen to take part in the federal program, designed to encourage students to read so they wouldn't lose skills during the summer break.

How Ashley was able to nearly top the reading list amazes school officials. Not only did the third-grader devour 185 books, she filled out the proper forms that proved she read each one of them.

"Ashley is a role model to all other students here at Emerson," says school principal Jacque Costales. "She has the drive to be anything she wants to be."

Vasquez says she once feared that her daughter would never be able to read.

Ashley was born four months premature, and doctors warned that she "wouldn't be a normal kid," Vasquez says.

Her fears increased when, at 4 years old, Ashley hadn't said a word and could only speak through sign language.

Then, after Ashley got closer to 5, she started saying words like "mom." In kindergarten, she opened her first book.

Now, Ashley reads aloud to her mom, sometimes until as late as 10 p.m.

Jonathan, a student at Creative Education Preparatory Institute Charter School, says his sister has always been a reader, unlike him. He prefers to watch television.

But, he admits, his sister's reading habits this summer affected him. "When we'd go to the library, I'd be bored," says Jonathan. "So, I'd just read, too."

Ashley smiles when asked if she's proud of her accomplishment. When asked how she feels about reading so many books, Ashley shrugs her shoulders. Then, Ashley reveals that she has another skill she wants people to know about.

She says in a soft voice: "I like to write, too."

©The Albuquerque Journal. Reprinted with permission.

		Quote "We can be confident about the years to come. ... Each day we get closer to the best in American education, discarding our deficiencies and correcting long-standing problems. ... Each day we make this country stronger, nobler and wiser. Each day we better prepare the next generation for leadership and responsibility. Each day we take one step closer to this future of excellence and inclusion. And we are doing it together." U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, in his "Back-to-School" address at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., Sept. 24, 2004.

Students with blindness, low vision and print disabilities are expected to gain improved access to textbooks thanks to a voluntary standardized format for electronic files now available, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige recently announced.

Textbooks and classroom materials produced according to this voluntary benchmark, called National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), will be in an electronic format that can be adapted to create products ranging from Braille editions of textbooks to on-screen displays of text and graphics. In past years, the lack of a standardized format meant that publishers had to produce materials in multiple formats—often causing delays that meant students with disabilities did not receive their textbooks in time for the beginning of the school year.

To address these challenges, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs provided funding to the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum at the Center for Applied Special Technology, Inc. (CAST) to convene an expert panel to establish a voluntary, standardized format for materials. The 40-member panel included educators, publishers, technology specialists and advocacy group members.

In addition, the Education Department recently awarded CAST two grants to support further development of NIMAS and to provide technical assistance to states that are implementing the standard, in order to improve academic results for students with disabilities.

For more information on the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard, visit http://nimas.cast.org/.