the Truman

Every year, 60 or 70 juniors in the United States are awarded Truman scholarships, which supply up to $30,000 for graduate study to the institution of their choice. They are awarded to students with a passion for creating social change in a specific area of need.

A couple of weeks ago I applied for KU´s nomination for the award, and I have a Skype interview tomorrow. I´m a lot more nervous than I normally am for these types of interviews and subsequently have had a lot about education policy on my mind (more than normal, I mean). I can´t pretend that I know all about the particular challenge of being a language educator -- my semester here has certainly proved, through my various volunteer work, that I don´t have it all figured out -- but the more I read, the more I see the need for people to want to care and think about it. Here´s what I´ll be telling the KU honor´s program tomorrow, about what I think I can change in this world if they give me a little bit of a jump start.

I see the need for a system-wide change in language education that will be implemented by people willing to work on an individual level. In the United States, English Language Learners (ELLs) are a group that has suffered from politics governing education policy rather than effective teaching methods. I believe that that the direct result of this is the widening gap of achievement between ELLs and other students — ELLs score between the tenth and twelfth percentile in standardized tests.

As part of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, all subgroups (including ELL students) are required to fulfill the goals Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). ELL students struggle with poorly adapted standardized tests, resource inequalities, lack of trained teachers, inadequate materials and bad or poorly designed facilities. Also, unfortunately, this group is defined by its deficiencies. Once a student has been declared proficient by achieving an arbitrary percentage on a language arts test, they are no longer part of the subgroup. On a macro level, these facts mean that schools in areas with high immigrant populations are doing markedly worse and schools are struggling to teach ELLs the bare minimum for the tests. On a micro level, we are failing each student that does not learn in a hurting system.

Because of increasing immigration, I believe the success of future generations and our nation as a whole lies in our ability to effectively educate all linguistic and cultural backgrounds to function effectively in an English-speaking society. This begins with effective ELL programs.

 I don´t care near as much abuot the money as the prestige, and I care almost as much about the KU nomination as the award itself. This is a huge passion of mine, now more than ever. I interview tomorrow at 4. Send good thoughts my way!


(Sources: Jost, Kenneth. “Bilingual Education vs. Language Immersion.” CQ Researcher 19.43 (2009): 129-50. CQ Rearcher. Congressional Quarterly Inc., 11 Dec. 2009. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.Crawford, James. No Child Left Behind: Misguided Approach to School Accountability for English Language Learners. Forum on Ideas to Improve the NCLB Accountability Provisions for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners. Center of Education Policy, 14 Sept. 2004. Web. 3 Oct. 2011.)