MidTESOL Matters Spring 2001

MidTESOL Report from Kansas 

By MidTESOL's Kansas Representative, Cecilia Prieto-Morehouse 

The Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs, U.S. Department of Education, has awarded two grants involving Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC). The ultimate goal of both grants is to improve ESL instruction for students and intercultural understanding of faculty and staff.  

The ESL Grant of the Consortium of Kansas City Kansas Community College, Donnelly College, Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (USD 500), and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) directed by Dr. Deloris Pinkard was funded at the same level ($210,000) for a second year. Teachers are enrolled in endorsement coursework through distance learning at Kansas State University. The Grant Management Team monitors the teachers' coursework progress, offers multicultural training to the six elementary schools, and seeks input from the individual schools on the content and structure of this multicultural training for staff. Reallocation of some funds allows advocacy training for the community advisory council members, the purpose of which is to help improvement of communication between the parents/community and school district personnel.  

A second federal bilingual grant involving KCKCC was initiated by Dr. Marleen Elliott at the University of Kansas Gateway Center, the purpose of which is to increase the number of English as a Second Language professionals in USD 500 in Kansas City, Kansas. Open to high school and community college students, paraprofessionals, classroom aides or community members who are bilingual, the program basically offers a five-year college education and the guarantee of a job for students who qualify. Students are provided scholarships to support completion of an associate degree at KCKCC and a bachelor's degree in teacher education at the University of Kansas. Scholarships cover tuition, fees, books, and other educational expenses. The only stipulation is that graduates must teach in USD 500 in Kansas City, Kansas at least one year for each year that they received the federal funds. Both grants are working collaboratively on the district level, community college level, and university level to improve second language acquisition for the students in Kansas City, Kansas. 

At the K-12 level, ESL enrollment has grown dramatically in the past year. Chris Renner at the Kansas Department of Education reports that 18,670 English language learners were served in the 57 school districts receiving ESOL state funding for the 1999-2000 school year. The total student enrollment for the state: 469,377 including non-graded, three and four-year-old special education and four-year old at-risk students. More ELL were being served by an additional 15 districts not receiving state ESOL funding. Student populations in the latter 15 districts are not reported in the official state

totals because districts not receiving state funding are not required by Kansas law to report their ELL population totals. Chris's estimate is that an additional 200-300 ELL students are in these districts and that at least an additional six districts have ELL populations which receive no ESL services. 

ESL enrollment for 1998-99 was 16,161, so the 1999-2000 growth of 2,509 students represents a growth rate of 16%. ELL make up 4% of the total student enrollment. Statewide the dropout rate was 5.7% for Hispanic students and 2.9% for Asia/Pacific Islander. Chris has some reservations about how districts report their dropout rate totals to the state and believes that the 5.7% for Hispanics is more likely to be between 15-20%. 

The state is still working on adapting and adopting the TESOL ESL standards.

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