If things couldn't get more disturbing, we have this story from the Wall Street Journal.
The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English.
The official explanation is that the Department is worried what impact having a teacher with an accent will have on students who don't already speak proper english. Arizona has many schools with classes full of non-English speakers, particularly in the younger grades (or so I've read).
According to the article this all comes out of a clause in the No Child Left Behind program which requires kids be taught by teachers who are fluent in the english language. But, it leaves what is considered to be "fluent" up to each state. Arizona seems to have decided that knowing what words to use isn't as important as how you say them.
The education department has dispatched evaluators to audit teachers across the state on things such as comprehensible pronunciation, correct grammar and good writing.
If a teacher was marked as not being competant enough they were asked to take classes. If it is decided they have not improved enough to meet the requirements by the Department they are to be moved out of their class and into another that isn't designed for new language learners, or...they are to be fired.
At no time have I read much, if anything, about the competancy of the teachers or the importance of having a teacher in the classroom that understands the culture (or language) that the kids speak at home.
There is a whole lot of irony here given that Arizona recruited Spanish speaking teachers heavily in the 1990's, particularly from South America.
The big question I have here is what about those who speak accented english as their first language? Will they not hire someone from Georgia or Mississippi due to their strong regional accent? What about a teacher from Boston?? Good God...would you want that passed on to your children? (sorry, no offence to the Bostonians here..I just can't help myself).
You can read more of the WSJ ariticle here.
EDIT: I did change the title. Maybe "not wanted" was a bit heavy.
UPDATE:
When I first wrote this the only bit of info I could find on the net came from the WSJ. Now it seems other media players are picking up the story. It's a double whammy for Arizona in the press and that's not a bad thing.
The Washington Post's Blog asks a very important question.
The issue here is how to determine which teachers really should be in the classroom and which ones shouldn’t be. Speech that one child can’t understand could be completely comprehensible to most of the students.
But again, they talk nothing about the quality of the teaching or the added benefit for the students to have a teacher who speaks their own language as well as the one they are learning! Saying though, I am making a big assumption that the only teachers really being targeted here are Hispanic.
the Washington Post