Luis Reyes says it's critical to provide quality educational opportunities to English language learners. "They are here and they are growing," said Reyes, a visiting fellow at the Bronx Institute at Lehman College of the City University of New York, who grew up in the projects of the South Bronx.

As a scholar and educator, Reyes is convinced that students thrive when their home language and culture are sustained in the educational process.

"Too many people see children speaking a language other than English as a problem, a deficit that needs to be fixed," Reyes said. "Bilingual, bi-cultural education is a different philosophy. It says that children have a civil right to their home language and that language should not be a barrier to getting an equal education."

This approach helps accelerate the ultimate goal, Reyes said, which is English proficiency.

Languages other than English are a resource, not a problem, Reyes told participants at an "Ending the Gap" workshop sponsored by NYSUT on raising achievement for ELL students.

• Related article: The benefits of bilingual education for English language learners

Language, he explained, is easy to learn when it is sensible, relevant, interesting, belongs to the learner and is presented to the student through choices. It's when language is artificial, dull, broken into pieces and belonging to someone else that it becomes difficult.

"The stronger the base in the first language," he said, "the more developed their literacy, the more successful they are in acquiring literacy in the second language."

Nonetheless, Reyes said there's a long list of reasons for why the goal of providing quality bilingual education in schools is often undercut, including:

• disproportionately high Latino dropout rates and academic underachievement;

• a lack of appropriate guidance and support services;

• failure to comply with requirements for services;

• low representation of Latinos in teaching and administration; and,

• discouraging parental involvement.

The standardized testing regimen of No Child Left Behind isn't helping, either, Reyes warned.

The script

"Teachers too often are directed to ignore best practice and follow the script," he said. "When standardized tests dominate, first-language literacy is discouraged and not valued."

He cited a study from Maryland that found that because of the growing amount of time spent on tests, ELL fifth-graders missed 33 days of ELL classes — 18 percent of that instructional time.

Meanwhile, a New York City study compared two strategies: acquiring English as a second language; and bilingual education that stresses acquiring literacy in both. That study, Reyes said, found that while the ESL group exited their language classes faster, the bilingual group did better academically over the long term.

Citing scholar Jim Cummins, Reyes stressed that when students' identities are affirmed in the classroom, they then feel comfortable and participate fully in literacy learning. Other contributors to student engagement include:

• Not discouraging the use of a first language;

• Not making decoding techniques the be-all and end-all;

• Allowing students to feel they have a voice and are listened to; and

Pointing to additional research, Reyes noted that two-way instruction — in which native English speakers were part of the class and were themselves working on acquiring a second language — positioned ELL students as resources, as well as learners. Thus, the two-way instruction had the best results for student achievement in the long-term, Reyes said.