Oct. 14 Board of Education Instructional Policy & Student Achievement Committee meeting
Covered by Documenter Ryan Veith (see his notes here)
Board of Education members discussed funding and engagement challenges facing the Akron Public Schools’ English as a Second Language (ESL) program during a recent Instructional Policy & Student Achievement committee meeting.
On Oct. 14, the Akron Board of Education met for a 45-minute presentation on the program, which currently serves 2,388 English Learner (EL) students across 46 district buildings.
“EL students are given the same opportunities as non-EL. … Just because you do not know the language does not mean you are going to be excluded from the IEP (Individual Education Program),” said Loi Dang-Nguyen, director of the APS ESL program. An IEP is a formal written plan to help students with learning disabilities.
“A lot of support needs to be in place, but we can’t exclude you for language because that is a civil right,” Dang-Nguyen, who is a Vietnamese refugee who came to the United States in 1975.
ESL programs are mandated by the federal government according to the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (1974).
“Public schools must ensure that EL students can participate meaningfully and equally in educational programs,” like the IEP program, according to Dang-Nguyen’s presentation.
ESL program overview
The ESL program uses 32 interpreters across the district who speak 48 different languages, including English. Other highlights of the program include:
- $5,001,829 budget for the ESL program in 2025
- 87 countries represented
- 2,388 students in the program, with 2,220 EL students at APS
- 30% growth in APS participants since 2020
- 10.8% of the APS’ population are EL students
- Five points out of five earned through the state’s Gap Closing Score metric
- 80.2% graduation rate for APS’s EL students, which is above the state average of 73.1%
Engagement challenges
Because parents of many ESL students don’t speak English, translators are provided through the program in order to engage with parents and guide them through meetings with teachers and staff. However, it was reported that parents generally don’t reach out to program coordinators. Instead, staff is typically the first to reach out and engage with parents.
Dang-Nguyen noted many of these parents also experience financial difficulties despite working multiple jobs.
Where does the money come from?
Funding for the federally mandated program comes out of the general fund. The budget for the 2025 fiscal year is just over $5 million. The district expects to receive about $2 million in state funding for 2025.
Dang-Nguyen said grant funding provides supplemental funds for central office support, technology and non-personnel costs. The district also uses about $340,000 in Title III funding, which is state support for districts with immigrant populations. A refugee grant of $890,791 is used to staff 12 positions and cover the cost of training and supplies, etc.
Board Member Carla Jackson commended Dang-Nguyen and Katey Yinger, the refugee program manager who also presented, on finding alternative funding sources through grants to keep the program working, given the gap between the budgeted cost of the program and what’s provided through federal funding.
“I just greatly, greatly, greatly respect that,” Jackson said.
Jackson also commended Dang-Nguyen and Yinger for what she called one of the best presentations the committee had seen.
“Transparency is important because, as a board, we need to know how to support you,” Jackson said. “The framework can serve all our children because we’re talking about refugees, but I’m thinking about Black and brown children born on U.S. soil, and it’s a disconnect in the same way for those students. The test scores speak.”
“Because it’s a federal mandate, we never know how many students we’re going to get,” Assistant Superintendent Tamea Caver said while talking about the budgeting challenges of the ESL program.
“We can start of the school year with a certain number of teachers and tutors and that can change in the next month. We always advocate for the needs of our students,” she told the board.