DEARBORN HEIGHTS — The Crestwood School District has made a significant increase in the number of certified ELL (English Language Learners) teachers, exceeding the Department of Justice’s expectations. The district has 11 certified ELL teachers and eight para-professionals.  

In 2012 the district only had one certified ELL teacher and a few para-pros who served more than 350 ELL students. 

The changes to the district’s ELL program are part of a settlement between the district and the civil rights division of the Department of Justice to improve educational services for ELL students, establish a system for recruiting and hiring faculty and staff and ensure individuals who complain about discrimination do not face unlawful retaliation. 

The settlement agreement was reached after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made findings more than two years ago showing that the Crestwood School District (CSD) discriminated against Arab Americans in hiring and recruitment. 

The CSD is not obligated to hire para-professionals under terms of the agreement with DOJ, but has done so in order to better improve the quality of the ELL program. 

Two weeks ago, The Arab American News published an editorial urging Dr. Laurine VanValkenburg to discuss changes that have taken place in the district as a result of the settlement agreement and to answer questions the paper previously forwarded her. 

VanValkenburg discussed the changes with members of the Arab community on Tuesday, Aug. 25 during a Crestwood Advisory Team (CAT) meeting.  After the meeting, VanValkenburg agreed to sit down with The Arab American News and answer additional questions. 

“I think overall we need to sell ourselves as a district more than we do,” she said. “We do a lot of things in the Crestwood school district and our achievements are increasing. We are becoming better every year. We have better staff. We are growing and working pretty hard to improve.”

Terms of the settlement agreement are still being carried out. The Department of Justice will be working with the CSD for a total of four years to monitor the changes.

The CAT is part of the DOJ settlement. The purpose of the CAT is to foster and facilitate effective communication between district employees, parents of ELL students and community stakeholders. 

The CAT will meet four times a year. CAT meetings are open to the public. The next meeting will be held Tuesday, Nov. 24. 

The CAT’s 12 members include ELL parents, representatives of community organizations, district ESL (English as a second language) teachers, district guidance counselors and district employees. 

The ELL parents on the committee are Na Li, Aida Abdul Hak and Basem Rammaha; representatives from community organizations include Nabih Ayad of the Arab American Civil Rights League; Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, who represents the Congress of Arab American Organizations on the committee, and Masoud Al-Awamleh of ACCESS.

District staff on the committee include VanValkenburg; ESL teacher Christina Bannoura of Highview Elementary School; District Guidance Counselor Yursa Hamadeh of Crestwood High School; Ron Misiak, director of special services, and Sue Zahul, principal of Kinloch Elementary School. 

CAT will examine ways the district can effectively deliver services to ELL students and improve the dialogue between the district, parents and community members.

It will also function as a sounding board for the community and an advisory panel for the district. The CAT should periodically review and, where appropriate, make recommendations regarding the effectiveness of the district’s ELL program; the methods the district employs to deliver ELL services; the district’s polices and methods of disseminating information to parents of ELL students and limited English proficient parents. 

This year the school district will open the school year with two days of professional development for staff. Of those two days, one and a half are devoted to ESL and the cultural diversity issues, according to VanValkenburg. 

The training will include a community panel and highlight historical perspectives of Arab Americans.

All staff are required to receive the training as part of the settlement agreement.

“We think it is a value to everyone to learn this information,” VanValkenburg said. 

Half a day of the training will be devoted to SIOP (sheltered instruction observation protocol) training. Crestwood High School teachers have received 18 hours, Riverside Middle School teachers have had 23 hours and the elementary teachers have had 17 hours. 

These are minimums for teachers who have attended all professional development days in the district.

“Many teachers have many more hours of training than these minimums,” VanValkenburg said. “This year we will offer another nine hours of SIOP training, three hours on Sept. 1 and six hours on Sept. 25. That will give our high school teachers a minimum of 27 hours, middle school teachers 31 hours and elementary teachers 26 hours.

“The DOJ agreement specified that we need to provide 24 hours of SIOP training by Oct. 1, 2016,” she added. “We will exceed this expectation one year in advance of the deadline. Last year, we only had to have 12 hours of training provided and six more hours by Jan. 1, 2016. We are working to provide as much SIOP training as possible as soon as possible, so that our students will have the best possible classroom instruction.”

During the CAT meeting, Hiba Elhajj, an ELL teacher in the district, shared information about the progress of the ELL program and the success stories of students in it.

Elhajj talked about Mustafa Saadoon, a former ELL student who fled Iraq and went to Jordan for three years before resettling in the United States. He started school in the CSD beginning his freshman year.

“He came with no transcripts at all. I was testing him,” Elhajj said. 

Saadoon could not speak English in ninth grade, but managed to get a full-ride scholarship to Lawrence Technological Institute and joined the National Honor Society. 

Ayad suggested that the district distribute an annual report to monitor the changes and progress of the ELL program. 

“I think we should take a voluntarily active step to say ‘here is what we’ve done,’’ Ayad said. “Here are the accomplishments. It would be nice for you to take a proactive step and say this is what I’m doing and even going above and beyond what the Department of Justice is calling for.”

VanValkenburg said the purpose of the committee is to have the community come forward with suggestions and recommendations. “We will listen and respond,” she said. 

The district has also broadened its exposure of hiring as part of its agreement with the DOJ. It posts job openings with universities, ACCESS, ACRL and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

“You are moving in the right direction,” said Al-Awamleh. “We want to support and encourage you in this movement.”

He added that the district is taking a lot of positive concrete steps. 

At the time the EEOC made the findings the CSD had standard performance levels for ELL students to meet. Students were actually exceeding those standards. 

The CSD’s elementary gifted and talented program, CAP (Crestwood Accelerated Program) has also been recognized by the State of Michigan as a Reward School.

In 2013, U.S. News and World report named Crestwood High School one of Michigan’s top 50 high schools.