Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland Public Schools are not meeting state and federal standards for  teaching students who don’t speak English at home. Rob Manning reports on the state audit, out today (Tuesday).

The audit found five areas where Portland’s practices run afoul of the law.

The state audit found conflicts between what the district reported to the state, and what is actually going on inside the classroom. That violates federal education and civil rights’ laws.

Some of Portland’s thousands of English learners aren’t being appropriately taught English, or other core subjects.

And the audit found students have been deprived of meaningful participation in class work with fellow English speakers.

Those last two problems also violate both state and federal laws.

Oregon officials gave the district the next few months to fix the problems.

Auditors also gave the district some specific marching orders.

For instance, they want the district to establish a system to train more mainstream teachers on how to instruct students who are learning English.