THE Direct Instruction or “DI” Program is not federally mandated by law. Rather, it is an adopted reading program funded within a consolidated grant awarded to GPSS a few years ago.
The federally funded and “legally” mandated LOTE Program and its monies were hidden under this consolidation to feed unapproved activities.
LOTE or ESL Programs in each state and territory are structured around the Health Education and Welfare Memorandum of 1970. It states that school districts must provide equal educational opportunity to national origin minority group children deficient in English language skills by setting forth effective program guidelines and criteria.
The HEW Memorandum furthers the case of Lau vs. Nichols, a major milestone for the educational rights of language minorities.
Presently, the criteria for student placement into the LOTE Program throughout our public elementary schools are determined by poor reading or math ability. This was set by the DI Program under some unknown authority.
Under the HEW Memorandum, poor reading or math skills do not qualify as “appropriate” criteria for placement and service in a LOTE Program.
A well rounded program enhances listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills using various ESL strategies taught by a certified ESL teacher. If anything, building extensive English vocabulary in all four areas is paramount. DI fails miserably in this regard.
Presently, there are hundreds of students who are labeled “LOTE” even when they have not met the criteria established under federal grant guidelines and initially accepted from our school district over a decade ago.
Just recently, there was an urgency within the LOTE Program to insure that “all English” and “dumped” students placed by DI were removed. The abrupt movement of students “in” and “out” of the LOTE Program without proper documentation is in itself illegal and against stated guidelines.
By allowing the Direct Instruction Program to cripple the civil rights of our most vulnerable, unrepresented, and unspoken members in our community, we have lost the basic elements of a “free” and “unbiased” society.
It will be quite a task to argue that a temporary reading program should overshadow established federal civil rights mandates.
Surprisingly, no lawsuits have sprouted because of this injustice through the past four years.

ELWIN CHAMPACO QUITANO
Dededo, Guam