3 Lowell teachers ordered reinstated

Three Lowell teachers, who were fired for failing the district's English fluency tests in 2003, should be allowed back in the classroom and receive full back pay, an arbitrator has ruled.

Pedro Espada, 62, Vandy Duch, 43, and Vong Oung, 39, have been unable to find work as teachers since they were dismissed, their lawyers said yesterday. The teachers, who were advised to refer questions to their lawyers, were unavailable to comment.

An arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, an independent organization, ruled on Monday that the district did not have ''just cause" to fire the teachers and said that any reference to their termination should be expunged from their personnel files. The teachers are also entitled to nearly three years in lost salary and benefits, including their pensions and health insurance. School officials plan to appeal the ruling, said Karla Baehr, the Lowell schools superintendent.

The teachers' firings were fallout from the state's 2002 law that moved to replace bilingual programs with English-only classes and ensure that teachers were fluent and literate in English. School systems began giving English fluency tests to teachers, leading to dismissals or reassignments of teachers who failed the tests in Lowell and Lawrence.

An arbitration association spokesman declined to comment, but lawyers for the teachers said the district's tests to determine fluency were discriminatory. Only nonnative teachers were asked to take the tests, in which instructors were asked to answer questions, such as giving directions, into a voice recorder. In another test, the state-recommended Oral Proficiency Interview, a testing administrator also interviewed teachers by phone or in person.

The tests Lowell used did not focus on the subjects teachers taught, and principals also did not observe instructors in the classroom, said one of the lawyers, Khin Mai Aung, who works for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York.

''The teaching environment is the best way to observe if they're able to teach effectively using English," Aung said.

The decision could have ramifications for other districts that administered fluency tests only to nonnative teachers, she said.

''If other districts did that, I would say that's unconstitutional," she said.

Baehr defended the district's decision to test only nonnative teachers. ''We identified for assessment people who are potentially not fluent in English," she said. ''One quarter of the students are not yet proficient in English, so having teachers who are fluent in English as well is critical."

Baehr said the arbitrator refused to include the scores from the state-recommended oral test when he made his decision.

More than 20 Lowell teachers failed the tests and left the district before the 2003-2004 school year started, she said. Some resigned, some were reassigned to positions in foreign language departments, and others retired, Baehr said.

She said she did not know exactly how many were fired. Only one other classroom teacher is fighting the school's decision, and that case is still in arbitration, Baehr said. ''This was a wrenching experience for everyone in the system," she said.

Espada, a Puerto Rico native, worked at H.J. Robinson Middle School for about 11 years, teaching bilingual classes and math and science before he was fired, Aung said.

Duch, a Cambodian who fled the Khmer Rouge in 1979, taught bilingual classes for 17 years and math for about 13 years at James S. Daley Middle School.

Oung, a Cambodian who was raised in a refugee camp in Thailand, taught bilingual classes at one of the middle schools before he was fired in June 2003, said his lawyer, James Messenger.

Espada was forced to file for bankruptcy and take his son out of college after he lost his job, said Aung.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.