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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

BACK TO SCHOOL
A place to nurture a new language
Immigrant academy opens at Shawnee

Complete Coverage: Back to School
By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal


By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal



Abdikadir Mohamed was an infant when his parents fled Somalia's civil war. He grew up in a refugee camp occasionally raided by bandits before arriving as a 15-year-old in Louisville last June.

Today, barely schooled, lacking English and unfamiliar with American culture, Abdikadir, will start classes in a Louisville high school -- but in a special program designed to jump-start his academic career.

"I'm nervous and excited," he said recently through an interpreter.

With roughly 5,400 non-English speaking students in the district -- three times as many as six years ago -- Jefferson County has had to adapt its schooling.

As part of that response, the district today is opening its Newcomer Academy in Shawnee High School, which will teach about 210 immigrant students in grades six though 11. Some of them are refugees, and most speak no English and have little or no formal education.

Students from Somalia, Cuba, Sudan, Mexico and elsewhere will take reading, math, science and other subjects infused with intensive language instruction. They'll stay for one or two years, depending on their needs, before attending other schools.

"The first year is often the most difficult," said Scott Beldon, an instructional coach at the academy, which will combine two smaller pilot programs from Waggener and Western High schools.

Newcomer academies are popping up across the nation to reach growing numbers of immigrant children, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, and other education research organizations.

"Research shows students are better able to transition to a regular classroom if they get more attention initially," said Rosie Maum, president of Kentucky Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Those students are expensive to educate -- costing about $3,300 more than the average student's $8,050, according to Jefferson County budget officials.

And despite the extra help, students who haven't attended school before typically struggle to graduate, said Berta Calvert, the district's English-as-a-Second-Language coordinator. Some attend until they are 21, or they go to adult-education classes to obtain a General Educational Development diploma, she said.

The Newcomer Academy aims to keep more non-English speaking students from dropping out.

Specially trained teachers and bilingual assistants will build academic and life skills, helping students become accustomed to American culture before they transfer to a different school with a less intensive ESL program.

Also, dozens of tutors and mentors from a Kentucky Refugee Ministries program will work with parents, help with academic tutoring and take the students on trips to the zoo and science center and on volunteer activities.

"You can imagine a 16-year-old who's never been to school. Just keeping them in school is a challenge," said Taylor Ewing, the ministries' tutoring program coordinator. "They start with their ABC's, reading kindergarten-level books. They're not used to sitting in school all day."

District ESL officials say moving the students to other schools is not intended to spread those who may score poorly on state assessment tests, but rather to encourage integration with American students.

"It has nothing to do with test scores," Calvert said.

Louis Hughley Jr., principal of Western High, said English-language learning students recently outperformed students overall at his school. But he said making them transfer after a year or two might be a difficult change for some.

"Kids will have to move from a comfortable environment to a new environment," he said.

Some of the families of students who will attend the academy moved to Jefferson County to meet relatives or to find inexpensive housing and jobs. Some are refugees who have been resettled by agencies such as Kentucky Refugee Ministries.

Among them is Luis Concepcion, a 35–year-old Cuban farmer who waited seven years before he was allowed to immigrate to the United States.

"It was hard to leave," he said through an interpreter. "Language has been the hardest part," making it difficult to find factory work.

His 12-year-old daughter, Yurima, also speaks no English. But she hopes that the new academy will help her graduate, get scholarships and fulfill her dream of becoming a pediatrician.

"I'm not ready with the language," Yurima said.

Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at (502) 582-4697.

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