Thread: For migrant students, a cycle of dwindling opportunities

For migrant students, a cycle of dwindling opportunities

Migrant camp is no place like home

For children of migrant workers, area orchards are one stop in a cycle of dwindling opportunity.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY
By Kevin Sieff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 6, 2010; 8:48 PM

In her purple school binder, 13-year-old Ellifina Jean counted down the last days of the apple harvest, crossing off one box every afternoon, bringing her closer to a big smiley face and the words, scrawled in all caps: "DADDY'S LAST DAY OF WORK!"

Ellifina and her family were preparing to leave Virginia's Winchester area apple orchards for Florida's orange groves before heading north again, toward New Jersey, in search of blueberries. For Ellifina, each season brings a new school and a new list of courses that bears little resemblance to the last.

Such relentless mobility challenges the schools charged with educating the nation's 475,000 migrant students. Many never start school, and in Virginia one-third fail to graduate on time. Migrant students trail others in performance on the state's reading and math tests. That poses a major challenge for schools because federal law has set a goal for all students to pass those tests by 2014.

The stakes are even higher for the students themselves. "If these kids don't settle in one place by high school, graduation is basically an impossibility," said Katy Pitcock, who worked for Winchester's migrant education program for 25 years, until 2004.

The most recent harvest brought Ellifina, known to her friends as Fifi, and her 15-year-old stepsister, Barbara, to Virginia's largest migrant camp, a rundown agglomeration of one-story cinder block buildings constructed to house German POWs during World War II. It's sandwiched between two apple-processing plants and just a half-mile from Winchester's elaborately restored downtown.

After several months in the camp, Ellifina was starting to feel the gravity of routine. A school bus dropped her off at the camp from Daniel Morgan Middle School, where she attended seventh grade. She sat down on a wooden bench and pulled out her homework: a few pages of photocopied math problems. But as the apple season came to a close, it was getting harder to focus.

Ellifina wanted to graduate, maybe even go to college. But for now, she was more interested in getting out of Winchester. She was tired of lying to her friends about why she got on the bus at the camp, owned by the Frederick County Fruit Growers Association. She was tired of her bed, which looked like a glorified ambulance stretcher.

"If it were up to me, I'd get my people out of here," she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... -education

There is NO reason for migrants workers to bring their families with them. They should stay home and wait for the migrant worker to come back.

If it were up to me, I'd get my people out of here," she said.

I agree with you. Tell Mommy and Daddy you'd like to go home to your country of birth.

Ther are ONLY 475,000 migrant students. I think they must all live here in So Cal.

I think I misread this article. Maybe there are 475,000 in that area alone. SORRY

Originally Posted by agrneydgrl

Ther are ONLY 475,000 migrant students. I think they must all live here in So Cal.

That sounds more like Central to South Florida.