Thread: More US Kids Enroll South Of The Border

San Diego Unified Partners With Baja Schools As More US Kids Enroll South Of The Border

Monday, May 1, 2017
By Megan Burks

CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Above: Children and their families take an adaptation course at the Binational Program for Migrant Education in the northern border city of Tijuana, Mexico, March 1, 2012.


Aired 5/1/17 on KPBS News

Schools in Baja California are seeing more new students from the United States than from Mexico. Now, the San Diego Unified School District is partnering with those Baja schools and the Mexican consulate to better serve those students.

More than 2,000 U.S.-born children have enrolled in Baja California schools since the U.S. presidential election, according to the San Diego Unified School District.

That is nearly triple the number of Mexican children enrolling, and a major strain on a system that does not have the space or materials to educate them.

That is why San Diego Unified has partnered with the Department of Education of Baja California and the Mexican consulate in San Diego. It is working to smooth the transition for its former students.

“It is an issue when we think about interrupted education and how that will impact students — and technically, you know, U.S. citizens,” said Stan Anjan, director of the district’s Family and Community Engagement Office.

Many have moved because their parents were deported, lost jobs or had a family emergency.

RELATED: Deported Students Find Challenges At School In Tijuana

Anjan said English-speaking students entering public schools in Mexico experience full immersion, unlike Spanish-speaking students in the United States, who start out in special classes for English-learners.

He said there are other things do not translate either. A U.S. student with a “4” on his or her report card is a high achiever, but in Mexico, a “4” means failing, Anjan said. He said he has heard of students being placed in lower grade levels because of the misunderstanding.

The differences add up to a rough transition.

“We are seeing an influx of students transitioning back and forth from U.S. to Mexican schools and vice-versa, experiencing significant culture shock that has a large impact on their education,” said Baja California’s Secretary of Education, Miguel Ángel Mendoza González, in a press release.

RELATED: To Attend School, Young U.S. Citizens Who Live In Mexico Cross The Border Daily

The partnership plans to pair up three San Diego kindergarten teachers with their counterparts in Mexico to troubleshoot inconsistencies between the school systems, improve communication and record sharing among schools, and bridge inconsistent curriculum so students are less likely to skip a beat when moving between systems.

San Diego Unified officials plan to travel to Mexico in May.

The teachers will follow at a later date, but much of their collaboration will occur online, Anjan said.

The district also plans to develop informational materials that parents can access before making a move to either side of the border.

The phenomenon, while more acute since the election, is not new. The district has always had students who leave the country for an extended period of time and later return. The district says the partnership is an investment in children who may likely return to San Diego schools.

“Diversity is one of our core strengths as a school district and a city, just as bi-national students make our schools stronger, it is our job to provide them with every opportunity to achieve educational success,” said Superintendent Cindy Marten in a press release.

The district recently caught heat from a small group of protesters for catering to immigrant families at a time when some 1,700 staff could be laid off. The district has worked to ease fears about immigration enforcement at school sites, rolled out an anti-Islamophobia program, and voted to support a state boycott of border wall contractors.

San Diego State University already has a similar partnership.

Students in its Department of Dual Language and English-Learner Education have long collaborated with teachers in Mexico.

The partnership has grown stronger in recent years as the influx of U.S.-born students requires Mexican teachers to seek training in bilingual education.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/may/01...l-more-us-kid/

Deported Students Find Challenges At School In Tijuana

Monday, April 3, 2017
Claudio Sanchez / NPR

PHOTO BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR NPR

Students raise their hands at the Escuela 20 Noviembre school in Tijuana, Mexico.

PHOTO BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR NPR

A family waits before a class for new student arrivals to Mexico at the Tijuana Education Department in Tijuana, Mexico.

PHOTO BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR NPR

Some of the concerns the new students wrote.

PHOTO BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR NPR

Students engage in a class project at the Escuela 20 Noviembre school in Tijuana, Mexico.

PHOTO BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR NPR

New arrivals to Mexico discuss challenges during a class at the Tijuana Education Department.

PHOTO BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR NPR

Recent arrivals sit in class at the Eucario Zavala Secondario 63 school in Tijuana, Mexico.

PHOTO BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR NPR

Students play during recess at the Eucario Zavala Secondario 63 school in Tijuana.


As President Trump moves to fulfill his campaign promise to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally, they'll most likely include Mexicans whose children were born in the U.S.. Over half a million of these kids are already in Mexico.

Researchers call them "los invisibles", the invisible ones, because they often end up in an educational limbo of sorts.

Most don't read or write in Spanish, so they're held back.

Many get discouraged and stop going to school. In some cases schools even refuse to enroll them.

In the border city of Tijuana, however, there's a model program designed to help these children.

At 20 de Noviembre Elementary, for example, roughly one-tenth of the school's 700 students were born in the U.S. Administrators and teachers here have embraced kids like Anthony David Martinez, a skinny 9-year-old who recently arrived from Barstow, Calif. That's where he was born.

Anthony could have stayed in California because he's a U.S. citizen, but his parents are not. They were forced to return to Mexico and didn't want to split up the family.

"I was like, 'Oh no, I'm going to have to make new friends, new school, new everything,' " says Anthony. "But now I'm happy here."

Anthony's fourth-grade teacher says his Spanish is "a work in progress," but he has learned how to read and write in Spanish fairly quickly. It wasn't easy switching from English to Spanish in class or when doing his homework, says Anthony. He's still not used to saying the name of his school in English — 20 November. "It's kind of weird," he chuckles.

At 20 de Noviembre, children like Anthony are not segregated or put in some corner of the school. They're paired with native Spanish-speakers and they get lots of one-on-one tutoring to build their vocabulary and grammar in Spanish.

To keep them from feeling frustrated or isolated, they're allowed to mingle with other English-speaking kids during the day so it's not uncommon to hear English at recess or lunch. There's no stigma to speaking English because it's a highly prized skill in Mexican schools.

Researchers say this is the model for how schools should treat and teach the half million U.S.-born students who've enrolled throughout Mexico. It has become more urgent because their numbers are growing, says Amparo Lopez, a state coordinator with Baja California's Department of Education.

This school year alone, she says, more than 12,000 students from all parts of the U.S. enrolled in schools across the state.

That's on top of the 58,000 who were already here. Only the border state of Chihuahua has received more.

Lopez says the surge began in 2006 with a sharp increase in deportations, followed by even bigger increases during the Obama administration. And it wasn't just because people were being deported. Many Mexican immigrants working illegally in the U.S. returned on their own because they lost their job during the recession.

Today, many of these families are struggling in Mexico, and their kids are feeling the stress in school. In Tijuana, school officials have been quick to identify those who need the most help. Recent arrivals are invited to meet with tutors and counselors at the school district's offices at least once a week.

It has been especially helpful for kids like 13-year-old Julian Sanchez. He's a U.S. citizen born in Los Angeles. His mom and dad had crossed into the U.S. illegally before he was born. They were recently deported and Julian had no choice but to come to Tijuana with them. He does not speak Spanish.

"I don't know, like, how to read it or write it," says Julian. His mother, Araceli Sanchez, says she tries to help him with his schoolwork in Spanish, but he's still struggling to learn the language.

"At least here," she says, "with the help of tutors he's learning more words and proper grammar."

But counselors say these kids need a lot more than that. Their self-esteem is really low when they arrive. Most are deeply sad about leaving their homes in the U.S. and schools don't always know how to help them.

Which brings us back to 9-year-old Anthony and 20 de Noviembre Elementary in Tijuana. Anthony is thriving because he gets so much academic and emotional support.

It's the reason his Spanish has improved so quickly.

But there's something else about Anthony. He seems to be learning a lot about himself and the world he left behind in California.

"I was never white when I was in Barstow," he says. "I was always brown."

Now, he adds, "I see myself more Mexican. I belong in Mexico. This is my home."

Anthony isn't sure when he'll return to the U.S., but says he wants to, some day, because it's home, too. He is, after all, a U.S. citizen by birth.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/apr/03...-at-school-in/

Thank God - at least a half a million are outta here and in their own country and off of our $$$services.

Most don't read or write in Spanish, so they're held back.

This is hard to believe; they all speak spanish, it is spoken at home, with their friends etc. Everything at home is in spanish, parents have no english worded notes, papers etc. They never write any lists etc to their kids? Never read any books to their kids? Paleeze, tell that to another sucker. Nothing but lies from those south of the borer - get them all out of here. No papers, no stay.

Very long file @

Latino Illiteracy in the United States. | reynaldo f. macias - Academia.edu

www.academia.edu/594420/Latino_Illiteracy_in_the_United_States

The following is a part of the statistical profile of Latinos and English illiteracy ... 25.9% of the Mexican origin population as not literate in English OR Spanish in ...

Nearly half a million U.S. citizens are enrolled in Mexican schools



Life after deportation for U.S.-born children


American students face tough transition at Mexican schools


Young U.S. Citizens in Mexico Brave Risks for American Schools