Thread: ESOL influx hits schools

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ESOL influx hits schools


By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Friday, February 3, 2006



Kevin Herrera jumps up and down as his kindergarten classmates at West Gate Elementary School sing a song that teaches the alphabet.

Only Kevin isn't singing.

The 5-year-old's attention appears to drift in the intervals when his teacher, Paulette Bunce, gives directions. At times he stares vacantly at the blackboard or down at the carpet.

Kevin, who is from El Salvador, is a recent addition to West Gate. Asked when he started school, Kevin responds in Spanish, "yesterday."

"A lot of them say that," explains his teacher. "He came in December."

Kevin may be the newcomer in his class, but he is part of a larger cultural phenomenon that is making itself felt in schools across the county this winter: a wave of Hispanic students have moved to the United States following the end of the school year in their home countries.

"Anecdotally, we know that this is the time when families in Latin America make plans to travel internationally, or to move permanently," said Carol Bass, county supervisor of English for Speakers of Other Languages.

January is a peak month for students entering the county who report speaking a language other than English at home. For all elementary schools in the county, the number of students screened for ESOL mushroomed from 129 in December to 224 in January, according to figures from the ESOL office.

Eighteen new students have joined the ESOL program at West Gate since December, five of them from another country.

While West Gate has not seen the tide of new students it has in previous Januarys, it hosts the largest ESOL student population of all county schools with 382 students, or 64 percent of its total student body. In Bunce's kindergarten classroom, 18 of her 20 students have limited English proficiency.

The school has garnered widespread attention for adopting a tough stance on a tough situation.

The influx of Spanish-speaking students into West Gate has not phased Principal Diana Lambert-Aikens, who arrived at West Gate in 1998. Lambert-Aikens, the county's Principal of the Year in 2005 and recipient of the Washington Post's Distinguished Educational Leadership Award, has become known for her can-do approach.

"Everyone has excuses," Lambert-Aikens said in her office, filled with plaques of distinction and letters from students. "Finally, you just have to say, 'No, no excuses.' Find a way to solve the problem. Don't blame the child, don't blame the parent, don't blame the teacher, don't blame No Child Left Behind."

With no one left to blame, Lambert-Aikens and her staff analyze data to identify the needs of a population that she admits is "highly transient."

Lambert-Aikens and her staff run a de facto immersion program for students learning English. With the exception of a bilingual kindergarten class, virtually all classroom instruction is given in English, even for new, non-English speaking arrivals. Students pulled out of class for language instruction are also "mainstreamed" into classes with others fluent in English.

The work continues after the school day ends.

Remediation classes are offered three times a week after school. The school hires retired teachers to teach on a limited basis. Other staff members, including Lambert-Aikens, volunteer to teach on Saturdays in an effort to prepare fifth-grade students for Standard of Learning tests in the spring. Last year, 60 fifth graders -- out of a total 92 -- regularly attended Saturday school.

The efforts have largely paid off. West Gate has made Adequate Yearly Progress as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act two years running. And Hispanic students scored high, in the 80th percentile for reading and math exams.

Still, West Gate may not have the toughest lot of all. The biggest challenge, indicated Carol Bass, is at the high school level, where students must pass SOLs to graduate.

"With the 2000 high school graduation requirements ... more and more students are disappearing, dropping out, because they're feeling discouraged that they won't realistically be able to earn a high school diploma," Bass said.

Few high schools are under more pressure than Freedom High School, in its second year of existence.

Freedom, which has the second-highest ESOL enrollment of high schools in the county behind Gar-Field, did not make adequate yearly progress as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act last year. The school failed in the ESOL and special education categories.

Since December, 12 new students have entered Freedom's ESOL program, 10 of them are Level 1 English speakers.

McCabe said the ESOL strategy is "to treat each new student like any other student," and "to teach to each student's individual needs."

The average ESOL student-teacher ratio at Freedom is 20:1.

"Teachers can really reach each student on an individual level," McCabe said. "It's not as hard as you think."

While McCabe hedged on the issue of getting ESOL students to pass SOL tests, she said Freedom is currently piloting a two-week remediation project called "Operation Graduation," to prepare seniors for SOLs in March.

"We're not trying to railroad them into graduation," McCabe said. "There is no quick fix."

A fix may be on the way, though, through a transformation beginning in a kindergarten class.

Kevin Herrera fidgets uncomfortably as his classmates move on to their next class, leaving him behind.

Answering questions in monosyllables about his transition to the United States, he suddenly announces in Spanish, "I'm all alone now," and excusing himself, ducks out of the class to follow his classmates.

January is a peak month for students entering the county who report speaking a language other than English at home. For all elementary schools in the county, the number of students screened for ESOL mushroomed from 129 in December to 224 in January, according to figures from the ESOL office.

I still just don't get this. OK, I understand that by federal law we have to provide a K-12 education. But how can you expect to teach something to someone who does not speak the language? Shouldn't there be placement tests? They should be up to the education level of the grade they are starting and that should include English. If an immigrant was in Korea or Germany I'm sure the same would be expected of those respective languages. Why are we bending over so far with this? The kids should be required to take a placement test. If they don't pass it then the parent is required to get them up to speed at their expense. Not the taxpayers. Either that or they can just stare at the wall. I'm sorry. This is America and the main language is English. If you can't speak it then they should be "left behind".