Unaccompanied minors registered for school in Lexington NE
Unaccompanied minors registered for school in Lexington
School officials say new students aren’t an issue, schools already have large English Language Learner population
Posted: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 5:45 pm
Ben Schwartz Lexington Clipper-Herald | 0 comments
LEXINGTON, Neb. - An influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America has flooded into the United States, and some of those minors have made their way to Lexington, according to local school officials.
How to handle the influx of young immigrants is a matter of much national debate, but presently some of the them are placed with family members or other sponsors as their case moves through immigration court.
According to the federal Department of Education, “All children in the United States are entitled to equal access to a public elementary and secondary education, regardless of their or their parents’ actual or perceived national origin, citizenship, or immigration status. This includes recently arrived unaccompanied children, who are in immigration proceedings while residing in local communities with a parent, family member, or other appropriate adult sponsor.”
Lexington schools Superintendent John Hakonson said that the district believes 11 current students are recently immigrated minors.
Until recently, the schools were not aware of any students who were part of the influx of unaccompanied minors. However, paperwork for new students indicated that 11 students are.
The school system doesn’t receive any sort of special notice from the federal government when a former unaccompanied minor moves to the community and registers for school, but LPs officials say the paper work they receive tips them off. For example, the unaccompanied minors are vaccinated at holding facilities, so their immunization records are a clue.
A recent Omaha World-Herald story chronicled the journey of two El Salvadorian immigrants now living with an uncle in Lexington. However, Hakonson said most of the new students are from Guatemala.
It’s a big change for the students. “I don’t know much about the Guatemalan education system, other than I’ve been told it is very different from what we have in the United States,” Hakonson said.
Despite the fact that these new students have very little experience with the English language, Hakonson said that the current number of students doesn’t really represent an additional burden of any sort on the school district’s staff.
“I spoke with (high school Principal) Kyle Hoehner and (middle school Principal) Scott West, and they said we don’t have large enough numbers to have a significant impact,” he said.
That is not to say that teaching a student population with a significant percentage of English language learners doesn’t present challenges that a less diverse district wouldn’t face. It’s just that the number of new students is low enough they fit into services the school district offers.
Lexington already educates a significant number of students learning English as a second language and has programs in place to help those students.
For elementary students, the district has what it calls the English Language Academy, which is special instruction designed to bring those students’ English skills up to par with their peers.
Middle school and high school language learners receive intensive language instruction, and additional staff bolsters their traditional course work as well.
Director of Curriculum Instruction Assessment Julie Myers said the middle school has three “English Language Learner” specialists and the high school has four.
Myers said that students with little or no experience with English are designated as “level one.” They receive what she called “intensive language immersion” and the ELL staff members sometimes act as “co-teachers” in other classes (mathematics, for example) to present that information in a way the students understand while also reinforcing the students’ English language skills.
One of more problematic issues of having a large population of English as second language students is performance on standardized tests. Hakonson said that the ELL students are granted a one-year exemption from taking the “English” portion of the tests, but do not receive an exemption on the other portions on the test.
Those portions of the test are only offered in English. In other words, the students are tested in a language they largely do not understand.
Further, Hakonson said studies indicate that it takes six to 10 years to attain an academic level of proficiency with a language.
Poor student performance on standardized tests can have a profound impact on a school district, including decreased federal funding and other penalties.
Morton Elementary and Lexington Middle School are among 41 Nebraska schools that have failed to meet “Annual Yearly Progress” goals (as laid out by No Child Left Behind) for four consecutive years, and have faced increasingly severe penalties for poor performance on standardized tests.
Per No Child Left Behind, the school district must choose between several dire options to remedy the situation, including an almost complete overhaul of staff at the schools or hiring a private company to run the school. The Middle School adjusted its schedule to provide for extra math and reading instruction for students testing at least one grade level below standards.
Despite these difficulties, administrators reiterated that the new students are not a problem or an issue.
“Some of these kids came here fleeing violence in their home countries, or to reunite with family members,” Hakonson said.
He added that the district has made an effort to reach out to policy makers and invite them to visit Lexington. State Senator Kate Sullivan and state school board member Molly O’Holleran have visited in the past few years, and came away impressed, he said.
“We are trying to put a face on our school district, to help them see beyond the test score. The response so far has been good.”
http://lexch.com/news/local/unaccomp...a4bcf887a.html
