4/4 Reading

Reference: Made in America, Chap. 7

1) "Whether or not courses are made available for LEP students is a product of decisions by individual teachers based on their interest and willingness to provide them. Where do the policies that shape these programs come from?" (pg. 152) - I read this and I was not exactly surprised, but it still makes me pretty angry. These policies I think come from the higher legislature like the state, and if the state is short-sighed, then the schools become short-sighed as a product of their inability to provide funds for these programs. I know that it is tough right now in education; it is my huge deterrent in entering the field. I absolutely dislike with a passion how much bureaucracy high schools and elementary schools have to go through to get what they need and want. The state legislature is run by people who do not understand education. It is ironic and makes no sense at all. There need to be people on these boards or legislature that have been teachers or principals that can advocate for the education system, because we are getting nowhere with what we currently have. We need someone to stand up for these kids and make sure that they get the help they deserve and so desperately desire. I think that Madison did a good job in starting up the Newcomer School for the immigrant students because it gives them someplace to go and be with people who understand their academic needs and understand their cultural background. I believe Olsen mentioned that the school hired people with ESL training and who speak two languages at least. That is amazing and was a great idea when they came up with it. All they had to do was maintain it. I know that the end said that Maria (the one who came up with the idea for the school) has left the district, and I was sad to read that. I hope we find out what happens to her later on, but the school was very wrong in letting her go. I know that it is difficult to maintain a newcomer school like that and I especially do not know just being a college student, but I imagine that what they had should have been a success. We watched that video about a similar school earlier in the semester, and I thought that was an excellent example of a successful newcomer program. Someone should show Madison High that video and see what they think!

2) "Immigrant students face more than simply the academic challenges in their lives." (pg. 154) - I have never read a truer statement than this. Students of immigrant families are facing much more emotional challenges than we as Americans face. The fact is, like Olsen said in the book, many students are from families who have come here illegally and face deportation if they are found out. This situation creates a lot of emotional pressure on the kids going to school to not say anything about their immigration status, and then they are expected to sit there and focus on their academics. It is no wonder that they are not as engaged in school as they should be; they have so many other social and familial pressures going on behind the scenes that school probably comes at a very distant 3rd or 4th on their priority list. Some students have to get jobs to support their families and many drop out of school at 16 in order to help at a family business or merely be there to take care of their younger siblings since they cannot afford any type of babysitter or nanny. Some of these students are basically forced into being parents to their siblings or another employee when all they should be doing is being at school, hanging out with friends, and trying to figure out what to do with their lives. That, in my opinion, is what they came here for, so why should they not experience it? I think it must be very difficult because they probably have such high expectations about coming here and then it is not all sunshine and daisies. They have to work very hard to get accepted in school and then face their parents' 'old-fashioned' ways at home. It can be very confusing for them.

3) 'They liked the idea we were going to take the kids off their hands of the home-base high schools and we were going to teach them English. That was the beginning of the double-edged sword. They want the kids taken care of, somewhere other than in their own classroom or school." (pg. 160) - Well, that is certainly a very sad statement from Maria Rodriguez. I do, however, understand the belief of the school and I will explain why. I hope it does not come off the wrong way, but here it is. I do not exactly blame them for wanting to move the kids somewhere else. It is actually better for them to be in an environment that will support their academic and emotional needs, not to be in a school where no one gets what they are going through and they have to struggle every day. I am not exactly sure how Ms. Rodriguez meant the statement, but I have the optimistic hope that the school wanted to do right by these kids and give them somewhere that is more supportive and can provide the kind of help that the home-base school cannot. Perhaps it is the other way around and the school just wants to get rid of the students and not have to deal with them, which could very well be the case here. I just think that the home-based schools should allow for these newcomer schools to house the students until they are ready for the mainstream high school and then let them be in those classes. If they are never ready, that should be fine, too. They should at least have the goal of being proficient when they get out of high school and be able to get into a decent community college or university in the future. These students deserve the extra help and attention from people who have a background in ESL, not people who are only there for a paycheck.

4) [curriculum] "It is left up to each regular content area chairperson to respond to the academic course needs of the LEP student...the result is limited and uneven access to content courses." (pg. 166) - Another mistake on the school's part here in this quote. I believe that schools with high LEP populations coming in should at least have an ESL chairperson or at the very least, an English department chairperson who has experience or ESL training to schedule and provide these courses. It is ridiculous that someone who probably has no idea that the student is even in ESL is putting them in these classes and that the teacher of the course may not even find out until the first day of class that they have 2 or 3 ESL students in their classroom. Teachers need to prepare for that kind of student in their classroom and be able to edit their lesson plans accordingly. I am of the firm belief that all teachers should have to go through ESL training, but I know that will not be happening in the near future. Still, I think it is absolutely necessary considering the climate of the United States right now. They should at least be sympathetic and go out of their way to help their ESL students, not just allow them to fade into the background and end up not learning anything. It brings to mind something I talked about with my supervisor at BJHS about their own program. She said the mainstream teachers are using high-school level textbooks in their classroom with 7th and 8th graders which may be fine for them, but not for the ESL students! Some can barely read at a 3rd grade level, let alone a high school level! She said that she brought that to the attention of the principal and teachers, but they shot her down. They said that they just could afford to accommodate those students, so she went out and bought her own textbooks out of her pocket. Unfortunately this is the reality of the ESL situation in our schools. Until it gets better, we just have to be their advocates.

5) "The 'temporary' influx of new immigrants, which the district prepared to serve in the Newcomer Center thirteen years ago, has clearly lasted and there is no projected end to the immigration wave...there is no mechanism...for working out a more contemporary and permanent solution." (pg. 172) - Unfortunately, this is a problem that not only affects Madison High in this book, but rather most high schools in the United States that have a large immigrant population. The suburbs of Chicago (where I am from) has had these issues for the past few years, trying to account for the huge influx of Arabic populations from abroad and locally. What happened in our town was that they built a new, beautiful mosque about 10 minutes away from where I live. Since mosques are few and far between in the suburbs, many Muslims have since moved to our area to be closer to their place of worship, and this has affected the people in our town greatly. Many people are not happy with the situation, and they have a very racist attitude about it, including my own parents which I am sad to admit. I think people are hard-pressed to find anywhere that is still primarily "white" and I have told my parents that again and again. My school has been affected by the changes as well, and they have since had to hire another ESL teacher because the one they had could not accommodate the amount of students coming in. I think it is great that my school was not short-sighted like other schools and took the time and effort to hire someone else to take the load off the other teacher, but other schools are not so lucky. They throw 30 or so kids into a class and it becomes chaotic. There is no way a teacher can handle that amount of bodies in a classroom and expect to get anything sufficient done. I have learned this time and time again in my education and methods courses, but school districts are not spending money on expanding schools and making more classrooms. There is no money for that nowadays. I think schools should at least have a more permanent plan for the influx of immigrant students since it does not seem to be slowing down by any means. They need to stop dallying around and talk to their teachers and coordinators and find  some way to accommodate the new students they have coming in. There is no way around it. They cannot just deny the students an education. I think that every school in the United States needs to start working on this issue and at least try to hire some people with ESL training and have them start planning a program, especially in areas like Bayview in the book where the immigrant population is quite high.