Education Week - May 6, 2015 - 14

Schools Grapple With
Supports for Newcomers
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
recently arrived students and English-learners
provide a peek into the
experiences of the surge of unaccompanied
children and youths who
streamed across the U.S.-Mexico
border and entered American classrooms
last fall. The students, many
with yearlong gaps in their formal
education and suffering from posttraumatic
stress disorder, represent a
significant new challenge for schools.
Many are still in legal limbo as they
wait for immigration judges to decide
whether they can stay or will be deported.
Language barriers can complicate
every step of the process.
"When I speak, I am scared," said
Ruth, 17, a Salvadoran immigrant
who is self-conscious about speaking
English aloud.
"That's the problem we all have,"
added her classmate, 16-year-old
Yeykin from Guatemala.
Because of their immigration status,
Education Week is identifying
students only by their first names.
Similar to what's taking place
in many other districts, Englishlearners,
many of them recent immigrants,
are the fastest-growing
student population at Cardozo.
The majority of the academy's
students at Cardozo fled violence in
Central American countries such as
Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Most spoke little English when
they arrived, if any at all. In some
cases, Spanish is not even students'
primary language: The academy also
educates students from the Horn of
Africa and several nations in Asia.
The majority of students in the academy
are boys, who made up the overwhelming
majority of children who
made the treacherous trip to the U.S.
border last year.
"Many of them feel like they aren't
going to succeed in school, like it's too
big of an undertaking," said Margie
McHugh, the director of the Migration
Policy Institute's National Center
on Immigrant Integration Policy.
But the academy has helped ease
Kevin's transition to the United
States. He's on track to graduate in
2016, his English has improved, and
he serves as a translator for classmates
who struggle with the language.
"All
of us are a part of the community,"
Kevin said. "We are all equals."
Making a Connection
Cardozo's academy for newcomers
is based on a model developed by
the Internationals Network of Public
Schools, a New York City-based
nonprofit that focuses on serving immigrant
students. The network has
19 schools in districts ranging from
Oakland, Calif., to Alexandria, Va.
Associate Principal Megan Sands walks with student Josue, 17, at the International Academy at Cardozo Education
Campus in the District of Columbia. The school specializes in serving recently arrived immigrant students.
Close to half the students at Cardozo's
academy are 18 or older so
they face a tight timeline to learn
the language and make up sizable
schooling gaps. The students can
remain in the public school system
until age 21.
Each student belongs to a 25-member
cohort that has all the same
classes together and the same instructors.
The approach allows students
and teachers to get to know one another,
build trust, and develop deeper
relationships, school officials said.
While some English-language
programs enforce English-only
conversations, the students at the
academy are encouraged to use their
home language to discuss what they
are learning. Those who struggle to
speak and write English are paired
with peers who have developed a better
grasp of the language.
Many of the unaccompanied
youths already are saddled with responsibilities
and problems-adjusting
to life in a new country, holding
down jobs to help support themselves,
to name a few-outside school
that make learning inside school
that much more of a challenge.
Most schools are "not equipped and
entirely overwhelmed and unable to
deal with the social-emotional problems,"
said Carolyn Satin-Bajaj, an
assistant professor in the department
of education leadership, management
and policy at Seton Hall University in
South Orange, N.J. "Students need to
feel safe and comfortable before learning
can take place."
At Cardozo, nearly all the academy's
teachers are certified in their content
areas, as well as in teaching English
as a second language. The academy
also has two bilingual counselors.
To connect with her students,
Associate Principal Megan Sands
memorized all their names during
the first week of classes last fall. Students
with common first names-
like José-earn nicknames from Ms.
Sands and her staff.
The students often return the
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favor. Many call the academy's dean
of students, Antonio Carter, "Grande
Chocolate," for "Big Chocolate."
Mr. Carter, who has learned some
Spanish, is a constant presence in
the hallways, coaxing students to
class, defusing flare-ups, and offering
counsel. When Ms. Sands is out
of the building for a day or two, she
said students send her text messages
to check on her welfare.
"There's a lot of relationship building
before we even get to the academics,"
said Ms. Sands, a veteran
teacher of English-learners. "It's been
harder than we anticipated, but the
rewards have been great, too."
Student Surge Continues
Last summer's influx of unaccompanied
minors isn't a one-time phenomenon.
An
estimated 39,000 immigrant
children will enter the United States
as unaccompanied minors this federal
fiscal year, according to a recent analysis
from the Migration Policy Institute,
a Washington-based research group.
The extrapolation is based on de©2015
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14 | EDUCATION WEEK | May 6, 2015 | www.edweek.org
tention figures from U.S. Customs
and Border Protection for the first five
months of the fiscal year that began
Oct. 1. The number would represent
a significant decrease from the 68,000
apprehended in fiscal 2014.
The report focuses almost exclusively
on migration enforcement
and protection policies, but has
ramifications for K-12 districts that
Greg Kahn for Education Week

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Education Week - May 6, 2015

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