Statistics Growth
In Falmouth, Massachusettes, the school district has seen an increase in students who identify as English learners in the past 10 years. The number grew from 35 students to 105 students, and the district had to find a way to meet those students by adding a full EL program. The program also included adding resources for student's parents as well, partnering with the Cape Cod Literacy Council. This increase and partnership remind me of York City Schools, we have had a gigantic increase in EL students over the past 10 years as well. In the 17-18 school year, we saw 22.6% of our students were identified as English as a Second Language Learners.YCSD should look to find a similar partnership with our local library. Martin Library in downtown York offers a lot of great programs. The local library could help their ever-changing population of city residence with strategic programs. Maybe parents could have English Language support for contacting the district, working on reading the report card, and even finding tools to help with translating, In the 2017 Census, 82% of the foreign-born residents were from Latin America, which may have different cultural expectations on education. Making sure the parents understand the school's expectations and cultural differences in York would also make for a great workshop.
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| Martin Library, York, PA |
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Topeka Kansas has seen a growth in their EL population as well in the past 4 years they rose from 3% to 14% in their EL population. They have added EL teaching positions and paraeducators into their programs. One of their goals is to track EL success after graduation and report out on that success, as their only other means of tracking their student progress is through the Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment (KELPA). Building from multiple points of data can definitely help define the successes of a program. In York City, we should create a tracking system for the post-secondary success of our EL students, including career and military choices. Not everyone is going into college for post-secondary success and that should be taken into account when rating the students' success after high school.Texas Schools that have a successful EL program encouraging post-secondary schools is another way to look to student success. There were 9 post-secondary schools in a Texas that received a seal of excellence from a non-profit called Excelencia in Education. Adopting this sort of award for high schools that are providing an impressive education for their EL learners might be a great way to increase student and parent buy-in to a program. In York, the York County Hispanic Coalition might be a good program to start the High School seal of excellence for EL programs. Some may think awards for doing what you should be doing are not necessary, but it does build legitimacy in what is being done to teach the students in different ways.
You mentioned the programs the library has to offer for ELs. I think this would be highly beneficial for multiple reasons. I volunteered at an ESL summer camp in the past. The camp was free for all students and took place at a school in their home district. I loved the idea but I was surprised by the low number or students that attended. I'd love to hear your idea on how to encourage parents to send their children to something like this.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I love programs like this - it shows that when communities invest in specific parts of education, results happen and happen quickly! My district is going through a similar change, and is slowly starting to react to the increase in ELs and the support that is needed to help them excel. We could use a library like that!
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