Immigrant Adolescents with Limited Schooling and Literacy:
Developing Responsive Programs
A Forum — June 25, 1999
Immigrant children are the fastest-growing segment of the United State’s school-age population. Between 1986 and 1994, the number of students with limited English proficiency (LEP) increased by 45 percent. In 1997 alone, 2.5 million American youth between ages 8 and 19 were foreign-born and, of these, 90 percent came from non-English speaking countries torn by war, political turmoil and poverty. Many immigrant youth arrive in America with limited schooling overall and almost half enter school already at the secondary level. They must become proficient in a new language, while adapting to a different society and learning school routines and behaviors for the first time. Many struggle with poverty and need to work to help their families. In addition, most parents are also illiterate and cannot help their children with school work. These youth face enormous challenges in their efforts to graduate from high school before they exceed school-age limits.
Most secondary schools do not have the knowledge and resources to respond to the complex needs of immigrant youth, particularly the schools in inner cities and rural areas, where immigrants tend to concentrate, says Donna Christian, President of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) and Director of the Program in Immigrant Education (PIE). With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, PIE targets underschooled youth (immigrant youth with limited schooling). The program helps secondary schools to develop and implement innovative curriculum reforms that: (1) improve the students’ achievement in English, literacy and content areas such as social studies, math and science; (2) increase the collaboration between school and home; and (3) promote supports that encourage students to pursue postsecondary education and career options. Currently, PIE funds three demonstration projects that are being evaluated by The Urban Institute: California Tomorrow and the Center for Language Minority Education and Research, in California, and Project WE TEACH, in Maryland.
Ann Jaramillo, Senior Project Associate of California Tomorrow, explains that the project serves two school districts in North California: Hayward and Salinas. Hayward is an urban area with a diverse and changing immigrant population that speaks 16 different languages. Salinas is a rural area with a long-standing Latino population. Currently, 94 percent of the school population in Salinas is Latino and more than 67 percent have limited English proficiency. The project started with concern from local language arts teachers for the increasing number of immigrant students who were pre-literate in their native language. These students did not know how to behave in class, and had major gaps in their schooling. Although able to become orally proficient in English, many were unable to pass the mastery tests at the end of each level of ESL due to low reading and writing skills, even in their primary language. After a cycle of failures, they would drop out of school still illiterate. A review of files showed that 15 percent of all LEP students were underschooled, two-thirds of them being Spanish-speakers. The project offers individualized, one-on-one support for the non-Spanish speaking underschooled students. The Spanish-speakers are helped by summer and year-round programs that emphasize proficiency in both languages. Evaluations of these programs show a slow but steady progress among participant students.
Project WE TEACH is a partnership between Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Prince George’s County is a mix of urban and suburban developments with a high poverty rate and rapidly changing demographics, says Holly Stein, PGCPS coordinator for the ESL Language Minority Programs. In the past 25 years, the student population has changed from 75 percent white to 75 percent black, including many African and Caribbean immigrants. Although coming from English-speaking countries, many of these immigrants are illiterate and do not speak "literary" English. Latino and Asian students add to the cultural diversity of PGCPS schools that include students from 130 countries, speaking over 100 different languages. In 1999, PGCPS enrolled 127,000 students, 5,100 of whom had limited English proficiency. Adding to the already great difficulties of these students, Maryland has an assessment-driven system that requires all students in 3th, 5th and 8th grades to take English, science and math tests and to pass a set of tests in 12th grade to graduate.
One of the challenges in educating LEP students is that the teacher pool is becoming less diverse, observes JoAnn Crandall, Professor of Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Many of the teachers never had a course on how to deal with LEP students and tend to assume that, because they are illiterate at that moment, they will never be able to reach academic success. Teachers eventually give up on these students and the assumption becomes self-fulfilling. For this reason, Project WE TEACH emphasizes the professional development of teachers and school administrators through courses and workshops. The project also provides students with a coherent, articulated sequence of courses initially emphasizing literacy. When the students attain a sufficient level of literacy, they move into sheltered classes, until being mainstreamed. Additional instructional time is provided through after-school and Saturday workshops, summer school, peer and cross-age tutoring and small classes. A cross-cultural leadership training institute offers opportunities for teachers and student government leaders to work with immigrant youth on issues of concern to them and the whole school and to develop their leadership abilities. In addition, the project has implemented test preparation courses and assistance with college applications and career awareness.
The education of underschooled youth requires great flexibility and creativity. They need organization strategies and respond well to cooperative learning. Small classes that allow for individual attention are imperative (no more than 15 students per class). Many of these students can make important contributions to their classes and school, if only teachers and counselors know how to listen to them and activate their prior knowledge. Schools of education need to focus their attention to this growing population and provide teachers with training on cultural diversity. In addition, the federal government should have a leadership role in promoting research and disseminating information on successful programs and strategies.
This information is from an American Youth Policy Forum held on June 25, 1999 at the Hall of the States.
The events of the Forum are made possible by the support of a consortium of philanthropic foundations: Charles S. Mott Foundation, Ford Foundation, and General Electric Fund.