College Program On The Ung Campus

I’ve demonstrated unusual academic ability since elementary school. During my time at River Oaks Elementary, an International Baccalaureate school, I enjoyed and excelled in the Gifted and Talented program. My second-grade teacher told my parents at the end of the year that in his opinion I already knew all the material that I would learn in third grade. Therefore, he recommended that I skip the grade entirely. Although my parents didn’t let me skip third grade, I continued to challenge myself. I asked for extra homework and devoured half the books in the library in my spare time. My wonderful teachers let me work at an accelerated pace and gave me higher level problems to keep me interested and enthusiastic about school. Similarly, my eighth-grade Spanish teacher strongly recommended that I skip Spanish II and head straight to Spanish III my freshman year. This time, I was old enough to express my desire to accelerate my learning; I urged my parents to let me skip the class and reassured them that I wouldn’t be too overwhelmed. They trusted my judgement, and I’m so thankful that I made this decision. I borrowed my teacher’s book over the summer and pored over it for an hour every day until I was confident in my abilities. It was intimidating walking into the sophomore- and junior-filled class on that first

The primary goal of any school district’s English Language Learner policy should be to ensure that all students receive equitable access to the curriculum. The Office of Civil Rights memorandum (May 25, 1970) requires school districts to take affirmative steps to provide equal access to instructional program for students with limited English proficiency. The Illinois Constitution guarantees every child from kindergarten through grade 12, access to a free public education; which means, regardless of a child’s home language, he/she deserves a free and appropriate education (Illinois State Board of Education, 1998).

For the past two years I have worked as a teachers’ aide for special education classrooms. I have had the privilege of working in over fifteen different schools and over thirty different classrooms ranging from kinder garden to the adult transition program. For the past three months I have been working in an adult transition classroom with five students. Four out of our five students are non-verbal and have severe behaviors. The school is located in the small city of Corona, CA with Hispanic students being the majority group. In the classroom I am the only aide who can fluently speak and write Spanish. Being bilingual has helped me in my job because all of our student’s parents are Spanish speaking and are originally from Mexico.

Teachers are being forced to give up their lesson plans in order to prepare students. One teacher told how she had spent considerable time and money assembling books of importance to Latino culture, and how her students had responded enthusiastically to her initiative. Her students, however, would have to wait to learn about the Latino culture:

Without education one can only get so far in life and considering that most of the parents of the students did not have the proper education. Adelante’s goal was to offer them educational assistance the best way possible. Even though, you may think that learning may come easier to a child that knows two language simply for the fact that he has those two languages under his/her belt on the contrary for most Latino students it is much more difficult to understand certain subjects in the regular public school system. The key question to this is what is the public-school system doing to help Latino students achieve their goals and to continue in school? You may think that the answer to this would be easy to answer but, believe it or not, it’s not. According to Fry, “Latinos are far more likely to enroll into two-year colleges than any other group” (Fry, pg. 6) Another question you may ask yourself when reading this statistic is why not go ahead and shoot for a four-year institution? Well, let me break this down for you, Hispanic parents, just about 65% of them, know what the importance of going and attending college. They see not only the financially benefit that will come along with it but, they also see the maturing process it will bring to their child when doing so. But, wait, so if parents are supporting their child to go to college why do Latino students short–hand their selves with just a two-year Associates Degree? Which goes back to the first question, what is the public-school system doing to help these students out? One of the few programs offered out there is Adelante, their entire goal is to help, involve, and open the eyes of the Hispanic community that there is much more out there for their Children and even for them. The issue with this is that there is only one program that is doing this for the Latino community in Louisville, Kentucky.

The instructional setting is two eighth grade classrooms with class sizes of 28 and 32 students. Of the 60 students, ten are Hispanic, four are Asian, and one is African-American. All ten Hispanic students are bilingual with overall California English Language Development Test (CELDT) classifications of: one student intermediate, three early advanced, and one advanced. The remaining five Hispanic students have been reclassified to English proficient and do not require EL support. Four students are foster youth. Nine students receive special education support.

Miss Kane’s first grade class at Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School (also known as Coates Elementary) has twenty students and seventeen of them are considered English Language Learners (ELL) (E. Kane, Personal Communication, October 4, 2016). This is very frustrating for both Miss. Kane and her students because it is very difficult to communicate with many of her ELLs. Out of Miss Kane’s twenty students eight students are Hispanic, five Indian, five Black, and three White. Miss Kane’s class is very diverse and this allows students to feel more accepted because not all students are similar. Coates Elementary as a whole is very diverse: Asian 28.86%, Black 18.26%, Hispanic 37.32%, and White 12.08% (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). Miss Kane’s classroom reflects similar diversity as Coates Elementary does. Both Miss. Kane and the Coates staff really show their appreciation for diversity and attempt to treat all children equally giving all students equal opportunity. Coates Elementary is a Title I school; about fifty percent of students receive free and reduced lunch (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). This school was placed in the center of poverty and many of these students who participate in the free and reduced lunch program are English Language Learners.

On Thursday evening, February 9, 2017, my mother drove me to Georgia State Perimeter College Clarkston Campus which is located in Clarkston, Georgia for my second mandatory encounter for HUMN 1000. Due to the fact that I was going at night, it was quite a boring drive to Georgia State University Clarkston Campus (GSUPC); however, on the way to GSUPC, I had the anxious feeling of not knowing what to expect from the play I was going to watch, SHE. SHE is a play that was written and devised by Shirlene Holmes and Anastasia Wilson. Eventually, I would reach the Fine Arts building at GSUPC with my anxiety at full throttle. Although my mother drove me to see the play, she did not stay to watch driving away while wishing me good luck. I then

“Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin minority-group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students.” (Smith, 1990)

The problem with both bilingual education and English-as-a-second language instruction in the United States lies in our unwillingness to treat English for non-speakers as an academic subject (Haas, 2007). While the bilingual programs in California are thought to be mostly for people who speak Spanish, there are also Asian students that need to be taught proper English before continuing their education. As one anonymous teacher points out: "I have had 32 different languages spoken in my classroom over a 25-year period. Eighty-four languages are spoken in our district."(Anon 1998 & Haas 2007). Which for most teachers mean that it is both educationally and economically impossible to teach every student in their own native language.

Based upon the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, all English Language Learners (ELLs) “shall be kept in an adequate program until they can read, write, and comprehend English well enough to participate meaningfully in all aspects of the school’s curriculum (Education Commission of the States (ECS) website, n.d., para. 4). While keeping these parameters in mind, I began taking a closer look at the support my school district has in place to aid in the education of ELLs (primarily Hispanic) and their families. Drawing upon my years spent at both the elementary and secondary levels in my district, I would conclude that there is not enough being done to ensure that our ELLs can meaningfully

State University of New York (SUNY) Purchase college was a once in a lifetime experience for me. I absolutely admire the school for its several opportunities that many can take advantage of. For example, when going there, we visited the library and our tour guides told us about internships and jobs offered in which most people should take part in. This will ensure that you are a well-rounded, committed, and dedicated person. In addition, being able to Study Abroad, based on your field of choice, is amazing! I would love to visit a country like Italy to know more about my own background and just explore a different lifestyle. Moreover, I enjoyed having the experience of being around dancers who truly love their art form. Seeing four diverse classes helped me better understand what it takes to become a professional dancer. Other than that, the food was awesome!!

Great post Annie. My community is stereotyped as a community where people are not prepared or educated. It is really hard to work in a school where 99% are adult Hispanic people because some of them are immigrants that came to this country just to work and send money to their families in their home countries. They are not interested on set up goals on education. They just want to learn English and get a better job. I feel blessed because in the school I work more people are motivated every year to get higher education. Many students are motivated when they see their peers' achievements. My school as well as yours provide students many services one of them is free childcare. It is the principal need of parents in my community, so with this program

Many people know that Milledgeville, GA is a small city and is also said to be a college town that offers just a little more than education. I have not been here long, only a few months, but I felt that there is not much to face here. However, everyone has their own experiences and struggles within due time. Because my life revolves around school, my focus is directed towards Georgia College and it’s qualities. How does my experience throughout this public liberal arts university tie into the close readings of Flannery O’Connor’s letters from The Habit of Being? As an African American female, I was unsure about how I would be treated in the college community, especially coming from a high school with majority black faculty, staff, and

The second classroom I observed was a first grade class of twenty-five students. Students in this class were all of Mexican descent and labeled as early intermediate English language learners. The