Advocacy Statement
The district that I work in is made up of about 5,300 students and thirty percent of those students are classified as English Language Learners. 88 percent of the students that are ELL students are Hispanic or Latino (2017). Spanish is the common language that is the native language for most of the ELL students. According to the Civil Rights Data, only two percent of ELL students are in advanced placement classes. In my district, ELL students have a high percentage of receiving in-school or out-of-school suspension (2017).
In the district that I work in there is no guidance for culturally or linguistically diverse students. At the beginning of the school we had two weeks focusing on culturally and linguistically diverse cultures. These two weeks were spent on the same book with different activities that went along with it. Other than this activity there is no focus on other cultures which surprises me because the district that I work in is very diverse. I believe that this needs to change because there are so many different cultures that are present in our district. The other students should be given the chance to learn about the culture of their classmates and friends. Most of the ESL parents are not involved as much as the other students’ parents. Many of the parents are not able to speak English, so they have trouble helping their child learn English as well. They also have difficulties having their child with their homework because they do not understand what their child has to do. Since this district is very diverse the flyers sent home from the district are translated into Spanish and Creole. Other than those flyers from the district, the parents are not really informed about what is happening in their child’s classroom. Most of the teachers use Class Dojo because the parents are able to translate the message into any language of their choosing. For PTA and board meetings, when they were virtual the parents had the option to translate the video to the language that they feel the most comfortable with. For parent teacher conferences, there is a translator that is present if the teacher does not know their native language. There are some teachers in the district that are able to speak Spanish, but not many that are not teaching the bilingual classes. In the school that I work in, there are three ELL teachers that rotate into their classes for about 40 minutes each day and take their students out for 40 minutes each day. The ELL classroom teacher changes from year to year, so the teachers do not have much consistency with working with ELL students. The same ELL teacher and classroom teacher do not always work together, so they have to become familiarized with each other's teaching styles. These two factors can take time away from the students that need the help. I believe that the same classroom teacher should have the ELL class each year and work with the same ELL teacher. They will be able to create a better learning environment for the students. In a district that has so many ELL students, I am surprised that there's not much public support for the students or their parents. From the beginning of this year, I have noticed that there has not been a lot of guidance for the ELL teachers or the bilingual teacher this year on what is required or any guidelines that they should be following. My co-teacher this year is one of the few non-bilingual teachers that speaks Spanish. When reading flyers or other documents that are being sent home in Spanish, there are many errors. This looks very unprofessional for a district with 88 percent of their ELL students speaking Spanish and they are unable to translate correctly. I believe that there needs to be better communication between the district and the parents of ELL students. I also believe that there needs to be better resources for ELL students as well. In a district that has this many ELL students and does not know how to communicate with parents. The district is also not providing parents with the correct translation. The teachers are also not given any guidance on what should be completed with their ELL students. References: (2017). LEA Summary of Selected Facts. Civil Rights Data Collection. https://ocrdata.ed.gov/profile/9/district/29061/summary |