October 2011 Archives

The Education Trust today announced four schools as the 2011 winners of its annual "Dispelling the Myth" awards, and two of those winning schools stand out for the strides they've made with a particular focus on language.

More than 70 percent of the 962 pre-K-5th grade students (wow, that's an enormous elementary school) at Halle Hewetson Elementary School, in Las Vegas, are English-language learners, and 100 percent are eligible for federal free- and reduced-price meals). Eighty-five percent of students are Latino. In 2004, just 7 percent of the school's Latino 3rd graders met standards in reading, compared with 26 percent across Nevada. Fast forward just six years to 2010, and 78 percent of Latino 3rd graders met the state's reading standards, compared to 50 percent statewide.

According to Ed Trust, Halle Hewetson's improvement strategy has hinged largely on a single-minded focus on reading and writing. Hewetson students have since become obsessive readers and turned their school's library into the busiest in the entire Clark County School District.

Calcedeaver Elementary School, in Mt. Vernon, Ala., (near Mobile) is home to 262 students in grades pre-K-6, and more than 80 percent of them are American Indian, specifically Choctaw. The staff at Calcedeaver has used a multi-pronged strategy to boost achievement, including using data to identify students who need additional supports. But an important piece of the school's reform efforts has centered around teaching children the Choctaw language and culture, much of which had been lost to their families generations ago.

At the bottom of the state's school performance list 10 years ago, Calcedeaver now has some of the highest proficiency rates in reading and math in all of Alabama, according to Ed Trust.

I want to know much more about how these two schools have turned things around, and I'll get a chance to hear from their administrators and some teachers later this week during Ed Trust's national conference in Arlington, Va.

Check this space in a few days to read more about them.

Posted by Lesli A. Maxwell at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

While the political, legal and socioeconomic fallout from Alabama's tough immigration law continues to play out, people in Dayton, Ohio are taking about as opposite a tack on immigration as you can imagine.

Leaders in Dayton, a legacy industrial town hard hit by the recession, are actively recruiting immigrants to their city as a tactic to help reverse its economic fortunes. In an initiative called "Welcome Dayton" that municipal leaders adopted earlier this month, immigrants are being encouraged to settle in the city by offering incentives such as making information about public services and language education readily available and grants and marketing help for immigrant entrepreneurs.

The plan includes a section on education that makes providing ESL teachers and literacy courses for immigrants a top priority.

It's a staggeringly different viewpoint on immigration that the bad economy has triggered in many other places around the country.

Posted by Lesli A. Maxwell at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

It's been 13 years since California voters approved Proposition 227, the ballot initiative that limited bilingual education in that state's public schools. Since then, school districts in the state with the nation's largest population of English-language learners have been using a mishmash of approaches to teach English, but most have adopted English immersion.

In a new package of stories from the Hechinger Report, reporter Sarah Garland finds that the achievement trajectory for ELLs since the passage of Prop. 227 presents a very mixed picture. While ELLs' scores on state exams have improved markedly, their achievement has slipped in 4th grade reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

So what conclusions can be drawn about the impacts of Prop. 227?

According to a former California principal turned researcher interviewed by Garland for one of her stories, bilingual programs weren't working before they were all but banned and English immersion hasn't worked either. From Garland's piece:

In the same story, Garland highlights a third approach—dual language—to teaching English that has been successful in one elementary school in the Los Angeles area where most students are ELLs and low income. There, where native English speakers and English-language learners together receive instruction in English and Spanish (the majority of instruction occurs in Spanish and diminishes gradually until 5th grade, when instruction is 50 percent in Spanish and 50 percent in English), schoolwide achievement now exceeds the goals set by the state for all schools.

Posted by Lesli A. Maxwell at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Scholars and advocates of English-language learners have been poring over the Harkin/Enzi proposal for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to understand just how the nation's large and growing population of English-language learners would be served by the measure that passed out of the Senate education committee last week.

And the verdict is not great. We've already heard about the concerns from civil rights groups such as the National Council of La Raza and Education Trust around the measure's dilution of hard accountability targets for subgroups of students, including ELLs. The absence of those performance targets remain as the chief concern, but worries over the bill's impact on ELLs don't stop there.

A group of researchers called the Working Group on ELL Policy wrote a letter today to Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wy.) that outlines concerns about the inequitable distribution of highly effective teachers for ELLs, as well as the bill's lack of requirements around reporting the long-term performance of students who have exited ELL status and services.

The group does highlight a provision in the bill that it likes: a requirement that states align their English-language-proficiency standards with content-area standards.

"That's a real improvement," Kenji Hakuta, a Stanford professor and a member of the working group, told me in a phone conversation. "Sharpening the alignment of language proficiency with content is really, really important."

Other folks I talked to also pointed to other pieces of the measure, especially some smaller revisions or additions to Title III that will be beneficial to English-language learners. One addition is the reinstatement of a fellowship program (which disappeared when No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2001) to develop teachers, administrators and other practitioners to work with ELLs. Reviving that program, supporters said, would be key to helping develop capacity in the field, which is starting to see a wave of retirements, and to deepen the bench of experts as the ELL population grows across the nation. Another addition to Title III is the establishment of a commission of experts to advise federal policymakers on assessments for ELLs.

There's much more to parse, which I'll leave to another blog post. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to jump in and discuss how you think ELLs have fared in the latest ESEA reauthorization proposal.

Posted by Lesli A. Maxwell at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Hi, everyone.

I am delighted to be returning to the Education Week newsroom after spending the last 15 months working for the 146,000-student Montgomery County Public Schools in Rockville, Md.

As of today, it will be my responsibility and privilege to contribute to the conversation with all of you about immigrant students and English-language learners in America's public schools. I hope you'll join me here at Learning the Language (which, notably, was the first reporter-created blog here at edweek.org—props to Mary Ann Zehr, my talented predecessor) to discuss the news and issues that impact the more than 5.5 million (and growing) students who are learning English in our public schools.

So it's fitting that for my first blog post, I turn to California—home to more ELLs than any other state—where an interesting study from a pair of UC Berkeley researchers posits that a state test may be wrongly classifying thousands of 4- and 5-year-olds as English-language learners as they enter school.

Examining statewide results from the 2009-2010 school year, the researchers found that the vast majority of students who were tested were identified as English-language learners. Just 12 percent (or, even more jaw-dropping, 6 percent when results from Los Angeles Unified were excluded) of those who were tested were deemed proficient—results that the researchers found many reasons to doubt.

For starters, the exam, known as the California English Language Development Test, or CELDT, takes two hours for students to complete, according to researchers Lisa García Bedolla and Rosaisela Rodriguez. Two hours? What 4- or 5-year-old can possibly stay engaged with a test for that period of time? This was a test that apparently started out being a half-hour long and has increased in time since it was first given about a decade ago. Prior to 2009, students in kindergarten and 1st grade were only assessed on listening and speaking skills—now they also are tested on reading and writing, according to the California Department of Education.

Another possible flaw in the test: No parents can be present with these young kids while they take it. The researchers also found fault with the four-question home language survey that helps school districts decide who they'll give the exam to in the first place, saying that too often districts are testing any student whose parent identifies a language other than English as being spoken the most by adults in the home.

The researchers also point out some financial incentives for districts to test these young students for their English proficiency. A school system receives $5 for every kid they assess, and once students are identified as needing English-language services, they become eligible for federal Title III dollars.

Contrast these findings in California with what happened a couple of years ago in Arizona when the number of English-language learners plummeted because the state changed its home language survey. Earlier this year, Arizona ended up going back to its original survey after the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education intervened.

For a localized take on the California study, read this piece from the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Posted by Lesli A. Maxwell at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

From guest blogger Jackie Zubrzycki

We continue our interview with Brooke Hauser, whose new book The New Kids describes a year at the International High School in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

Education Week: Teachers at the International High School get very involved in students' lives—a teacher goes to Yasmeen's engagement celebration, and, in one case, a teacher takes a student into her home. Do you think this happens at International more than at the average school?

Brooke Hauser: I think it's more than at the average school. The International High Schools have a program in place called advisory, where a teacher or another staff member is an advisor to a certain number of students. They look after each student's welfare—not just academically but emotionally. If a student is in danger of failing a class, the adviser will step in and talk with other teachers and see how can we help this student. It seems that advisers take on the role of in-school parents or guardian angels.

When one student was kicked out of her house, her adviser called the homeless shelter to find a place for her to sleep. James Rice, Yasmeen's adviser, was really there for her when her parents died and when she was trying to make this decision about whether to get married. Advisers helped kids find jobs, helped kids apply for papers for visas, helped them deal with problems at home, work, engagement, death, babies. Really, it seems like a 24/7 job.

The other students in the advisory also help each other. When one girl had an engagement party, many girls from advisory showed up to show support. It's a support group, and it's especially important to have an advisory group at a school for new immigrants. Learning the language is just a small fraction of what they have to do when they first get here. They're learning a new country— in the case of New York, how to navigate one of the biggest cities in the world. Learning the language is important, but in order to focus on studies, a lot has to be figured out outside of school as well.

As far as the turnover of teachers, teachers are extremely committed to students and to the school. Since I've been there, teachers have come and gone. But that happens in New York City. It's not that they burned out, but some moved out of New York. Other teachers moved to other schools. But many teachers keep in touch with students.

EW: Can you talk a bit about the role of the school's principal?

BH: Alexandra Anormaliza [principal at the time of the book, now at the New York City Department of Education] had a huge role in the school. She really set the tone for the school. She talks about how she wanted to change the idea of what a school for immigrants would look like. She wanted it to be a beautiful place— painted walls a warm peach. She wanted it to be happy, inspiring place. Her idea fits with the larger motto for International Schools—it's opening doors to the American dream. ...

She was also really interesting to me because she's from Ecuador originally, and when she came here as a little girl, she was undocumented. She's since become documented, obviously, but what an incredible example for a principal to set for her students! She herself is an immigrant, came here at a young age and had to learn English, was undocumented and had to work through challenges, work for opportunity to come. She was beloved as a principal. The school's sorry to have lost her and misses her. She's gone on to this very powerful position within DOE and the students continue to look up to her and admire her. She's been replaced by Nedda DeCastro, her former assistant principal. She has a social work background, very different way of running the school, but also brings tremendous skill and experience to the role.

At these schools, principals have a lot of power. The culture of each school depends a lot on the principal and the teachers.

EW: You say in the book that the students' struggles don't necessarily end upon arriving at college. How are the students doing now?

BH: I keep in touch with a bunch of them. I gave the commencement speech at graduation in 2011, which was really cool. I'm in touch with Jessica at Drexel, Freeman and Mukta at UV[University of Vermont]. Those kids are all doing very well in college. I'm sure they have to work extremely hard. It's always going to be a challenge for a student who has come here to America only a few years ago. They're in classes now with kids who grew up here, speaking English. They're doing well and working very hard. Especially at smaller colleges or larger universities with support structures. Hopefully they're getting the help they need.

Five of the students from the year I reported won the Seinfeld scholarship [which covers full tuition for New York City students]. It was a huge victory for the school. Many other kids are at community colleges or state universities. A high number at Prospect Heights do wind up going onto college. The population that has the most trouble is undocumented students. The year I was there, 15% of the class was undocumented. Until we pass the DREAM Act, these kids are going to have a hard time. They worked just as hard as their classmates through high school, but on graduation day they're stranded.

It's difficult and rare to get a private scholarship to college. The majority are poor and can't afford to pay for college on their own. Many graduate to become nannies, maids, kitchen delivery boys. In the book I say that while some get waitlisted for college, the undocumented students are waitlisted for life. It's frustrating to see.

The kids are definitely aware of the DREAM Act. I was there the year it didn't end up passing. It was a disheartening, sad day at International High School. Teachers get kids involved in certain political issues, especially those that affect immigrants and English language learners. ...

One thing that has really stayed with me all of this time is - there used to be these immigration lawyers who visited the school, and they tell the kids, from the Elie Wiesel quote, "No human being is illegal. If you're speaking about yourself and your legal status, don't say you're illegal—say you're undocumented." But kids still went on calling themselves illegal. ... [I] think that's a term students have read or heard on TV. It weighs on them. It's an unfortunate choice of language.

EW: What is language instruction like at the school?

BH: No bilingual education takes place at the school. Kids are instructed in English. In class, they sometimes work in groups of 3 or 4 or 5. They're encouraged to speak in English, but can use their native language when necessary.

Say there's a group of 4-5 kids—one from Haiti, one from Senegal, one from China, one from Poland. Say one needs help. The kid from Haiti is going to speak Creole, the kid from Senegal might speak a little French—they might be able to communicate together in French, so the student from Senegal might be able to explain a little to the student from Haiti.

The executive director compares the International High School's model to learning how to ride a bike. You don't learn to ride a bicycle by walking, you learn by riding a bicycle. Kids are really thrown into English, but they have training wheels—classmates who are able to help them out by explaining something, teachers who speak other languages.

If kids are pulled out for anything, it's students with interrupted formal education (SIFE). They might get some help outside normal classes.

In a single class, you're going to have a student who comes from a privileged background and went to Chinese boarding school and another student who never held a pencil until 9th grade. There are kids at all different academic levels in each class.

EW: Does it seem like being at a school with other students who have immigrated helps the kids?

BH: It's hard to generalize. This is a very nurturing environment. Students feel safe in this school. Even though they come from all these different backgrounds, they're on the same boat because they're all learning English, and they're all new to country. There are some kids who did have experiences at middle schools before coming to International who complained about being teased and taunted by American-born students - for instance, a Yemeni girl who at previous middle school was called the Taliban. She actually dropped out of school because kids would taunt her about her headscarf. I don't think that always happens, but when you're new to the country and you don't speak English, but every other person in your class does - that's a hard position to be in. The school helps kids acculturate into American society in that when they're at their most vulnerable, they're surrounded by friends and other students who are also learning the language and also feeling a bit vulnerable.

There are other programs that are different that work as well. I went to public school in Miami, and from what I remember, kids who were learning English were separate anyway...

There were definitely fights, it's teenage nature. There was political tension between Tibetan and Chinese students... But I think the kids are a little kinder to each other when it comes to taunting about accents or funny clothes or emblems of being new.

EW: You gave the commencement address at the school last year. Can you tell me a bit about that?

BH: I was so excited and so nervous, but it went well. ... I worked at the Tenement Museum in college. It's about immigration and how the first immigrants in [the] U.S. lived in this neighborhood of the Lower East Side, how the neighborhood has changed over decades. It made me think. Every family has one great immigration story if you dig back far enough. In my family, my grandfather is Romanian. He was born in New York, but was orphaned as a baby and never got to know [his] parents. But his mother wrote these long letters that have since been translated. Through her letters, we've been able to rebuild some of that family history.

It occurred to me when I was speaking in front of these students: I was raised with an awareness of the sacrifices that my great grandparents made in order to start a new life in America, and these students are doing that. Their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will know their stories and sacrifices the same way I have learned about my ancestors. It's a big deal coming to this country from another place. It takes a lot of work and effort in the beginning, but people do it so they can create a better life for the next generation and the next. These students are doing something important just by being here.

Posted by Jackie Zubrzycki at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

From guest blogger Jaclyn Zubrzycki

Brooke Hauser's The New Kids takes readers inside the walls of the International High School in Prospect Heights, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, where every student has immigrated to the United States and students have to fail an English proficiency test to get in.

The book traces a year in the life of five teenagers: a girl from Yemen struggling to decide whether to stay in school or get married and provide for her younger siblings; a Tibetan refugee who spent 24 hours in a suitcase on his way to the U.S.; a Chinese girl who lives in a rented room in Chinatown after her stepmother kicked her out the week she arrived in the U.S.; a brand-new immigrant who is the only student at the school who speaks her language; and a boy from Sierra Leone whose immigration story seems to border on tall tale. Readers get to watch as students' language abilities and identities develop over the course of the year.

The New Kids captures the students' often harrowing journeys to America— and their very teenage struggles with homework, hairstyles, and relationships as they settle into life at the International High School. Hauser's portrayal of the school's diverse student body and its committed staff is insightful, often surprising, and a lot of fun to read.

Learning the Language spoke with Hauser about immersion, the DREAM Act, and the perils of becoming Facebook friends with teenagers. Part one of the interview is below; stay tuned for part two.

Education Week:Tell us a bit about how you got involved in writing this book. You had written an article for the New York Times on the International High School's prom. How did you find out about that?

Brooke Hauser: I do a lot of different kinds of writing, including celebrity profiles, and it's a lot of fun. I've gotten to interview Mariah Carey and Beyoncé. But I had a desire to do writing that's more human interest and investigative. A friend who works at the International Rescue Committee told me about Bronx International High School. At the time, the IRC was doing some sort of volunteer program where volunteers could go into the Bronx school and basically tutor recent refugee students in writing. It sounded like something I'd like to do. I'm interested in immigration and stories of newcomers. The more I learned about that high school, the more intrigued I became, and I realized this was something I wanted to write about. It turned out there was an international high school in my neighborhood, which was Prospect Heights at the time. It had dozens of languages spoken, kids from 45 countries—all learning what it means to be American. I thought it was so interesting.

So I started with an experience that's both quintessentially American and quintessentially high school—prom. The story for the New York Times was the story of kids putting together a prom. It was quite a different prom from what I had ever seen before. The most popular girl was a nomadic yak herder from Tibet. But I loved the students, loved spending time with school, and knew I wanted to go back.

EW: There's an incredible range of stories in the book. How did you pick specific students to profile?

BH: I read some of the kids' college essays they had worked on during their junior year. From the college essays, I got a sense of their backgrounds. Some of the stories really stood out. For instance, Jovita wrote about her experience crossing the Sonoran desert with the coyote[human smuggler]. I knew Jovita was someone I wanted to meet. But she was different than most of the kids I worked with—more reserved and quiet. Most of the kids I focused on were kids who were very eager to tell me their story. I needed longevity, needed kids who would be with me for the long haul. So I went with some of the kids who were most proficient in English. I depended on them to tell me their stories.

Also, at the beginning of senior year, I asked all 12th grade teaches. "When you go home at night, who are the kids you can't stop thinking about?"...That's how I found Yasmeen and Jessica.

EW: You have some very insightful scenes of teachers' work. How did you build your relationships with teachers?

BH: This was an issue I encountered the whole time. Some of the teachers I really wanted to be friends with. We're around the same age, have some of the same values, interests. We all live in Brooklyn. I had to not go there. But just having a common background helped. Ann Parry shared so much with me about her perceptions of the students. In fact, at one point, I asked her to send me an email recalling her initial reactions when reading the student essays. That came from interviews, but it also came from her own notes on how she felt and what she thought when she read her students' essays for the first or second or third time. We worked on details of what she could remember, and I pulled a lot of those details out of her, but I think of her as a writer, too. She was very articulate about memories—especially on the experience of reading these essays because they really did leave an impression on her.

EW: How did the students and families respond to being profiled? Did they wonder why you were interested?

BH: That's funny you ask. No, I don't think they ever wondered why I was writing about them. They thought they were very interesting as well. They were up for it. A few cool boys were like, "Oh, don't talk to that reporter lady, she's got her notebook and she'll write down anything you'll say!" But most kids were very eager to share their stories. They welcomed me into their homes and into their lives, let me sit with them at the tables in the classroom, told me what was going on with them that day in the halls or in cafeteria. We spent a lot of time together.

I tried to focus on the kids who were most interested in sharing stories, who had the most invested in sharing their stories. I needed to be able to count on them. From the beginning, I wanted kids who wanted to share their stories with me. Certain kids who had been through such tragedy—girls who had been circumcised or had escaped war or had gone through all sorts of terrible tragedy—I was reluctant to dig too deeply into those kinds of stories. I wanted to tread lightly; I was afraid of calling up memories I wouldn't know how to handle. I certainly got some dramatic stories from kids, but never wanted them to feel uncomfortable sharing their stories, never wanted it to be painful for them.

EW: You have a few nice scenes that show the teachers' struggle to reconcile the punky adolescents in front of them with these people who have undergone very difficult things in their lives. How did you see teachers and students dealing with this disparity?

BH: What happened to them and who they are now? So many of the students have these incredible stories about how they came to America. In some ways, these stories are their currency. When they apply for college, many of these students have lower SAT scores than American peers. Their grades may not be straight As. They may be doing well, but they still need to catch up to kids who were born in America and have been speaking English their whole lives. These essays are really valuable because if you're an admissions officer and you see an essay entitled "24 Hours in a Suitcase," that will set this student apart. The mining of these personal stories—very valuable to students.

But it's also a lot of weight. Ngawang, for instance: He is not his story. His story is one story of hundreds and thousands that will make up his life. He was often kind of defined by this story [traveling in a suitcase], but by the time I met him, he was this cute, somewhat punky kid with a faux hawk and sneakers, slacking off in class—a normal kid. At the same time, his Tibetan identity is very important to him.

There's some tension sometimes. Kids aren't necessarily made to be heroes during high school. They have flaws, they have faults. People mess up in high school. In some ways, kids put a lot of pressure on themselves to live up to these amazing people who they were in stories and personal essays. They are these amazing people but they're also regular teenagers.

EW: You conducted some Facebook research. Can you talk about what you learned about how kids were presenting themselves online?

BH: I'm still with the kids on Facebook, and sometimes I just have to close my eyes when my newsfeed pops up: oh my god, you need to be more careful! I like Facebook because - whenever possible - I tried to view the kids through the lenses they themselves provided. Facebook is one way to do that.

What's interesting about Facebook is that the kids were really able to invent their personalities, too. One boy from Sierra Leone—his identity on facebook has really changed. He grew up in a mud-brick hut with no electricity, but on Facebook he changed his name to a more American-sounding name and became a fan of all these pages like Will Smith, and he'd quote Jay-Z. At one point, he became a fan of hemorrhoids. My husband and I laughed—does he even know what this is?

But it was almost like he was asserting his American identity on Facebook - when really he's a kid, brand new from Africa. Both of those make up who he is today. He is African, but he wants to be American. Facebook was a place where the kids asserted whatever identity they wanted. They became the people they wanted to be.

EW: Is being American something the students strive for? What does that mean to them?

BH: It depends on the kid. If you're talking about a kid from Tibet—their Tibetan identity is so important to them. It's why they left Tibet in the first place, to escape Chinese control. Maybe you can become more American without having to lose your original identity. Is that possible?

The melting pot metaphor doesn't quite apply to this high school. In a melting pot, ingredients have to blend into a whole, but lose their characteristics. This school is more like a tossed salad metaphor—all these ingredients that mix together. Or maybe International High School is somewhere in the middle. They blend in, but they also seem to really value their individual cultures. Yes, you will see Bangladeshi girls who've stopped wearing their head scarves or maybe are less devout Muslims. But other kids have held onto the same beliefs and traditions. It really is case by case.

EW: You write about prom, graduation, all these hallmark high school events. What did these events mean to the students?

BH: The short answer is nothing. Of course, graduation means everything—shouldn't lump that in. But at first the events meant nothing to the kids. They had to learn the significance. Didn't happen at the beginning—the kids didn't care. One girl from Senegal was obsessed with prom because she'd heard about it from her sister, but most kids were like, "Prom, what's that? Why should I care, why should I go?" When they learned, they started panicking: "Do I have to go? Is it a requirement?"

Things like pajama day, twin day—these little hallmarks of school experience—when they were first debuted at the school, they really didn't get a lot of traction. The kids were like, "Why would I come to school in pajamas?" But cut to a few years later, and everyone comes to school in pajamas. Girls love the opportunity to wear cute pajamas to school. Everyone dresses up. It takes a few years—they're new traditions.

Stay tuned for the second part of the interview, where Brooke Hauser talks about teacher involvement, the importance of leadership, and how students work together when they don't share a language.

Posted by Debra Viadero at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last Friday, a federal appeals court panel issued a preliminary injunction on a provision of Alabama's immigration law that required schools to collect and report on students' immigration status. A provision that required aliens to carry documentation with them at all times was also blocked.

Responding to a request filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and a group of civil rights and advocacy organizations that enforcement of the law be stayed pending an appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit determined that challenges to those two provisions were likely to succeed, that the provisions could cause harm to plaintiffs, and that blocking them would not substantially harm public interest. The rest of the law will continue to be enforced. Interim State Superintendent Larry Craven issued a statement saying that schools would revert to enrollment procedures in place before September 29.

On September 29, Judge Sharon L. Blackwell had ruled that the provisions—and several others—could go into effect, and the state's schools saw an increase in absences and a distressed student population in the days that followed, as we reported two weeks ago. Alabama saw a second spike in Hispanic student absences last week as Hispanics around the state protested the law: 2,280 of the state's 34,000 Hispanic students were absent on September 30, two days after the ruling; 5,143 were absent on October 11, during the protests.

School officials around the state had been encouraging families to send their children to school by explaining that information collected by schools under the new law would not be used against them, and the rate of Hispanic school absenteeism declined after the initial spike: 1,226 students were absent on Monday of last week and 1,286 on Tuesday, according to Malissa Valdes, a spokeswoman for the Alabama State Department of Education. That's not dramatically more than the 1,172 absent the day before the judge's ruling. Valdes said the Department hoped that absenteeism would be back to the more "regular rate" seen Monday and Tuesday soon after the boycott ends.

The number of students who've withdrawn altogether is set to be reported today (October 17), as schools finish submitting their yearly data to the state, Valdes said. The number of students who officially withdrew may indicate a number of families who left the state altogether. This was, of course, part of the lawmakers' goal. The bill was created to make sure their state would not be a "safe harbor" for undocumented workers.

Now that the schools provision is no longer in effect, officials will see if absenteeism reduces further. But while the panel's ruling may relieve some school officials and civil rights advocates, Alabama's Hispanic families—many of which are a mix of undocumented and documented residents—continue to be affected by the law's other provisions, including one that allows police officers to detain anyone they reasonably suspect to be undocumented. After the first wave of fear about the purpose of data collection was addressed, local officials reported that other provisions were a major factor in keeping students out of school and causing some immigrants to leave the state. Undocumented parents worried about employment status or about being detained while their children—many of whom are U.S. citizens—were at school; all of these fears trickle down to students. This ruling clears schools from collecting immigration data, but schools and students will continue to be touched by the law's effect on other parts of students' lives.

The appeal panel's decision to block the schools provision matches the Supreme Court's ruling in Plyer v. Doe that collecting students' immigration status would have a "chilling effect" on their right to education. It was celebrated as a partial success by the Department of Justice and the group of plaintiffs who had filed for an injunction, but also by supporters of the law who were pleased only two provisions were blocked. One of the appeals court judges wrote that other provisions of the law, including the reasonable suspicion provision, should have been blocked. The constitutionality of the entire law is still being considered in the federal court in Alabama; the appeal has been expedited and hearings will begin within two months.

Posted by Jackie Zubrzycki at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last Thursday, The DREAMER, 17-year-old Emileigh Potter's short film about an undocumented young woman's experience as a poster child for the as-yet-unpassed federal DREAM Act, won "Most Inspiring Documentary" at PBS's Project VoiceScape awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Potter's documentary was one of 15 winners selected from a pool of 240 by the PBS grant program--and one of three award winners to focus on the plight of undocumented immigrants.

The DREAM Act —short for "Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors" Act—would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents who were 15 or younger when they entered the country. Qualified students who have passed a background check and graduated high school or received a GED in the U.S. can receive a six-year conditional status; they then must spend at least two of those six years serving in the U.S. military or attending college in order to be eligible for the next steps on the path to citizenship. The DREAM Act would also reduce penalties for states that offer in-state tuition breaks to undocumented students.

The White House says the bill "will allow only the best and brightest young people to earn their legal status after a rigorous and lengthy process, and applies to those brought to the United States as minors through no fault of their own by their parents, and who know no other home." Benita Veliz, the subject of Potter's documentary, is one of these "bright young people"—a high school valedictorian who graduated from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Veliz is currently fighting to avoid being deported after she was found driving without a license.

Learning the Language chatted with the young filmmaker, Emileigh Potter, on Friday morning. Emileigh is a high school senior from San Antonio, Texas, who's applying to study film next year.

Before you read excerpts from the interview, check out the documentary:

Education Week: How did you find Bennie Veliz?

Emileigh Potter: Bennie Veliz is a good friend, and she's the main subject in the documentary. I didn't know that she was undocumented. ...Then I helped her brother make a film about his sister and his family's immigration to the United States. I was able to sit down and talk to her, and her story inspired me. I wanted to show that the DREAM Act was important for my friend Bennie. I needed people to know that Bennie is important, and she'll be an asset once she's a citizen of the United States.

EW: Where does Bennie's case stand now?

EP: While we were filming, we found out that her deportation case has been pushed back to 2013—that means that she can stay here for another year without having to worry about being deported. Charlie Gonzales, our congressmen, had proposed a private bill. That helped to slow down the process of the deportation. Now she's just trying to make a living. She graduated with a degree in biology and sociology, but she can't do anything with her degree since she's undocumented. She's working for her local church, which is really helping her. All she can do is just wait.

EW: What did you learn from making the documentary?

EP: Stacy [director of a local media group] would send me information about current events that involve the DREAM Act. I learned that all the undocumented people who are going through the deportation process are going through background checks; if they get the background checks, they can go through the process of getting a visa. That's good for Bennie. She hasn't done anything wrong. She was a valedictorian, she worked hard. ... She doesn't deserve to have to go to a place that she never called home. Making this documentary I've become very aware of how important the DREAM Act is.

EW: Who should watch your documentary?

EP: I think a lot of the general public. I looked at Sen. Richard Durbin's Facebook page after a conference about the DREAM Act ... read these comments that were so negative to these students—calling them criminals, saying they don't deserve this. If they saw this one student and how amazing she is, they'd understand ... none of these students are criminals. They should open up their minds. It would be the same thing for them if they had to come over for a religious reason or something—they would try their hardest to become a citizen and become an asset to the community. It would also be really relevant for politicians to see this so they're knowledgeable on what they need to do.

Even high school students—one of my teachers showed it to my classmates, and I have gotten a lot of different feedback. Now they are aware of this issue, and they've seen this girl who's an amazing person, they think a little differently. I guess I want a civilized dialogue to understand an issue like this.

EW: Is immigration a big issue in San Antonio?

EP: Being so close to the border with Mexico, I presume there would be a lot of undocumented people. But they keep it really quiet—they don't want to speak out about status because of fear of what might happen. I could be sitting in class, and a student next to me might be undocumented. It's a quiet situation.

EW: Say I'm inspired by your film and I want to do something—what can I do?

EP: There aren't fundraisers or anything. There've been a few public assemblies. It's all about the government. People can protest and show voice—if there's a local DREAM Act Assembly they can show some support. Have to wait for it to be passed.

EW: How did you get interested in documentaries?

EP: They're amazing at conveying a message. All documentaries, no matter good or bad—have a message or subject that needs to be conveyed and shown to the world. That's what they help—to show issues that need to be under the light.

Best of luck to this student filmmaker. You can see the other films and learn more about Project VoiceScape here.

Video and photo courtesy of Project VoiceScape/POV.

Posted by Jackie Zubrzycki at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The White House announced on October 5 that Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is one of four new members of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

The Colombian dancer and singer is also the founder of the Barefoot Foundation, an educational organization with U.S. offices in Santa Monica, Calif. She joins Nancy Navarro, a member of the county council for Montgomery County, Md.; Adrian A. Pedroza, the executive director of the Partnership for Community Action in Clarkston, Ga.; and Kent P. Scribner, the superintendent of Phoenix Public Schools in Arizona. An eclectic group of backgrounds!

The commission has 30 members, more than a dozen of whom were named this past May.

A release about the May inductees discussed the urgency of the Advisory Committee's task:

"At more than 54 million strong—including nearly 4 million in Puerto Rico—Hispanics are both the largest and fastest-growing minority group, yet they have the lowest education attainment levels of any group in the country. In addition, Hispanics are the largest minority group in the public education system, with more than one in five students in our elementary, middle and high schools; however, it is this group that has the lowest education attainment levels overall ... ."

The advisory commission's executive director, Juan Sepulveda, recently joined U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at a televised "town hall" event to mark Hispanic Heritage Month.

Posted by Jackie Zubrzycki at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A new study from the University of Missouri suggests that Mexican-Americans in U.S. schools fare better when they maintain a connection to their heritage. "Culture Predicts Mexican Americans' College Self-Efficacy and College Performance," published in the journal Culture and College Outcomes, shows that Mexican-Americans who continued to speak Spanish and remained attached to their cultural heritage had higher GPAs and were more successful in college.

David Aguayo, a doctoral student, surveyed more than 400 Mexican-American students for the survey. He attributes some of that success to the reduced stress felt by students who were able to maintain traditions or ties to other members of their home culture. He spoke about the importance of educators understanding cultural differences: "Educators need to be aware of students' home lives," Aguayo said. "Immigrant parents, in particular, tend to put more trust in educators, rather than being involved in the child's education like we normally see in the U.S. If educators can take the time to learn about the parents' culture, the educators can have a positive impact on the students' future."

The study adds another voice to the conversation about best practices for teaching ELLs. Arayo says that his results indicate that English-only education may hurt some students: "I understand the reasons behind English-only efforts, but the research shows that if we don't accept the cultural identity of these students in our schools, such as tolerating their native language, Mexican-Americans may not succeed."

This may hold true for students from other backgrounds, too. So one question is: How can we help all students feel connected to their cultures and make good academic progress in the classroom?

UPDATE: At the suggestion of a reader, I took another look at Arayo's study. The study looks at students' socio-economic status, "Mexican orientation" or enculturation, acculturation, and generation status as they related to indicators of school performance; the study also notes differences in the way these variables affect the performance of immigrants, first-, second-, and third-generation Mexican-Americans. His survey doesn't specifically address Spanish-language use so any conclusions about language's role in the cultural mix he describes are probably overstated.

Posted by Jackie Zubrzycki at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend