Ronica Shannon
(Editor’s note: This is part two of a four-day series on the impact of immigration in Madison County.)
Madison County school are facing a growing need to implement programs geared to help immigrant children prepare for a successful future, and there are several entities at work to meet that need.
The problems caused by language barriers in schools is one that leaks out into everyday activities and is becoming more of an issue, said Socorro Zaragoza, assistant professor of Spanish at Eastern Kentucky University.
“I think the language barrier is a great problem for everybody,” she said. “However, there has been more interest from Spanish and English speakers to learn the basics of the language. Both parties agree that it is very important to be able to communicate.”
Breaking down the language barrier is a task that is being met head-on by Madison County schools.
“There are interpreters and volunteers who are paid to help in these situations,” Socorro said. “There are other times when the language barrier is never overcome and unfortunately Hispanics restrict themselves from going to places and asking assistance at schools, but also at hospitals and government offices.”
To meet the special education needs of migrant children, congress created the Migrant Education Program in 1966. The U.S. Department of Education allocated funds based on each state’s identified migrant student population. Each state department of education determines the best way to deliver services to eligible migrant children from ages 3 to 21.
The plan also helps migrant students in the areas of math, reading and writing, ensures medical and dental care along with eyeglasses and free lunches and helps them with various person aspects such as learning how to make new friends, having a high self-esteem and learning to feel comfortable in a new school.
The results of this program are beginning to show, according to Roan Comley, advocate for the Madison County Migrant Program.
“Hispanic families have told me that their children are getting a better education, they have been in schools more years than their parents got to be,” Comley said. “To me, whether they’re here documented or undocumented, the fact is that those children are getting a better education. Whether they stay here, go back to Mexico or go to another state, they’re going to be able to get a job and do better than what their family was able to do and provide for their families, So, in turn, those who think in a negative sense about them being here illegally, they are going to be able to do better than what their parents were able to do.”
When it comes to conquering the language barrier that can exist between immigrant children and English-speaking school staff and faculty, “Madison County schools are doing all they can,” she said.
“We have ESL people in the schools, there’s an assessment to see if students qualify for that program or not, there’s intervention, we get into the schools and work with the teachers and parents,” she said. “The biggest thing is that if the parent’s don’t understand the written language, it’s hard for them to get help with homework.”
Local schools are accommodating more and more and have stepped up to the occasion, she said.
“If we have one Hispanic student in the school, we have to accommodate them,” Comley said. “However, their parents are very eager and they want their children to be in school.”
When migrant children move with their families, their education is often interrupted resulting in low overall achievement, low self-esteem, lack of motivation, failure to complete assignments, poor performance on tests and chronic absenteeism, according to information from The Kentucky Migratory Farm-Worker Education Program.
Each Madison County Migrant Program representative helps the students and their families in several different ways, including: monitoring attendance on a regular basis; monitoring grades; providing school supplies; offering a four-week, in-home summer school program; and providing extra-curricular activities to encourage the students’ involvement in school clubs, school functions and school trips.
They also encourage parental involvement by making home visits to help make parents aware of how important it is for them to attend parent/teacher conferences, volunteering at school, etc.
Program representatives are responsible for tracking migrant children (ages 3-21) relative to their successful experiences with schooling; maintaining records for documentation of services received by migrant children; referring migrant youth to alternative schooling experiences by using other local agencies; and encouraging parental involvement in the functional skill development of pre-kindergarten migrant children (ages 3-4).
For more information about the Madison County Migrant Program, call 624-4537.
“Kentucky’s immigrant youth are an important resource that our state cannot afford to waste,” said Terry Brooks, executive director of the Louisville-based Kentucky Youth Advocates. “That means schools cannot take the easy path to working with immigrant youth. It means we cannot allow the state’s obsession with test scores to supersede the interests of any student, and that includes immigrant youth.”
Immigrant students are far less likely to graduate from high school, increasing their risk to be disconnected from education, the work force or military, according to information from Kentucky Youth Advocates based in Louisville.
An extensive report titled “Making Their Way: Helping Kentucky’s Immigrant Youth Successfully Transition into Adulthood,” was published in June by the Kentucky Youth Advocates.
“English proficiency is the number one predictor of whether older immigrant youth successfully transition into adulthood in Kentucky,” said Jenessa Bryan, the report’s author and a policy analyst at Kentucky Youth Advocates. “Effective programs that increase immigrant youth’s English skills, especially programs that integrate immigrant youth with native-English speakers while encouraging them to retain their first language, are critical to keeping youth in school.”
Working with immigrant children while they are young will reap benefits in the future, Brooks said.
“If Kentucky’s economy is to become dynamic in the future, the commitment to enduring a productive adulthood for immigrant youth is not an option. It’s a mandate,” she said. “Taking a few simple but important steps will not only help them, it will help the entire commonwealth.”
For a complete copy of the report, visit www.kyyouth.org.
It is evident that much work is being done to make sure that immigrant children grades kindergarten through 12th grade are given all the tools they need to succeed, but the efforts are not stopping at high school.
EKU’s Division of Community and Workforce Education was awarded a contract by the Cabinet for Workforce Development, Kentucky Department for Adult Education and Literacy to operate the English as a Second Language Program offered by the Madison County Adult Education, that meets a variety of community adult education needs.
Students range in age from 16 to 70. The ESL program is not just for the Hispanic population.
The program also has served immigrants from Bosnia, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Iran, Japan, Korea and Saudi Arabia.
The $25 fee per semester covers the cost of books, and scholarships also are available.
Call 622-8065 for more information about the ESL program at EKU.
Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.
