Limited English Proficiency students at Hylton High School are placed in mostly ESOL classes to learn as much English as fast as they can. At the same time they are taught content subject area and their teachers explain much of the specialized, esoteric vocabulary. The students make rapid progress educationally and SOL test scores seem to get better each year.

However, the cost of the educational achievement is delayed assimilation. ESOL classes at Hylton are creating a new segregation. If you are a newcomer and have limited skills in English, you are kept apart from American students.

The New York Times is running a series that examines how institutions are being forced to adjust from mandates like No Child Left Behind and what the effect is on students who are in essence, kept separate from the rest of the student body by virtue of the fact that they are in ESOL classes.

Some features of this mega-article are an excellent video of several Hylton High students, a blog, and some excellent charts. I have never been able to embed NYTimes vidoes so it won’t be making it to this blog. Use the link above to reach the article.

64 Thoughts to “Hylton High: Where Assimilation and Education Collide”

  1. Lucky Duck

    MH, having no connection with PWC schools, I am not fully versed on ESOL. Who decides when the student can leave ESOL and join the larger student population? The student, parents or teachers?

  2. Rick Bentley

    What is the solution? How do we create this brave new world where no one suffers disadvantage and we all hold hands?

  3. It’s like a school within a school.

    Would there be any difference if they just went to a small private school for foreign students?

    This article assumes that assimilation (cultural subjugation) is good. While culturally subjugating minorities may make nativists feel better, it’s hardly morally defensible on that basis alone.

  4. The problem is not lack of assimilation. The problem is self important nativists and their bloated sense of entitlement and authority.

  5. DB

    One must understand that ESOL education varies from school to school. In the city of Manassas, some schools offer ESOL in K, some do not. It all depends on money and population. In PWC ESOL may not begin until 1st or 2nd grade, depending upon the school, population, and past pass rate on the SOLS. Perhaps Mackie, being so wise on how to assimilate people of color against the white nativist culture should write a new curriculum that allows all students of color to “poof” develop the English skills (native or not) required to pass those dastardly european white based tests. Go for it Mackie!! As a teacher I’ll support what you develop 100% so long as all minorities pass.

  6. Moon-howler

    Lucky Duck, I think the teachers decide based on guidelines from the state and feds. There might even be exit testing. DB might know. She is right though, it does vary from school to school I think.

    I would think that the segregated situation would be worse in the long run that academic success. It seems to me that it would be more important for students to feel a sense of belonging. The segregated classes sound to me like all the ‘foreign’ kids are clumped together.

    Actually, I think I would prefer something that was a balance. Some classes to study English and some to be a regular kid. I think the more time in America, the fewer classes you have in ESOL.

    Some of those interactive charts are amazing. Did everyone see the one that showed how many immigrants in a region and where those immigrants were from?

  7. You Wish

    Students who are ELL (English Language Learners, as defined by NCLB) are tested as soon as they enter the system to see their level of proficiency. This determines the level of services that the student needs. Some students have “pull out” services, where they have one class period or an allotted amount of time in a class with an ESOL teacher.

    As for “segregation” – hardly. The students who need intensive services have their core classes – English, Math, Science and Social Studies – in a self contained class. PE, Art, Music, Electives – all are with the rest of the school. Once the student has a basic grasp of the language, they are integrated into the general ed classes with the rest of the student population.

    You are making it sound like the students are corralled into a back corner of the school – like they don’t participate in anything. Hardly so. Carolyn Custard, the principal of Hylton, is an excellent educator (recently Principal of the year) and criticism like this is hardly warranted. Go visit the school and see what actually goes on before you start crying about how unfair it is.

  8. Moon-howler

    You wish, cool your jets. No one is criticizing. I am discussing the article. Go read the article and watch the video. That is what most of us are responding to.

  9. Rick Bentley

    The tensions have at times erupted into walkouts and cafeteria fights, including one in which immigrant students tore an American flag off the wall and black students responded by shouting, “Go back to your own country!”

  10. Rick Bentley

    “White and black families with the means to buy their way out of the turmoil escaped to more affluent areas. ”

    This happened all around me. Maybe now that the New York Times states it, we can all agree it happened.

  11. Rick Bentley

    This article had a lot of what I believe to be truth in it. The ugly truth of reality that many of you don’t want to accept. The teachers and students told the truth to the reporter, and they printed it.

    Not just the illegal immigrants but also their children are disproportionately going to be low wage earners, not capable of competing with American kids. You’re letting in tens of millions of McDonalds clerks and gardeners. It will cause a continued glut on American wages at the low end of the scale. It won’t help us to grow bigger and better, it will only increase our level of poverty.

    Teachers who observe this “next generation” that some of you view with your complete faith-based naivite are giving up hope that any type of Amnesty is coming down the pike. They see greater levels of segregation and anger with the next generation of American kids than with the generation some of you abhor.

    The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Please read this article not once but twice and reflect on it.

    “The immigrant students are given less homework and rarely get failing grades if they demonstrate good-faith efforts. They are given more credit for showing what they know in class participation than on written assignments. And on state standardized tests, they are offered accommodations unavailable to other students. Teachers, for example, are allowed to read test questions to them.”

  12. Rick Bentley

    “When Ms. Cain’s students are asked why they have not made friends outside their group, they often tell stories about a customer who cursed at them while they were working at McDonald’s, or an employer who cheated their father of his wages,”

    If the employer is cheating Americans by hiringh illegals, I’m not surprised that they would cheat the illegals also. Frankly I applaud this.

    “or a student who told them to stop speaking Spanish on the school bus.”

    And I applaud this as well.

    And if this offends these people then they should indeed get lost because the anger they see over what is happening in America is most definitely just the tip of the iceberg.

  13. Rick Bentley

    “It means she has had little access to peers and networks that might help her learn to better navigate her new country, apply for scholarships, make her own MySpace page or drive a car.”

    Quick, let’s get something into the next economic stimulus package to help young Latinos create MySpace pages. I have no doubt that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi would be willing to shephard it through.

  14. Rick Bentley

    How many tens of thousands of dollars did we the taxpayer shell out to create false hope for Jorge who is working drywall, and will be working drywall.

    Moon-howler, than you for drawing attention to this article. I’m sure I sound gleeful about the glum picture it draws. I’m not. I’m just glad to see that the truth, which I can see around me (not only in the suburbs, but in the city of DC where I spend time and where my wife grew up) is being reflected. This is the truth, we are building two Americas. We are naively creating intractible situations which do and will continue to miror the black-white achievement gap. People like some odf you are paving Hell’s road with your good intentions and are causing real hurt to America’s growth, and to the welfare of America’s poorer citizens.

  15. Moon-howler

    Rick, you are welcome. I can’t take the credit though. Poor Richard left word it was out there. I just posted it.

    One thing I think needs to be said before I go re-read the article pr Rick’s instruction. Students are released from the various ESOL programs as they acquire skills. Questions cannot be read on the SOL test.

    Rick, how does this infusion of immigrants (both legal and illegal) compare to past waves of immigrants? Why is this group more destined to be low wage/low income than any other group? I thought most groups who came to America came in on the low wage earner end and future generations went to school, acquired skills, and became assimilated.

  16. Rick Bentley

    “Why is this group more destined to be low wage/low income than any other group?”

    A. Assimilation is slower because so many speak Spanish

    B. The America many of our ancestors assimilated into was one where the rich controlled America and most people groveled for jobs; where hospital care was a luxury many could not afford; where a college education was out of the reach of most. It wasn’t the America we like to think we’ve built in the last 100 years. I fear we are starting to slide in the other direction. Towards two Americas, haves and have-nots.

  17. Rick Bentley

    I don’t doubt that the problems will mitigate but history shows that it will take hundreds of years.

  18. Rick Bentley

    There will be individual success stories. And there will be two Americas. (Maybe more).

  19. Poor Richard

    The NYT is one of America’s few remaining great papers – one that
    has the will and resources to research and investigate complex
    multi-sided stories like immigration (illegal and not). The fact
    that they selected one of our local schools to focus on makes it even
    more relevant. Hopefully, this will lead to a better
    understanding of “the facts in the field” for all of us and
    maybe, just maybe, to more mutual understanding and viable
    solutions.

  20. DiversityGal

    What I got from the article is that the separation contributed to this problem, but was not the root cause. In the article, an example is given of a boy who was doing well in this program until problems occurred in his family and amongst students due to the hostilities stirred up and brought to the forefront during all the talk about THE RESOLUTION.

    I also got that NCLB has contributed to this, as well. Even though it is well intentioned, it has led to us bottom-lining everything and equating success in test score terms only. Here is a case study that clearly shows how teaching to the test to try and help all students may actually backfire over time. There are other needs to be met for ALL STUDENTS.

    I also want to say that accommodations are available for many students on standardized tests, regardless of primary language. Anyone who might be more anxious, less focused, etc. can be eligible for a smaller grouping during testing, at least at the elementary level. I bet this applies for the middle and high school level, too, though I am not sure it is consistently applied.

    Why are we seeing more anger rise in some current student populations? Is it more because of physical separation in classes, or more because of familial discussion and attitudes. Kids have a mind of their own, but are HEAVILY affected by their family environment. If they have someone at home complaining about immigrants all the time (or conversely, about how they are badly treated), or making a lot of jokes about differences, it contributes to their own attitudes and actions. I have witnessed this at the elementary level, in a school where there is not a lot of separation like the one talked about at Hylton High.

    I don’t think that encouraging or cheating, snubbing, or other more detrimental kinds of maladaptive behavior is the answer here. Is that truly what we want to encourage in our children? That’s the kind of thing that leads to violence in some way, shape, or form, and schools have had enough of that. The article lets us know that NOT addressing student opinions and the current social climate has not worked. Maybe it’s time they talked about it, so that students could learn to express their opinions in a healthy way.

    If there are people out there who want to dismiss me as being naive, then fine. I just can’t accept that there are people who want to encourage the next generation to be as or even more vitriolic in order to further their own cause. That doesn’t help, unless what you truly want and thrive on is conflict and war.

  21. “I also got that NCLB has contributed to this, as well. Even though it is well intentioned, it has led to us bottom-lining everything and equating success in test score terms only. Here is a case study that clearly shows how teaching to the test to try and help all students may actually backfire over time.”

    Then how do you feel about Obama’s new proposed educational initiative of NATIONWIDE standardized testing? I’m just glad that my kids have high school well past them.

  22. Moon-howler

    Is there a written reference to the proposed National test? I have not seen anything about it.

  23. Poor Richard

    “… Hylton, whose 2,200 student population is almost equal parts
    white, black and Latino comes from working class apartments
    and upscale housing … The school’s program for English learners,
    predominately a Latino group, includes students from 32 countries
    who speak 25 languages.” NYT (3-15-2009).

    Wow. That is a huge educational challenge — and opportunity.

  24. YankeeForever

    In my own personal experience, I’ve found that the real key to a kid’s success is parental involvement. When parents are involved, get to know and regularly communicate with teachers, the kids do well. When the parents are indifferent, don’t communicate with teachers because of either language barriers or a perception that it is all the teacher’s job and not theirs, the kids have problems. When no one is talking to anyone, the kid falls between the cracks.

    One of my kids has some attention difficulties and has had some social problems in the past. But teachers have been very responsive to requests for accommodations for him even though he doesn’t officially qualify for special education services, and he is now flourishing. That is what a parent gets when he/she is involved, supportive of the teachers and takes the time to get to know them and appreciate their work. I wonder how many parents out there could even name three of their children’s high-school teachers if asked on the spot?

    The larger point in what I am saying is that some degree of assimilation is necessary, despite what Mackie seems to think. If you can’t communicate with your child’s teachers, you can’t do your best by your child. And you cannot expect every teacher to be multilingual and versed in every culture’s way of doing things, and have that teacher still be able to serve the greater good of the classroom.

    Yes, the multiculturalism is indeed a huge challenge, and it is an opportunity. But we can’t have Babel and still be able to ensure that each kid achieves to some kind of objective standard. We have to be more realistic.

  25. @Moon-howler

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031000146.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

    “President Obama sharply criticized the nation’s public schools yesterday, calling for changes that would reward good teachers and replace bad ones, increase spending, and ESTABLISH UNIFORM ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS IN AMERICAN EDUCATION.

    How would you imagine uniformity will be established nationally?

  26. ShellyB

    I think the program described in this article is good as a foundation, but they should also add to it a way of integrating the ESOL students more with the rest of the student body. My kids were all in “gifted and talented” programs, which created almost a cultural rift between them and the other students. In retrospect, perhaps grammar school was too early to track them in this way. It benefited my kids in many ways, but also they did feel isolated when the other kids called them “gifties” and what have you. Also, it is not always obvious at a young age where a child belongs. So you might make the mistake of tracking a child in one program when they really belong in another. There should be ways for kids to switch programs without too much of a culture shock. Kids that entered the GT program late went through a hard time, and often had to go back to the normal program, not because they weren’t bright enough, but because they weren’t accustomed to the enrichment programs that were more rigorous than the normal curriculum.

  27. ShellyB

    AWC, I agree. Uniformity is a bad idea. Teaching to the test harms the students, and makes the schools into a business of churning out good test takers, rather than good students and good citizens.

  28. YankeeForever

    Especially when those tests are so easy that they are no more than “least common denominator” measurements. My kids have always scored well on the SOL’s. It’s a shame that so much time has to be spent reviewing and teaching to those minimal-skill tests.

  29. YankeeForever :In my own personal experience, I’ve found that the real key to a kid’s success is parental involvement. When parents are involved, get to know and regularly communicate with teachers, the kids do well. When the parents are indifferent, don’t communicate with teachers because of either language barriers or a perception that it is all the teacher’s job and not theirs, the kids have problems. When no one is talking to anyone, the kid falls between the cracks.

    The Montgomery County Public School System uses study circles to get parents involved in their children’s success and increase communication between parents, teachers and students. In five years, they’ve done over 90 study circles and have seen test scores go up.

    http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/studycircles/stories/

    Thanks for sharing the New York Times article and video on Hylton High School. I see hope, opportunity and challenge, not doom and gloom.

    My grandfather’s family lost their Oklahoma farm in the Dust Bowl and migrated to Oregon, where he died and left a widow and five children, including my dad. What happens when today’s homeless and jobless Americans begin migrating to where the jobs are?

  30. Moon-howler

    I do not support merit pay in education for starters. It discourages cooperation and there is already way too much back-biting as it is. It is another one of those things that sounds good on paper…but….is rife with flaws. I do not like NCLB for seconders. Again, great on paper. Pity the poor politician who ever tried to go up against it–and all of them should.

    I have a good friend who is retiring from teaching this year. Why caused her to pull the plug? She was told, as part of her evaluation, that she would have 100% pass rate on her SOL tests. Now let’s be realistic here. PWC will be losing an excellent teacher. She says she refuses to teach under those conditions. 1 kid could keep her from meeting her teaching objectives (think evaluation) for the entire year.

    National Testing would just be one giant SOL test and we would have even less control over the testing than we do now. I am not sure the federal government hasn’t already usurpted more power in education than it is entitled to do. I believe education is a local matter. The furthest interest should be at the state level as far as curriculum and mandatory testing.

  31. Princess Billy-bob

    I don’t think I would say that all SOL tests are easy. Some are quite challenging. It is a year long job to teach to objectives to pass SOL tests. The problem with this type of testing is that it is assumed that all students mature and learn at the same rate. Nothing could be further from the case. Additionally, some subjects simply have too many objectives to be taught/learned in one year.

  32. YankeeForever

    I think we could start reforming education by finally letting go of this agrarian model where the kids’ minds go dormant for 2 1/2 months over the summer. Very few of us need our kids to farm the land all summer. I am all for year-round school so that subjects can get the thorough coverage they deserve. The argument against this always seems to be that the kids need to have summer jobs, but I guess we have to decide what our priorities are when it comes to the kids and education. Just a thought.

  33. Rick Bentley

    “I just can’t accept that there are people who want to encourage the next generation to be as or even more vitriolic in order to further their own cause.”

    I for one didn’t encourage it … but … can you accept that many Americans are deeply angry about there being two sets of rules in America?

  34. Rick Bentley

    Deportation is the one and only solution to this problem. We cannot, must not, will not deal with tens of millions of other nations’ children in our schools.

  35. DiversityGal

    Rick, I can accept the anger, as long as people are encouraged to express it in a healthy and appropriate manner. Can we agree that there is a lot of expression out there that is more harmful than productive?

  36. YankeeForever

    Rick, not to feed your anger, but I have a close friend who was having ongoing frustration with one student who was physically assaulting her kid. The administration kept assuring her that “something” was being done, but couldn’t tell her what, because of privacy rules, and shared with her that the parents didn’t speak English. She was obviously contending with the two sets of rules you are talking about. My friend finally had enough with the repeated assaults, called the police and filed a report. Last I heard, that was the end of the assaults.

  37. DiversityGal

    I agree with Princess Billy-Bob. I have seen a lot of SOL tests in my time (at the elementary level), and I do not find them at ALL to be “least common denominator” tests. I was raised in NoVa, did very well all through my school career, and the things we are asking students to jam into their minds in a school year along with sports, other extracurriculars, etc. are by NO means dumbed down.

    Even if kids do very well on elementary tests, and seem to score a pass advance in many/all subjects, we have to consider that it is because there is a constant emphasis on those particular curriculum objectives. ALL kids are drilled for these tests throughout the year. If they weren’t, I don’t think we’d be seeing as high results as we are, even from the kids who seem to sail through.

    I truly do not know the answer to this complicated question in education. I commend former President Bush for the thought behind NCLB; I think that it is important to make sure that all students have access to a great education and are pushed to succeed. However, the idea that standardized testing can be an end-all, be-all measure of student, teacher, and school success is not valid. There are too many other factors in play, and threatening to remove funding or firing teachers is not a method that is going to work in the long run.

    100% passing rates are ideal, and sometimes attainable, but most often at the expense of higher-order thinking, creativity and hands-on activity, physical activity, mental well-being of students/teachers…I could go on and on. We are currently in an educational climate of trying to attain standardized test success at all costs.

    As far as what I think of Obama and national standards…I honestly need to do more research. I do think that it is incredibly difficult for students moving from other states to get a grasp on their new state’s history objectives, even in one year. I know of a bright Canadian elementary student who moved to the area, and is still having great difficulty mastering the social studies objectives, simply because she hasn’t had the background. The SOL test will not be taking that into account, though. National standards would help with the transient nature of our country (military, corporate, etc.)

    I did vote for Obama in both the primary and general election, but by no means found him to be the best candidate for education. In my opinion, Hillary Clinton really keyed into what educational researchers said. She didn’t support private school vouchers, she viewed and planned to treat educators as professionals, instead of constantly talking about them like the majority of the current crop weren’t qualified (most politicians have a nasty habit of doing so), and didn’t view standardized testing as the best or only measure for success.

  38. Poor Richard

    “The United States has experienced the greatess surge of immigration
    since the early 20th century, with one in five residents now a recent
    immigrant or a close relative of one.
    Today the NYT begins a series of weekly articles on how the latest
    wave of immigrants are affecting American institutions – first,
    schools, then the workplace, hospitals, businesses, politics and
    social service agencies – and how immigrant families have been torn
    in ways their predecessors could not have imagined.
    About a third of the country’s foreign-born residents, an estimated
    11.9 million people, are here illegally, testing traditions of
    assmilation and stirring frustration and political opposition.
    Never before have so many of America’s immigrants come here
    unlawfully”.
    New York Times (3-15-2009)
    If today’s article is any indication, this promises to be
    a must read series.

  39. Poor Richard

    Question – while there are exceptions, most Asian/Indian first and
    second generation students do far better in the classroom than
    their Latino counterparts (and especially in math and science, better
    than natives). Certainly they deal with many of the same issues,
    but it doesn’t seem to hinder them nearly as much. Why? What
    can we learn from their experience?

  40. Moon-howler

    Parental expectations are far higher as a rule. That, of course, goes back to what Yankeeforever said about parental involvement.

  41. Rick Bentley

    “Can we agree that there is a lot of expression out there that is more harmful than productive?”

    Maybe. But it’s important to also understand that there is a lot of anger that is unexpressed. Not everyone is as open and forthcoming about their feelings as I am.

    And a lot of people, as the article says, just packed up, sold, and left when they saw what was happening in neighborhoods like mine.

  42. Rick Bentley

    YankeeForever, that probably was the best way to handle it. I had to call the police myself to deal with my issues when I had a houseful of illegals next door – over the type of small matters one would hope to be able to resolve as neighbors (noise).

  43. YankeeForever

    The problem in the school is that if the assaulted kid tries to fight back, he or she will be punished as well. These kids can’t even defend themselves, and the administrators who would punish them for fighting back will do very little to protect them. And–thank you, lawyers–the privacy of the little thug is more important than the safety of the child he or she assaults.

  44. Rick Bentley

    “These kids can’t even defend themselves, and the administrators who would punish them for fighting back will do very little to protect them.”

    Well, that’s good training for the kids. Because later in life the elitist scumbags who run this country will treat them that way as well. The rules are there for the American working class to follow, but if someone else doesn’t want to play fair – illegal laborers and the employers who hire them, or nations the world over with unfair trade practices – our leaders don’t much care. The view from the penthouse is that it’s all good and life is sunny and we need free trade and Amnesty for everyone.

  45. Rick Bentley

    But Ruben Navarette, CNN’s illegal alien apologist, has the solution for us. Americans need to just learn to move elsewhere and abandon their cities. Then we’ll be better off.

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/13/navarrette.immigrants/index.html

    “My fellow Americans, stop your trembling. Show some dignity. If you don’t like competing with illegal immigrants, try making better choices. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Turn off those TV shows that constantly bash globalization and immigration.

    Go back to school. Get more training. Move out of the comfort zone of your hometown to take a job in another state, if necessary. Take responsibility for your own life. And stop thinking the world owes you a living.”

  46. ShellyB

    That would be good advice if I could think of anyone who has any genuine “fears,” I would share that with them. But since almost all the “fear” is manufactured, and the only real emotion is resentment, anger, and prejudice, I’ll keep looking for the panacea that cures anti-immigrant hysteria.

  47. “Take responsibility for your own life. And stop thinking the world owes you a living.”

    No truer words have been spoken…which is precisely WHY the ILLEGAL aliens should go home!

  48. @DiversityGal

    DiversityGal :
    Rick, I can accept the anger, as long as people are encouraged to express it in a healthy and appropriate manner. Can we agree that there is a lot of expression out there that is more harmful than productive?

    There’s a good reason why this generation is finding it difficult and frustrating to determine what IS a healthy and appropriate expression of their anger…it’s “zero tolerance” regulations. Under zero tolerance, assertiveness (an extremely important element of leadership potential) and aggression are not differentiated. I can cite examples from my own children’s school years. There’s a huge difference between how generations previous to 9/11 were raised (and schools are, sad to say, an integral part of that process) and how this current crop of future leaders are being prepared…we’ve created a generation of wimps and bullies. You really shouldn’t be surprised that there is more and more “inappropriate behavior” being exhibited in our schools…even “wimps” will only take it so long, and won’t know how to express that anger appropriately because their only role models are bullies.

  49. And, by the way, you start mixing that “zero tolerance” with “political correctness,” then you’re REALLY looking at an enormous potential for violence to eventually erupt…right Yankee Forever?

  50. DiversityGal

    Please give an example of how assertiveness is considered the same thing as aggression in schools.

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