I don’t have a lot of time for being a college student, I have a rhetoric analysis paper due over a student essay in a textbook for my English composition class.
A student essay by Lorena Mendoza-flores in the textbook “writing arguments” page 295 reads as follows. I only put
“Every year , thousands of Mexican families come to the United States in order to escape economic hardships in Mexico and hope for better schools for their children . While many American schools try to accommodate immigrant non-native speakers, many immigrant families, according to case-study interviews, have increasingly negative perceptions of these attempts (Roessingh). There are action plans to bridge the gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students, yet Hispanic ESL (English as a Second Language) youth continue to perform considerably below that of other students (Good et al.). These problems pose the question: What is wrong with the way our schools treat Hispanic immigrants? Perhaps we could gain some understanding if we looked at a specific school-my own Valley High School in an agn cultural region of [name of state]. Valley High School is a perfect example of a school with a growing Hispanic population, well-intentioned teachers, and hopes for Latino students’ success that simply fall through. The failures at my school include inadequate ESL training for teachers, inadequate counseling for immigrant students, poor multicultural training for all teachers, and failure to value Hispanic identity and provide support for families.
Despite the fact that the Valley School District has 52 percent Hispanic students, a large percentage of whom have Spanish and parents who speak only Spanish, the staff at Valley High School is overwhelmingly white, with only one Hispanic teacher and only three or four teachers who speak Spanish. Even with a large number of ESL students, Valley High School has not hired teachers who are adequately trained in ESL. There is only one ESL teacher, who is responsible for all the ESL students. These students are assigned to regular classes and then go to the ESL classrooms for what is supposed to be extra support. When I’ve gone into the ESL classroom, I’ve found students surfing random sites online and the teacher, also the yearbook advisor, working on pages for the annual. Because I was senior editor of the yearbook, he was very open to talking to me about his students, always complaining that they didn’t work hard enough even though I could see they weren’t being given meaning ful work. I was frustrated because it was obvious that the ESL classroom did not engage either the students or the teacher. The students’ language progress remained stagnant, while the expectations of standardized testing became increasingly more demanding, dooming ESL students to failure as their first language
Another problem is inadequate counseling for Hispanic students and inadequate methods of assessing their progress so they can be placed in the right classes. When immigrant students need help, teachers often ask other students to address their needs. As a student mentor, I was called recruit upon a few times to speak with students about their performance in class In one particular situation, the math teacher called me in to talk to a student who had decided to drop out. The teacher was visibly concerned for the student’s welfare but didn’t have any means for understanding or addressing the student’s issues. The student told me that he did not feel like he belonged at school. The lack of adequate counseling sent the message that immigrant students were not worth fighting to stay in our school. Additionally, when students enter the school, their skills in other coursework are not taken into consideration. All ESL students are placed in the basic math and English courses, and while they might move down. sometimes as far as being placed in special education classes, they’re never moved up. A student’s aptitude in math or science may never get recognized in the four years that he or she is in high school because the ESL students
move as a single group and take just about all coursework together. Their status as ESL students becomes the sole determinant of their identity as a student within the school system, and they are not given the same considerations and levels of attention required to grow and develop academically. Personally, I have fallen victim to our school’s overlooking of student progress. When I entered the Valley School District in 8th grade, I had already taken several years of algebra and tested far above other students in my grade. At my previous school in another district, I had surpassed the school’s highest level of math. In fact, my 5th-7th grade math instructor had to find advanced online material for me so that I could keep progressing. Entering the Valley School District, however, I returned two years. Even though I communicated to both my math teacher and the counselor that I was being placed too low and that the nearby high school had several higher-level courses, I was kept in the same class. The next year, I was shocked to see that two 8th grade white students were in my 9th grade geometry class, the system had catered to them while it had denied me an acknowledgment of the same earned achievement. I felt dismissed because I was Hispanic.
A third problem is that outside of the ESL classroom, in the regular doom settings, teachers are often untrained in how to create safe mul cultural dialogue. One time in sociology my teacher asked the class why de Hispanic students were performing so much worse than white students Tried to explain that our support was inadequate. I stated that since most Hispanic students came from immigrant backgrounds, our parents weren’t able to help us maneuver through the school system. In doing our home work, we had no one to tum to, and if the instructions were unclear, we did not have access to a resource such as an English-speaking parent, something tut many white students and faculty never even thought about when con sidering this gap in performance. When I started talking about these things, white students around the room started becoming upset. They argued that Bey were hard workers and didn’t have their parents do their homework ir them. Obviously, my point was not to dismiss their efforts but to empha sire that these are two different worlds we’re living in. Coming from an migrant background, I and my fellow Hispanic students undoubtedly had more obstacles to overcome every step of the way. What was most troubling about this situation was that at no point did my sociology teacher step up and defend the validity of my arguments. Teachers need to know how to falitate these multicultural clashes by helping make injustices more visible nather than marginalizing someone for bringing up uncomfortable issues.
Finally, Valley High School does little to honor cultural identity or reach out to immigrant families. My senior year I was president of the Interna tional Club (the only club at our school that had lots of immigrant student participation). Without my consent, or that of the members, my advisor began a transition to convert the International Club into the Interact club affiliated with the community’s Rotaract Club (part of Rotary). While this new connection with the Rotary would provide more funding, the only club that was primarily made up of Hispanic members was now being taken over by one sponsored by an all-white organization. In this transition, our advi sor had pre-elected leaders (also all white) to move it forward. By the time I graduated, the transition was well underway. In fact, on Cinco de Mayo, International Club’s major event every year, our club members realized that our advisor didn’t think this event was worth our time. As the only Mexican teacher, this advisor did not even advocate for the desires of our community Ultimately, she turned her back on the members, and the following year InterAct became a primarily white club, just like every other club at school The loss of a club supporting Hispanic students is matched by failure to
create a welcoming environment for Hispanic parents and families. When immigrant parents come to the school, they have to wait around until they can find a translator if they want to speak to a teacher or administrator. Usu ally this interpreter is another student, creating awkward moments for par ents who don’t want to discuss their children’s problems in front of another student. The school occasionally does try to reach out to Hispanic parents by holding Hispanic Nights where all the events are held in Spanish. However, all the other school events are held only in English. Considering that the school population is more than half Hispanic, the absence of any interpret ers makes it clear the school thinks of itself as white. In addition, there are no translators at larger school events such as academic award nights or sporting banquets. As a result, immigrant parents and families feel isolated from the school and unwelcomed.
Debate remains over the exact or best procedures for helping immigrant ESL students successfully integrate into schools, but what is not debated is that these students deserve equal opportunities to learn and grow. Just as any other students, immigrant students should meet the demanding academic standards needed for higher education, but first they must have adequate support. It is essential that schools support educational reforms that address the problem areas apparent at Valley High School. Particularly, schools need to hire qualified ESL instructors, provide adequate counseling for immigrant students, enable teachers to develop multicultural sensitivity and skills at handling ethnic conflict, and provide outreach to immigrant families while valuing their culture.”
I apologize if this is an inconvenience I just don’t have the time to do it my self, my email is Losmota02@gmail.com if you need an outline of the rubric.
