Bengal News Reporters
Imagine that you’ve just relocated to a far away country. Having lived in your home country for all your life, you have no knowledge of this new country's language or customs.
To make matters worse, you're living in a refugee camp, so you've had no chance to assimilate into this foreign culture. Despite these struggles, you're still expected to become proficient in a new language within a year. If you're unable to do this, you risk being left behind.
While this may seem like a far-fetched scenario, this is exactly what refugee students in third through eighth grade have to endure in West Side schools, according to Amber Dixon, executive director of evaluation, accountability and project initiatives for Buffalo Public Schools.
Recently released test results from last May's English and math assessments have shown a drop in proficiency across the state. West Side schools, in particular, struggled to meet the requirements set by the New York State Education Department. A major reason for this, Dixon said, is the vast amount of refugees located on the West Side.
“We have students who could arrive here May 1 and they've been in the refugee camp, and haven't been in school in three years,” Dixon said. “They enroll in one of our schools and they don't speak English, and on May 11 state law requires they take the New York State math assessment and be proficient in it. While we can get interpreters in and do what we can, we still have that child who doesn't have that command of the language, and we're expecting them to show proficiency.”
State law allows a one-year grace period for refugee students to become proficient in English, but these students should be afforded more time, Dixon said.
“We're setting a bar for English language learners that's too rigid,” Dixon said. “Some students absolutely can get there, but some students, it's going to take them three years, and they're just as bright as the other students.”
Samuel Radford, vice president of the District Parent Coordinating Council, agreed that refugees should be given a longer timetable to become English proficient, but there should be a limit, he said.
“I think they should be given more time, but I don't think it should be like it was before where it was an indefinite amount of time,” Radford said. “ I think the reason why they cut the time was because teachers were not going to have a sense of urgency with the need to teach the children the language.”
While the testing changes have some merit, they were instituted for all the wrong reasons, Radford said.
“They changed it in the middle of the school year. They changed it after all the kids had taken the tests, I think that was extremely unfair,” Radford said. “I think the reason why they did it is because they wanted to qualify for more federal money. Because the state is broke and they don't have the money to put into education they used to have, the kids had to appear to need more help.”
In comparison to past years, the scores haven't changed significantly, but the score required to reach proficiency has, Dixon said. This has heightened an already tall task for refugee students, she said.
The result was that a score that might have been considered proficient in previous years might not have been proficient on last year's exams or any future exams, Dixon said.
“It's almost like saying in your class, you get a 25 on three quizzes you'll get an 'A,' Dixon said. “After you get your 25 on three quizzes your instructor says 'that's not really an 'A' anymore, I think that's worth a 'C' now.'”
Some community organizations such as Journey’s End Refugee Services are trying to speed up the process involved with teaching refugees the English language.
“We have four full-time academic coaches that work with students individually,” said Kelly O’Brien of the Journey’s End education department. “Any teacher in Buffalo schools can call the office and get help.”
Journey’s End also offers services such as explaining English meanings in the students’ native language and translating exams for students, O’Brien said.
Due to the scoring changes, the average percentage of proficiency across West Side schools, and across grades three through eight, is just over 26 percent. Also, no grade level at any West Side school reached 50 percent proficiency in English or math.
Edited by Ariel Hofher and Corey O'Leary
Despite drops in math and English proficiency across New York State, private schools continue to score higher on assessments than public schools. Although a lack of refugees and the ability to choose students is an obvious advantage for private schools, they also have the benefit of hiring the best teachers.
ReplyDelete“If private schools have a bad teacher, they fire them,” said Samuel Radford, vice president of the District Parent Coordinating Council. “If we were able to fire teachers that were bad in public schools, I think you would see a different outcome.”
It would certainly be interesting to see how competitive public schools, such as those located on the West Side, would be with private schools if both were afforded equal funding and the public schools had the luxury of picking and choosing their teachers. -- Mike Chiari
Samuel Radford offered an intriguing alternative for a way to improve test scores, not only for refugees but also for all West Side students. Radford is a staunch supporter of Individual Education Plans (IEPs). These plans are already in place for special education students but he believes if they were implemented across the entire school district, there would be a noticeable increase in test scores.
ReplyDeleteAn IEP is an agreed upon set of goals between a teacher, parent and student. These benchmarks allow a parent to track the student’s progress, give the teacher an idea of the areas a student needs extra assistance and allows the student to be best prepared for tests, especially those given by the state. Radford said district-wide IEPs are the missing piece to the test score puzzle. -- Tim Daniels