The Impact of Immigrant Students on Public Schools
About three years ago a Fox & Friends producer contacted the public relations department at my school district asking if they could speak with an ESL teacher regarding the impact of migrant students in the classroom. I’m a newcomer ESL teacher at a large high school with over 1,800 immigrant students so the district PR man contacted me. My name was already “out there” for an interview I did that aired on NPR and for two Op-Ed pieces I wrote in the local paper. The “isd” PR department contacted me just to let me know about the request and that I was prohibited from doing the interview on school time or school property. It was no problem with me as I knew I’d be ambushed by the interviewer and made to look foolish. Also, I didn’t want to give Fox News any ammunition to dehumanize immigrants/refugees as they so often do.
Nearing the end of my 30-year teaching career, the situation in the classroom has worsened and has prompted me to give my perspective on immigrant students and their impact on schools. I see things a bit differently than I did years ago. The migrant surges of the past seven years have negatively affected not only American born kids but hard working teachers as well. A journalist from the National Review once asked me “Is your school overcrowded because of the waves of kids crossing the border.” My answer was, “Things are tight but not overcrowded.” If asked the same question now, I would answer with an unqualified “Yes”. My school and other schools on my side of town are bursting at the seams. There’s literally no more room. Last year, our library was cleared and converted into a big classroom for my students. The small gym was sectioned off to make room for eight classrooms. This year for the first time, the administration moved me and a small cohort of teachers offsite to a middle school that has six empty temporary buildings to house 130 newcomer kids. There are classes being held in the commons area. Yes, overcrowding is a real thing. The situation will only get worse after Winter holiday when new groups of students enroll. Space will have to be found as there are no “enrollment caps” at the high school level. The admin is scrambling to figure out what to do as I write this.
The fallout from this is affecting the system in multitudes of ways. First and foremost, the teachers. Because newly arrived immigrant students have little or no grasp of the English language, they score very low on high stakes exams. This is nothing new but in recent years the State of Texas has increasingly held schools and by extension teachers accountable for low test scores. English 1&2, Biology, Algebra 1 and American History teachers have it the worst. Those are the exams that count for the A-F state accountability rating. These language intensive exams are practically impossible for kids to pass, and teachers/schools are being held accountable. So, what happens is that these teachers usually don’t last more than a year or two. New teachers quickly understand that their job is contingent on the scores of their students. The pressure is high as admin pushes teachers to push students to pass benchmarks and “get results.” It just too much for most. Even the most idealistic/energetic teachers don’t last long. American born kids suffer as well. Because of the high number of second language learners in the classroom, curriculum in all disciplines is differentiated to make it accessible the language learners. Instead of offering instruction at a pace like they would at other schools, American born kids must sit through paired down lessons, slower verbal delivery by teachers and engagement strategies for middle school kids. I feel bad for these kids as they could be getting richer more engaging lessons elsewhere.
Along with schools being held accountable for high stakes exams, they are also held accountable for attendance and graduation rates. Consistent attendance is an issue with immigrant students. In Latin America students can miss classes with little or no repercussion. In Guatemala it’s common for teens to follow the sugar cane harvest on the coast and miss weeks of school. My kids miss days of school to help take care of ill siblings or to work extra hours. All admirable excuses but long absences mean missed instruction and the effects trickle up to teachers and administration. When a student has a birthday, it’s common for families to allow their child to miss school that day. The sense of urgency to attend school every day is just not a part of the culture of lower income immigrants. High absentee rates affect federal/state funding, state accountability ratings and worst of all, graduation rates. Assuming a student passes state exams many times they cannot graduate because of excessive absences throughout their four years in school. The students don’t get their diploma and the school gets flagged for low graduation rate.
Ghost students are another problem. It’s common for students to leave school and to move to another state where employment prospects are better. Parents or guardians are obligated to officially sign the student out of school. Most of the time this is never done, and the students remains on attendance rolls the entire year with teachers marking the kids absent. When I catch wind that a student is leaving, I call and beg the guardian to please come in and fill out the required paperwork. It rarely happens. It’s really frustrating. At the end of the year, these students are coded as dropouts adding to the long list of “out of compliance” reports for our school. Even full time truancy clerks cannot keep up with the high number of missing students.
Aside from raising my own two children, teaching beginning English to refugee/immigrant kiddos has been the most enriching experience in my life. These kids are heroic, respectful, hard-working, and loving. Having said that, for teens to enter a comprehensive high school at an advanced age and expect the school to bend its practices in the hopes they will quickly adapt, and graduate as American born kids do is unreasonable. The data bears all this out.
With a bit of imagination and innovation, we could create satellite schools specifically for immigrant kids who are not adapting to the US education system. Schools would give these kids exactly what they want: intensive English and training in a trade. Creating a non-traditional alternative school for immigrant students would be controversial but going down the same path we’re treading is just a recipe for more failure.
