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Newcomer
Schools' Reach Out to Older Students in the United States
By Katherine Stapp
Inter Press Service
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NEW YORK, Apr 4 (IPS) - As a new wave of immigration draws thousands
of Third World teenagers to the United States, educators are
facing the challenge of helping the older among them prepare
for today's increasingly demanding job market. |
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Statistics show that more than 90 percent of recent immigrants
come from non-English-speaking countries, and many are fleeing
situations of conflict and extreme poverty, where access to
formal schooling is sharply limited.
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Take Tony Dokie, 19, who arrived in New York City from the
troubled West African country of Liberia last July. Tony spoke
only fractured English, and had less than eight years of formal
schooling at home.
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But instead of falling through the academic cracks, Tony enrolled
in Liberty High School -- one of the country's few "newcomer
schools" -- where the students are all recently arrived immigrants
from non-English-speaking countries.
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Liberty's principal, Bruce Schnur, says that 20 percent of
his students are now 19 years or older -- too old to be placed
in a regular high school, but unprepared to enter college
or find a decent job.
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So for the last seven months, Tony, who dreams of going to
medical school someday, has been focusing on honing his English
skills and preparing to take the Graduation Equivalency Diploma
(GED) exam this autumn.
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"War bring me here,'' said the teenager, whose native language
is Mamo. ''It was scary. I miss home sometimes, but it's better
here in New York ... At my school in Liberia, there were no
computers.'' He says that English literacy is his favourite
class, not only because it is critical for getting into college,
but because it allows him to make more friends in his Harlem
neighbourhood.
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''At some point, they will need to mingle with American kids,''
said Liberty's popular, energetic principal, Bruce Schnur.
''But this place gives them breathing space to adjust.''
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Located in what Schnur describes as ''neutral territory''
in Manhattan's trendy Chelsea neighbourhood, the school's
one-year programme offers bilingual education in three languages:
Spanish, Chinese and Polish.
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The modern classrooms are populated by young people at various
stages of cultural assimilation -- from girls wearing bright
Muslim headscarves to boys sporting the traditional American
teen uniform of baggy jeans, tee-shirts and sneakers.
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Aged 14 to 20, Liberty's 495 students hail from 36 different
countries -- and only a third have completed eight years of
schooling in their home country.
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In addition, Schnur says, ''a lot of kids come with serious
baggage -- physical abuse, the trauma of being separated from
their families and then reunited after a long time.
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''We constantly change, because the kids change,'' he added.
''One thing I've seen is that now, the kids are much older,
and have literacy problems in their own language.''
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This makes the remedial function of newcomer schools even
more critical, notes Deborah J. Short of the Washington DC-based
Centre for Applied Linguistics, the only group comprehensively
studying newcomer schools.
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So far, she says, the newcomer school system has grown up
haphazardly, with little national assessment or follow-up
tracking. According to the Centre's database, there are about
115 such programmes in the United States, serving a student
population of 12,000.
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''Awareness must be raised because it's important to show
that the schools are working,'' Short explained. ''As administrators
get more savvy about the power of their computers, they're
going to start tagging the kids'' to assess how they make
the transition from newcomer schools to regular high schools
and colleges. Bruce Schnur agrees. ''Tracking is expensive
and hard to do,'' he conceded. ''But it's important so we
can evaluate how we're doing, and what we might need to change.''
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Anecdotal evidence indicates that overall, newcomer schools
are doing something right.
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''Other principals say they can always tell the difference
between Liberty kids and other kids, because our kids are
so well-adjusted,'' Schnur said proudly.
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Liberty, founded in 1986, is one of the oldest. Some 70 percent
of newcomer schools were created in the last decade. What
makes these programmes different from typical secondary school
literacy classes are the low formal education levels of the
students and the strong acculturation component, Short explained,
which is accomplished through frequent field trips, activities
and classes on American culture.
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''That's a big part of it -- helping kids get used to being
here,'' she said, adding that most newcomer schools make an
effort to interact with the immigrant community as a whole.
''I've visited a lot of schools, and I've frequently seen
a close connection with parents and the community. It's very
nurturing.''
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About half of all newcomer programmes are one-year. When the
children leave, they are either placed in their regular neighbourhood
schools -- most offering some support for non-English-speakers
--or helped to earn a GED.
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But Short wonders if one year is long enough. ''It's a challenge,''
she said. ''What concerns me is that they're being put into
classes where the teachers may not be qualified. It hasn't
done a service to some groups of students.''
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Lately, the trend has been an influx of children coming from
war zones in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe, or from
rural areas with limited access to schools, says Short. |
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Shabazz Khuram, a shy, soft-spoken 19-year-old from Pakistan,
is one of the students in Liberty's pre-GED classes. In halting
English, he talked about his hopes of going to college and his
delight at learning a new language. |
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''My family come here so I can get an education,'' he said.
''I'm not sure what I want to be, but here I have opportunity.''
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This article
is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced provided
that Inter Press Service is credited. |
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