What does having a high percentage of English learners in a class mean in practice?

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone - we're a few years away from kindergarten and I've been looking at the statistics for our Arlington Public Schools elementary school. Folks in the neighborhood have said good things about it but a couple have mentioned the high percentage (26%) of English learners require extra attention and resources so that lower needs kids might not get much attention. First time parent with only daycare experience so I don't know how to interpret that. I'm sure going to school while learning the language is tough - so how does that work? I'm sure it doesn't matter much for a kindergartner (coloring inside the lines crosses all languages) but how does this play out when more structured learning begins?

My wife attended a semi-rural public school in the midwest and felt held back with teachers focusing their energy on the kids who needed it the most. I know she's worried about the same thing happening here. Of course APS has a much better reputation than my wife's old school district but I'm curious what this looks like in the real world.

[Anonymous]

Thats not a high percentage of English Learners in NOVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thats not a high percentage of English Learners in NOVA

That's insanely high if you're talking about a good school. Anything more than single digits and it means everything will move slower than it otherwise should

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thats not a high percentage of English Learners in NOVA

That's insanely high if you're talking about a good school. Anything more than single digits and it means everything will move slower than it otherwise should

GreatSchools, if that means anything, shows academic progress for not low-income students at 8/10 but only 4/10 for low-income (30% of students). I don't see how that wouldn't have an impact on learning and how quickly the class can move forward.

And I don't know why I'm keeping the school secret - it's Long Branch Elementary in Lyon Park.

[Anonymous]

IME as a teacher 20-30% EL is the sweet spot—you have your core curriculum and then have groups for enrichment, remediation, or language support. Particularly at the lower grades and particularly for literacy, key instruction happens in small leveled groups. I see much more of an impact on the gen ed curriculum when you get to 70% EL or more.

[Anonymous]

FWIW Long Branch is an extremely well-supported school.

[Anonymous]

If you have an average or above average kid they will spend a lot of time on the iPad or own their own chilling. There is no incentive to push kids to excel; there IS PUNISHMENT if the struggling kids dont improve, so where do you think the teachers will focus?

Its just how public school is structured; there is no benefit for the schools or teachers for doing better than pass the SOLs in higher and higher percentages. Teachers would love to spend time with your high performing kid and teach them interesting things, but there just isn't the time or resources.

The most important thing is making sure your kid is a strong and enthusiastic reader, so when they have all that down time they can just pull out a book and its not a complete waste of time.

[Anonymous]

The are ELL teachers who push in and work with students who need extra help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have an average or above average kid they will spend a lot of time on the iPad or own their own chilling.

I'm so out of the loop, are kids doing self supported learning on iPads in school these days?? Like remote learning but in person? wtf?

[Anonymous]

The most important thing is making sure your kid is a strong and enthusiastic reader, so when they have all that down time they can just pull out a book and its not a complete waste of time.

That's good to hear. Our kid's still a toddler but he loves books and readings. I don't take much credit for it but it's an area of parenting I'm really happy with. I grew up a bookworm and he appears to be on the same path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an average or above average kid they will spend a lot of time on the iPad or own their own chilling.

I'm so out of the loop, are kids doing self supported learning on iPads in school these days?? Like remote learning but in person? wtf?

They did that before the pandemic. They are leveled into small groups, and the most challenged group takes the majority of the teachers class time. So she would give a lesson on the white board, and then break into small groups and those not working with the teacher would do DreamBox or Reflex math or independent reading.

You would be surprised how little of the school day is for instruction for your average or above average student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an average or above average kid they will spend a lot of time on the iPad or own their own chilling.

I'm so out of the loop, are kids doing self supported learning on iPads in school these days?? Like remote learning but in person? wtf?

They did that before the pandemic. They are leveled into small groups, and the most challenged group takes the majority of the teachers class time. So she would give a lesson on the white board, and then break into small groups and those not working with the teacher would do DreamBox or Reflex math or independent reading.

You would be surprised how little of the school day is for instruction for your average or above average student.

This was 100% my child’s experience.

[Anonymous]

I teach in a school which has about 60% EL population. What does this mean?
Amazing kids from all over the world, who are eager to learn, caring, interesting and funny people. Many of them are smart enough to speak 2, 3 or 4 languages.

My kids who aren't as gifted linguistically, those who can only speak English, are not put on computers so I can "catch everyone else up". Nor are they given a book to read while I "catch everyone else up". In fact, the students who are only able to speak one language are often just in much of "catching up" as my bilingual and multilingual kids, if not more. Yes, even the white, middle income kids need remediation.

I think we need to stop saying our bilingual and multilingual kids need remediation and insist that every single student become proficient in at least two languages in order to graduate 8th grade. And then let's test the kids whose first language is English and see how they perform on assessments after a year or two in Urdu or Spanish or Polish. My guess is everyone else would have to sit around waiting while the "I only speak English" crowd has to catch up.

But, to the OP's question, it means that your child will have friends from different places, who speak different languages and what a rich school environment that will be! I put my own child in a heavily Spanish speaking school. She's now fully bilingual and headed to college on a full ride scholarship in her field of choice. We Americans need to stop understanding "smart" as a 1600 SAT and a top ten university and need to start understanding smart as learning more than one language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a school which has about 60% EL population. What does this mean?
Amazing kids from all over the world, who are eager to learn, caring, interesting and funny people. Many of them are smart enough to speak 2, 3 or 4 languages.

My kids who aren't as gifted linguistically, those who can only speak English, are not put on computers so I can "catch everyone else up". Nor are they given a book to read while I "catch everyone else up". In fact, the students who are only able to speak one language are often just in much of "catching up" as my bilingual and multilingual kids, if not more. Yes, even the white, middle income kids need remediation.

I think we need to stop saying our bilingual and multilingual kids need remediation and insist that every single student become proficient in at least two languages in order to graduate 8th grade. And then let's test the kids whose first language is English and see how they perform on assessments after a year or two in Urdu or Spanish or Polish. My guess is everyone else would have to sit around waiting while the "I only speak English" crowd has to catch up.

But, to the OP's question, it means that your child will have friends from different places, who speak different languages and what a rich school environment that will be! I put my own child in a heavily Spanish speaking school. She's now fully bilingual and headed to college on a full ride scholarship in her field of choice. We Americans need to stop understanding "smart" as a 1600 SAT and a top ten university and need to start understanding smart as learning more than one language.

This seems overly optimistic to me. We were in a diverse school and ended up having a child with dyslexia. I think if you have a test taking wunderkind like above they will do well in nearly any school. My kid was just ignored. Granted this was MCPS but APS seems equally hair on fire bad at basics. Also question the friendships this poster says came about - our diverse hood either had mama trying to recreate Mumbai - only play with other boys from Mumbai, cram school or major language differences (parents couldn’t coordinate play dates in English): also as one child got older he found a good friend via soccer but kid lived in such a scary neighborhood- and had likely gang members as friends we said no go to meeting up. Sorry to be the truth teller here but we moved from said diverse hood and at least got English speaking parents who could arrange play dates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a school which has about 60% EL population. What does this mean?
Amazing kids from all over the world, who are eager to learn, caring, interesting and funny people. Many of them are smart enough to speak 2, 3 or 4 languages.

My kids who aren't as gifted linguistically, those who can only speak English, are not put on computers so I can "catch everyone else up". Nor are they given a book to read while I "catch everyone else up". In fact, the students who are only able to speak one language are often just in much of "catching up" as my bilingual and multilingual kids, if not more. Yes, even the white, middle income kids need remediation.

I think we need to stop saying our bilingual and multilingual kids need remediation and insist that every single student become proficient in at least two languages in order to graduate 8th grade. And then let's test the kids whose first language is English and see how they perform on assessments after a year or two in Urdu or Spanish or Polish. My guess is everyone else would have to sit around waiting while the "I only speak English" crowd has to catch up.

But, to the OP's question, it means that your child will have friends from different places, who speak different languages and what a rich school environment that will be! I put my own child in a heavily Spanish speaking school. She's now fully bilingual and headed to college on a full ride scholarship in her field of choice. We Americans need to stop understanding "smart" as a 1600 SAT and a top ten university and need to start understanding smart as learning more than one language.

Sorry for most people learning another language is a waste of time. And sure there are white kids or purple kids who need remediation, but for your on track kid they just don’t get much attention, and it’s not the teachers fault. It’s how classes are structured in APS, to let the on level and excelling students inspire and mentor those with challenges. But there isn’t much resources left for pushing those above the fold, and GT has been gutted since they ended pull out.

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-learning-a-foreign-language-really-worth-it/