Do you have data that backs what you are saying? Show us data that shows that schools with high esol % of students score better than schools with low esol %. My family member teaches in Maryland and tells me that they have kids that just show up one day and they look much older than they claim to be, speak zero English and seems like they have never been inside of a classroom before despite being teens. Is this all the kids? No. Is it a large enough amount that it raises eyebrows? Yes. Is it their fault? No it isn't, nor is it the schools but that doesn't mean that educating them should be the top priority of the school system. |
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PP is correct. I was also an esol teacher in the county in charge of record-keeping for all of our school's students. The majority - like 80% in my Title 1 school (which had about 30% esol overall) - were born in the USA. Surprise, not everything you hear on Fox News is true. |
Teacher here. This is also a very international area. We have a ton of diplomats and military from other countries and their kids are here for 3-4 years and then move back. Many are ESOL students. Are there some kids who are coming illegally? Yes. As above poster said the majority were born here. |
I have also noticed the diplomat plates at our school as well. Why are our taxes paying for these people since they are not US citizens and will not be here very long? Especially with the shortages and vacancies. Serious question, not interested in the insults. |
| Not sure how this thread on vacancies moved to being about ELL students, but I'll bite. I work in an FCPS middle school and firmly believe that the county should have separate schools for English language learners to attend for a semester - or a year even - to learn English before going mainstream into base schools. Honestly, they can't learn English as well as content (so bad for them) and teachers can't do well teaching non-English speakers as well as all the levels of other students in the room, it's too much to ask of one professional (so bad for ALL students). How is this not obvious to everyone as a more cost effective and equitable solution?? |
This is not a bad idea except that it is probably not legal to isolate them from their English speaking peers. Maybe a school within a school where the basics are taught for part of the day and ESOL/non ESOL students are team taught for math. |
I think this sort of exists. A teacher once told me about it and that it is in Herndon but I don't recall much else. |
Why are you in a FCPS vacancies forum then? Is it schadenfreude? |
Well PP was dead wrong. Lol. Two of the new hires have degrees from UPenn and Pepperdine. Impressive. |
There’s this in Herndon. https://fairfaxadulths.fcps.edu/about I got frustrated subbing in FCPS high schools because we are enrolling teenagers who can’t understand basic English. They’d ask immediately for an interpreter and would be unable to respond to my question of, “your name, please” or insist that another student translate for them. Try this in an emergency. |
The problem is there are four categories of ELL. 1) Born in US but ESL. We have students in 6th grade who are ESL and you would never be able to tell because they speak fine. It is the reading/writing piece. 2) Newly Level 1 students from well educated families/backgrounds. These are your kids who don’t speak a lick of English in August and can read on a 4th/5th grade level by end of year. They are literate in their home language. 3) New Level 1 students with interrupted education due to danger of going to school. 4) Diplomats kids. Some may have some English or very little, but they are here for only a few years. I would be okay if group number 3 had a separate program because they are so far behind they truly need specialized programming. The others can and should be in GenEd but there needs to be more ESL support in ES. |
The Herndon one is for adults over 18 who are returning to school to get their GED. Not for high schoolers. |
+1 I have stopped subbing in FCPS for many reasons, but this was among them. The ESOL kids simply sit and talk with one another in class, distracting everyone else and not learning a thing. They simply don't have the basic English skills needed to communicate and listen. And this was in elementary school - I can only imagine what an issue it is in high school. |
That is what I have heard as well from a person I know that had her kids at a school in Herndon. She wound up moving her kids to private. |