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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Alleluia! Parents are the key to success. Many low income kids have parents that DO care. Those kids will be successful. However, many more parents in low income don't care and those kids, sadly, will not succeed. It's parents, not FARMS and not teachers, that determines success. 
[/quote]

.... Sure but FARMS percentages is one gauge for telling you what kind of parental situation you are dealing with. Somewhat.
The above previous post is true probably for some areas.
I have to say I live around a very large Ethiopian and el salvadorian immigrant population. Primarily 2 parent homes. The kids are clean and fed ( many using assistance, but I think/hope using it successfully). 
Language is a definite barrier. Lack of formal parental education is a barrier. [b]There is a fundamental difference though, when the parents are invested. Which seems to be the case with my neighbors. [/b]
It still makes me nervous sending DC to the local school in a couple of years. I wonder if all of the energy on esol will mean my kid isn't getting what they need.

[/quote]

What do you mean by "invested"?  The only thing you say about the kids is that they are clean and fed and that there are two parents in the house.  I teach ESOL in a high school in FCPS, and I would also say that most of my students are clean and fed and there are two adults in the home (whether they are biological parents of the children is another issue).  That said, most of their parents or guardians of low level ESOL students are not involved in school for various reasons - language barriers, work commitments, lack of transportation, etc.  They are also not very well educated themselves so while they may say they want their child to succeed in school and do well, they don't really have any idea what that means and how to help get them there.  I don't doubt that these parents love their kids, I know they do.  But they also don't understand what it means to graduate from a high school in the U.S. and how much work it takes to get there.  Just showing up each day won't do it - the student needs to learn to read, go to the library, study after school, bring pencils and paper to school, have a notebook, turn in work instead of losing it, etc, etc.  These are things that many of the parents of my students don't understand, and why many of my students struggle when they come here as teenagers.  [/quote]

Personally, I think one of the number one thing parents can do is learn English and practice speaking it and reading it every single day at home with their child.  I always schools would communicate the importance of the parents speaking English to the child's ability to do well in school.  ESL students who come into K with no English and with no practical way of learning and practicing it outside of school are not going to catch up or get ahead. They are always going to be lagging.

I also agree that the idea of "invested" in their kids education generally translates to the basics - the kid gets to school almost every day, is clean, clothed and is picked up on time.  Honestly, for an immigrant parent who lived in a third world country and didn't get much of an education this might see this as amazing progress considering how they grew up.[/quote]

Complete ignorance.  Parent knowledge of English has NOTHING to do with the student's success.  It's their educational level and literacy level.  A kid can no zero language when they get to K, but if the parents are educated and read to the child (in their own language or otherwise) and have books in the house, then the child will do well.  The parent does not have to speak English well, only support the child's education.  Plenty of Koreans in TJ with parents who barely speak English (I teach ESL to adults and have a lot of them in my class).  The majority of ESL children in fcps were actually born in the US, and most of them don't even speak another language proficiently.  The ones who struggle have parents who can't even read, even though their conversational English is probably passable at least.  They can't read in ANY language.  It would never occur to them to spend money on books, and they don't go to the library.  The kids have poor nutrition and a host of problems caused by lack of medical care, prenatal care, parents' poor health, and so on.  And that's assuming these are the relatively well-off ESL/FARM kids and not the ones who are sleeping on the floor of a rented room with 10 other kids in a crack house.  [/quote]

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