By KEVIN FLAHERTY
THE MORNING SUN

When Melinda Kitchen worked on her bachelor's degree in education at Pittsburg State University, immigration wasn't a large issue.

Out of Pittsburg's population of about 20,000, Kitchen said there were maybe two or three families with Spanish-speaking children in 1999. A few years later, when Kitchen came back looking for a job, she said the situation had changed.

Matthew Wendt, Pittsburg USD 250 assistant school superintendent, learned that Kitchen, who taught first grade, was fluent in Spanish, and asked her to work with the district's Spanish-speaking children. Seven years after graduating from Pittsburg State, Kitchen now teaches 28-35 English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL students) per year.

"I use my Spanish as much as I use my English with the kiddos, but a regular teacher probably doesn't have that option," Kitchen said. "You can teach and you can do everything you think is possible, but until you test a kid or give them an assessment, you really don't know what they are learning and what they aren't. You really can't teach them the same way you do other students."

Pittsburg now has five teachers, two-full time teachers and three half-time teachers dedicated to helping ESOL students.

But it's hardly a situation unique to small-town Kansas.

Coast to coast

California, Texas and Florida have the three largest estimated illegal-immigrant populations in the nation, with California's 14 million estimated illegal immigrants leading the way. Billie Blair, president and CEO of Leading and Learning, Inc., said that number puts a strain on the educational system, at all levels.

"Immigrants do two things - come in with families as well as come in and have families. Both are easy to do in California," Blair said.

"Currently, these populations tend to avoid larger cities and go into smaller communities in a variety of states. And, no, the schools are not and have not been able to handle the influx. Colleges have dealt with the overloads pretty well, but there are still difficulties surrounding the basic rudiments of education that show up at the college level."

In Florida, the number of illegal immigrants is high, estimated between 800,000 and 950,000. But the big number is the $932 million Florida spent on its ESOL program in 2004-05, a number that comes out to $6,525 per student.
In Duval County, which encompasses all of Jacksonville, public schools spent almost $16 million on ESOL last year, up 55 percent since 2000. About 48 percent of the students in the county come from Spanish-speaking countries, up 32 percent from 2000.

Grand Island, Neb., has also seen a large boost. In the past six years, the number of staff members has grown by 72 percent. The number of students had grown by 75 percent, and the money spent on them has more than doubled. Grand Island has a Swift & Co. beef packing plant that employs 2,600 people. Many of the production workers are Hispanic, but the Swift work force also includes Sudanese and Asian immigrants. That ethnic diversity shows up in Grand Island's school system.

The largest and most diverse class in the district is kindergarten. With more than 700 students in 14 elementary schools, Grand Island's kindergarten is comprised of 52 percent white students and 48 percent of other ethnic groups.
However, the 12th-grade class at Grand Island Senior High is 75 percent white and only 25 percent other ethnic groups.

Grand Island Superintendent Steve Joel said he believes the school district has too many immigrant students who drop out during their high school years.
It is a statistic he would like to improve.

Grand Island is one of four Nebraska school districts - the others are Omaha Public Schools, South Sioux City and Lexington - that is suing the state of Nebraska in an effort to change its school finance formula.

The school districts contend the state formula does not provide enough money to successfully educate ELL students and students who live in poverty.
That lawsuit is not scheduled to be heard in court until 2008.

How to teach them

Steve Peha, president of Carrboro, N.C.,-based Teaching That Makes Sense, Inc., said that it wasn't the immigrants who were the problem.

"Contrary to popular belief, these kids are not a drag on our school system or our society," Peha said. "The problem is the way they are taught, a blend of strange superstition and discredited traditional techniques which often leaves them at the end of high school without the skills they need to succeed in the world - or even the attitude that trying to succeed is important."

Teaching That Makes Sense has been working with about 30,000 high school students in Phoenix, Ariz., for the past few years, many of whom Peha said were recent immigrants.

"In our work, we focus on the research-proven 'workshop' style of teaching in reading and writing," Peha said. "This helps kids of all backgrounds learn quickly but is especially effective for second-language learners. And what they learn is real. Instead of learning to take tests, the kids we work with learn to read real books and convey real ideas in their writing. They come to like school more, too, and to develop a vision of themselves in the world that is more consistent with success and self-reliance."

Another road is through technology, said Gordon Freedman, vice president of education strategy for Blackboard Inc., a leading provider of technology to schools world wide. Freedman said online educating was often needed to get lessons across to struggling students.

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) November 15, 2006

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