unshuttering the beacon

7/31/2019 Unshuttering the Beacon

1/19

Research Paper

Un-Shuttering the Beacon

Students with Interrupted Formal Education:

Advocacy, Ingenuity and the English Learner

Paul DeRienzo

City College of New York


2/19

Students with Interrupted Formal Education

Paul DeRienzo 2

Index

Page 3 Introduction

Page 4 Literature Review

Page 7 Methodology

Page 7 Findings

Page 16 Conclusion

Page 18 Recommendations

Page 19 References


3/19


Paul DeRienzo 3

Introduction

My name is Paul DeRienzo and I am well positioned to take on an important

study about our public schools. I am a teacher of English as a Second Language the

Joseph Rodman Drake or P.S. 48 elementary school in the Hunts Point neighborhood of

the Bronx. I am also the parent of two children in the NYC public school system and I

have an ongoing interest in the effect of education on our quality of life and the well

being of our communities in New York City. I've grown to know and respect many of my

students and colleagues and learn about some of the challenges and achievements that

have shaped their lives.

I came to be interested in Students with Interrupted Formal Education SIFE after

learning that several of my students had touching life stories about unusually severe

privation in Africa and the Dominican Republic among other poor countries. Others are

victims of poor schools in their own country. A student said to me that her first and

second grade classes in the Dominican Republic were chaotic and that her teachers

subjected students to violent corporal punishment. She claimed to me that learning did

not occur. Her father in a separate conversation said although his daughter attended class

when they moved to the United States the child could not write her own name. The same

student has come a long way achieving a 3 in her recent 4th

grade ELA test in the New

York City school system. Based on this evidence I find that it is possible to bring students

with educational gaps to reading and math levels equal or above their peers in this

country.


4/19


Paul DeRienzo 4

My main-question was What are the best practices for teaching SIFE students.

What are the indicators of success and failure in school exhibited by students with

interrupted educations? The answer was not what I expected. The best methods for

teaching are not in the teachers as they are in the students.

Literature Review

Among New York Citys 150,000 students are an estimated 15,100 who have

little or no formal schooling and are often performing at low levels compared to their

peers on standardized tests. (Medina, J. 2009, January 25). In New York State these

students are called SIFE or students with Interrupted Formal Education and are defined

by the New York State Department of Education as students who have two years less

schooling than their peers or function at least two years below expected grade level.

According to the Department of Education (DOE) 56% of SIFE students entered school

in grades 3 through 8 and 44% in High School. The top languages among SIFE students

mirror the general English Language Learner (ELL) population with the addition of

Tibetan and the West African languages of Fulani and Mandingo. Among Spanish

speaking SIFE students more than half are from the Dominican Republic, with the other

predominant languages including Chinese, Haitian Creole, French and Arabic. (New

York Citys Language Learners: Demographics, Summer 2008 New York City

Department of Education Office of English Language Learners.)

Despite the official designation my research has discovered that in at least one

school focusing on students with interrupted education the definition of SIFE is being

modified to fit a more complex reality. In order to explore this reality this paper will


5/19


Paul DeRienzo 5

investigate the conflict between the New York State definition of SIFE and the reality

faced by teachers who want to include insufficient education as SIFE criteria. The

efficacy of Inquiry-based learning vs. High-stakes testing, the special problems presented

by students who are undocumented immigrants, the special problems presented by

migrant farm workers and the distinction between SIFE and Long Term English

Language Learners.

Within the NYC School System

SIFE students in New York City face many challenges on arrival in our school

system. Observers have noted entering a class with SIFE students the incongruence

between the physical maturity of the young people in this class and their immaturity in

handling the classroom script and other academic tasks (Garcia, O. 1999). This outcome

may be a result of the fact the students enter school already behind with needs that are not

usually met by regular English as a second language (ESL) or bilingual programs

(Freeman, Y., Freeman, D.E. & Mercuri, S. 2001). One researcher says SIFEs are the

highest of high-risk students (Morse, A. 2005. A Look at immigrant Youth Prospects and

promising practices. Washington, D.C. National Conference of State Legislatures).

Students with Interrupted Formal Education most often require additional

assistance in learning skills many ELLs already have including basic phonetics, decoding

skills and sequencing logically in both their home language and English. However, there

is hope in several school models that research shows has had an effect on helping SIFE

students bridge the gap. Those models are the pullout, the push-in and after school

programs (DeCapua, A., Smathers, W. & Lixing, F.T. March, 2007). New York State

schools also offer three basic methods for teaching English language Learners, which


6/19


Paul DeRienzo 6

includes the SIFE student population. Those methods are Transitional Bilingual

Education, English as a Second Language and Dual Language programs. Parents must

choose which program they want for their child, but not every program is available in any

one school (NYC DOE 2009.)

The growth of the number of students with gaps in their formal schooling is

occurring nationwide. Between 1993 and 2004 the number of English Language Learners

has increased by 63% (US Department of Education 2005). Civil War, poverty and

natural disasters are cited as the major causes for the 101 million school age children

around the globe who have been denied an education. (UNICEF, State of the Worlds

Children. November 2009.)

However, in the United States teachers are often limited by laws such as No

Child Left Behind in what they can do to meet these challenges. Unfortunately, high-

stakes testing often forces teachers and school administrators to sacrifice creativity and

inspiration in teaching and learning for the top-down pressure to coach students to do

well on these tests. (Carlos J. Ovando (Apr. 2001) Beyond "Blaming the Victim":

Successful Schools for Latino Students. Educational Researcher, Vol. 30, No. 3 p. 30)

Analysis

SIFE are a discreet population of Ells who are differentiated from other low

performing students by the circumstances that impeded their education. SIFE students

have often come to the United States because of direct need to flee or in search of a better

life. The following report will show that SIFE students respond well to nurturing and

demanding educational environment and that SIFE students benefit from experiential


7/19


Paul DeRienzo 7

learning and individually tailored assessments and that these students enrich the school

environment with their unique stories.

Methodology

Studying SIFE students is not an easy task. Despite the challenges I was fortunate

to have a SIFE student in my own school who along with her parent responded to

questions about the childs educational background. That student who I call Y is nearly

11-years old and came to the school about 2 or 3 years behind her peers in reading and

math. I administered several assessments over a period of nearly one year. The student

consented to interviews both alone and with her father during the current school year.

I spoke at length with PG who is Migrant Education Coordinator of the Oswego,

NY BOCES and spoke about migrant education and the challenges of reaching SIFE

students in migrant labor camps. I also interviewed a former student who had grown up

as part of a migrant family and went on to become an ESL teacher with the Oswego, NY

BOCES. I interviewed Principal NV and teacher SM of E Preparatory Academy in the

Bronx an ESL focused school in the Bronx. I videotaped my interview with Principal NV

and I used the video to type the transcript.

Findings

The purpose of this paper was to discover the best practices for teaching English

as A Second Language to students with interrupted formal education of SIFE. I find that

the jury is still out which is the best method of teaching a SIFE student, but that one

characteristic stands out as illustrated by Principal NV who said in selecting teachers she


8/19


Paul DeRienzo 8

looked for someone Who can be taught, somebody who can grow. What I found was

that the best methods for reaching SIFE students are not found in the methods of teaching

but in the commitment and willingness to grow and change in the teachers themselves.

The other requirement I found was that teachers must have a desire to reach students who

have been marginalized because of their immigration status or poverty.

Student Y

Student Y entered my ESL class for the first time during the 2008-2009 school

years and again during 2009-2010. She was a shy student who tested at the beginning

level on both the Language Assessment Battery-B test and the New York State English as

a Second Language Achievement Test or NYSESLAT exam. A NYSESLAT test

administered in the spring of 2009 showed improvement to the intermediate level still

behind the advanced or proficient levels achieved by most of her peers in the same

period.

Student Y is in 4th grade, but was born in 1998 and is about 2-years older than her

peers. Although her cumulative file, the file that follows most students from class to class

throughout their education in New York City indicated that the child was SIFE both the

Y and her father said there was no actual gap in her education. According to the childs

current teacher Y read at a level at least 2-years behind where she should have been at her

age as measured by Rigby assessments used in our school on the at the start of the 2009-

2010 year. But her L-Rigby reading level is actually close behind the average in her class,

which is made up of students mostly 2-years younger.


9/19


Paul DeRienzo 9

Y was born in a small town called La Vega in the central Dominican Republic in

a rural area in the center of the country where she attended school from 5 to 8 years of

age. I asked Y about her school experience before arriving in the United States. She

quietly answered yes when I asked her if she felt mistreated in her old school, she also

agreed when I asked her if the school was crowded. In a separate interview her father said

when the child arrived in the United States she couldnt write her own name, could not

read and could not really write. He added that the school was deep in the countryside.

Her father R says his daughter watches American TV especially Hannah

Montana, which is her favorite. He says she came to the United States at age 9 adding

that Y Could not write her own name, could not read, and could not really write. The

father says he doesnt know about incidents of capital punishment in the Dominican

Republic school. The father also says the child is not shy at home. He added that she

speaks English with him in the home prompting his daughter to smile and hide her head

in her hands.

Y says that she lives with her mother, father and siblings including an older sister

in a local college. Her sister Y claims has the highest level of education in her family. I

asked Y what subjects she found easiest in the Dominican Republic and she answered

art. I asked her which subject was more difficult and she said math. The student also

told me that her former school did not teach social science, science or a foreign language.

Y says she likes to read. Her current reading level was measured most recently by Rigby

assessments at the start of the 2009-2010 year used in her school. She reads at level L,

which is close behind the average in her class made up of students mostly 2-years


10/19


Paul DeRienzo 10

younger. But according to her teacher Y also achieved a 3 on her most recent state

English Language Arts exam which is above average for a test with a top score of 4

Y says shes not sure if she likes New York City. But she says she does like

her current school, Because they were the ones who showed me how to speak English.

Her development shows marked improvement with exposure to a predictable learning

environment. She has grown into a healthy athletic young woman whose dream is to

become a model. Her cognitive development shown by her steady academic progress,

despite the challenges of being older than her peers, is apparent in various assessments

and in conversations with the student. Her language development as shown in the various

assessments done by the state informally by her teachers shows improvement in listening

and writing, but challenges in reading and speaking. Shes still shy a reserved in direct

conversations and needs prompting. But overall she has become integrated with her class

and carries out her assignments.

The student has clearly benefited from dedicated and nurturing teachers at her

elementary school as well as a stable loving home environment. Although her school

follows New York State standards driven methodology with emphasis on basic skills and

test prep the child has responded and continues to improve. A good part of that I the

dedication of her teachers and their dedication to advocating for their students needs.

Teachers, often at the beginning of their careers come to schools in difficult situations

and must be advocates for their students or they will fail. The everyday challenges Ys

teachers surmount in helping their students are testimony to their advocacy.


11/19


Paul DeRienzo 11

Migrant Education

Another source of ideas for reaching SIFE students are methods forged by groups

involved in the education of migrant farm workers and their families. In these areas

educators have demonstrated the value of parents, home visits and personal interactions

between parents and school personnel in an attempt to create a more democratic and

collaborative environment.

Migrant students were basically invisible until the advent of The Elementary and

Secondary Education Act of 1965, but schools have yet to solve the complex educational

problems associated with mobility. Migrants have one of the highest dropout rates of any

student group in the US due to poverty and the priority of family survival and are at

greater risk than other youth in the United States. In grappling with this problem parent

involvement has been recognized as a positive force in addressing minority student

underachievement.

According to PG of the New York State BOCES, English language programs for

migrant workers has been impacted by changes in the law. In the 1990s we had a longer

eligibility period1, we had a six-year window where we could really help them. In 1996

they changed the law Now we have three years. Some of the research says it takes

(students) with interrupted education up to 9-years to catch up. These legislative

changes have occurred in an environment of economic dislocation in agriculture where

the number of farm workers has been declining as immigration has been curtailed and has

shifted from families to individuals looking for employment without the family support

systems of the past.

1

Eligibility period refers to the number of years a migrant worker in New York State can

receive funding for English language learning.


12/19


Paul DeRienzo 12

According to PG Some countries you have to start paying for education at a

young age so they are unable to afford it and they have to send children as soon as they

are old enough often without a family. A 17-year old might come up with an uncle from

small towns, there are people who come from the same town and they separate when they

get here depending on what work is available. Often the migrants are living in fear of

discovery, deportation and crime because of their illegal immigrant status. One family

driving to a New York labor camp from Florida got targeted and were robbed four times

in one year.

Despite these problems migrant workers are strongly motivated to learn English.

Many are beginners and PG says We dont tie ourselves to any one method. One

program the BOCES uses regularly is called Living in America, which stresses ESL

themes like citizenship, rights and responsibilities, American government, how to buy a

car, report an emergency, use a bank, rent a place to live and other pragmatic tasks.

Another popular method is a topic specific program where topics such as I want to

buy become the ESL learning target. Yet another method used to teach migrants is

Total Physical Response, which is where students are actually doing things that they

learn. For example To learn the parts of the body, you say touch your knee and they

touch their knee - stand up sit down - theyre following directions.

In the migrant environment with beginning English language learners outreach to

the population is key. PG of the New York State BOCES relies on home visits We

support with lot of the home visits and advocacy and we provide a couple of lessons a

week. But he adds that being adaptable is key to his strategy whether helping out an

older student or maybe back at the school or with the younger children in the classroom


13/19


Paul DeRienzo 13

PG says, We leave it up to the individual principals and teachers about how they want

our tutoring to take place.

V is a graduate student and ESL teacher who has worked for the upstate New

York BOCES where she was the daughter of a migrant farm worker. I asked if the

migrant program helpful to V and other young people. She replied For me it was

because people reached out to us and especially being Hispanic the migrant education

brought us together. Vs claims reflect the need for community and advocacy in creating

the social ties that create the necessary stability for learning to happen. Throughout this

research project the theme of stability and predictability has shown through. Whether in

the classroom or on the job in the fields, if we want to teach English or any other subject

the students must have predictability in their in their learning environment.

After finishing college V returned to the BOCES program as a tutor. I had a

partner teacher, she recounted, We would go out to the fields at night and ask the guys

if we could tutor them in Basic English. Here V expresses the desire and commitment

of the teacher that is another key piece to the teaching methodology puzzle when it comes

to SIFE students. To advocate, finding the students where they are and bringing the

learning to them.

The strength of the BOCES program according to V is that They are advocates

trying to help the undocumented workers, she continues that The government is really

not willing to assist undocumented workers. Its the SIFE students who V says Are the

ones who really suffer and the migrant program provided tutors to try to get the kids up to

their level, which if of course very hard. V says that she Worked with this one kids that


14/19


Paul DeRienzo 14

was being held back every time he would move around. I worked with him all summer,

adding that If your not pushing the kids theyre not going to move on.

V described her lessons for the BOCES as unconventional. One of the first

lessons she taught consisted of dumping everything out of purse, Ill never forget it,

says V, Whats this? she asked pointing to the different items. In another lesson she

brought in a mannequin and in yet another she brought in menus and they pretended to

order. Undocumented workers and other marginal people are not well served in a system

that uses their labor behind the scenes while claiming they are law-breakers in public. In

some ways teaching these learners is a subversive action, yet we cant afford to live in a

world where potentially millions of people live as outcasts. Yet its a small number of

dedicated teachers who have the desire to create the stability students strive for. They go

out in the field dedicate themselves to helping overcome barriers not to different then the

laws that prevented slaves from being educated in the past.

There are many difficulties inherent in teaching students in the migrant worker

community. There is no book with a set formula and teachers have to become advocates

for their students. Its not enough to teach to the test, but to come up with creative

methods to engage and make learning English relevant. Its not just a matter of

convenience but of survival for the SIFE students in this population.

An International School

E Prep is part of a large New York City high school campus in the Bronx. I

interviewed Principal NV in the schools office. The campus was once one of the largest

schools in the city has been partially divided into numerous smaller campuses that still

include a large public high school. . Principal NV also detailed the schools unique


15/19


16/19


Paul DeRienzo 16

situations dictate vastly different challenges to educators when those students reach our

shores. Challenges that government education authorities are refusing to confront. In

context with statement by V of the BOCES that The government is really not willing to

assist undocumented workers its clear that the ultimate responsibility for teaching these

SIFE English language learners in with the teachers themselves, they are on their own.

What is it that determines this kind of teacher, the teacher who has the desire to

teach this population? Principal NVs criteria for a E Prep teacher is Someone who first

and foremost loves working with teenagers. She says, Content is important, but

equally as important is a teachers ability to reflect on their practice. Principal NV

holds her teachers to high standards You are a professional and Im entrusting you with

my children she says and I expect that you will stop and think about your practice and

rethink it and make it better. If youre not somebody whos excited about what your

doing I dont want you here.

Conclusion

Students who have interrupted formal education are not only a significant portion

of all English language learners, but all the students we teach in New York City. The

literature shows that SIFE students come to class with needs significantly greater than

their peers (Freeman, Y., Freeman, D.E. & Mercuri, S. 2001). The literature claims that

our SIFE students are the highest of high risk students (Morse, A. 2005). My finding

supports the literatures finding on this point. Student Y for example struggles to make up

a deficit of learning that places her two years behind her peers and make it difficult to

catch up even among significantly younger students. The advances that Y has made, she

is currently at the intermediate level on her latest NYSESLAT test, has come from the


17/19


Paul DeRienzo 17

stability shes gained from a well organized school with a predictable curriculum. English

will have to be a life long learning goal for Y because according to PG of the BOCES it

may take (Students) with interrupted education up to 9-years to catch up.

In the current educational environment mandated by the federal No Child Left

Behind law where high-stakes testing has become the touchstone for measuring

achievement students like Y may be left further behind. High-stakes testing often forces

teachers and school administrators to sacrifice creativity and inspiration in teaching and

submit to top-down pressure to coach students to do well on these tests. (Carlos J.

Ovando (Apr. 2001) But according to Principal NV even if her students test out the ESL

program on the NYSESLAT they continue to get ESL services. Her schools goals are

college preparatory and simply passing a state test is not enough. There are exams that

you need to take, she says, but what are the skills that kids need in order to be

successful aside from being successful on the exam being successful in general.

Some of the most interesting developments in teaching SIFE students have

come from the work of teachers dedicated to educating migrant workers. That evidence

points to the importance of home visits and parent involvement in education, but

systematic research has not been done to specifically address best practices for these

students (Lopez G., 2004). BOCES coordinator PG describes his teaching methods We

dont tie ourselves to any one method.

To teach students the English that they need to know to successfully navigate life

in the United States. Migrants have one of the highest dropout rates of any student group

in the US due to poverty and the priority of family survival and are at greater risk than

other youth in the United States (Lopez G., 2004). They dont have the luxury of passing


18/19


Paul DeRienzo 18

a state proficiency exam, but they need to learn English. The high-stakes testing

paradigm that have risen in response to the No Child Left Behind law does not move the

student towards a working knowledge of English. That fact tan through my various

interviews and is an agreement with Lopez and other writer who question our obsession

with testing.

Methods like Total Physical Response that taps into the multiple intelligences

theory of Howard Gardner embraces the way people actually learn, by the actual use of

language and not teaching to the test. Language is a complex subject that has not

yielded to a formulaic approach by teachers. AS PG of the BOCES says being adaptable

is key.

Considering a plan of action this study is aimed at ESL teachers at all levels who

are frustrated with the limitations of No Child Left Behind. High stakes testing can

leave a teacher feeling that they are not actually educating but have become cogs in a

testing machine. Actually ESL teachers may be in a position to prepare students for a

post-No Child era by using their unique position as both educators and advocates to lobby

within the education establishment on behalf of their students.

Recommendations

I have three recommendations based on my findings. 1) Teachers should do more

to advocate on behalf of our students by involving and informing parents in the education

of their children. 2) Educators should use self-made assessments rather than assessments

supplied by standardized testing companies. 3) Make time for project based and Inquiry

based teaching methods to involve students in their own learning.


19/19


P l D Ri 19

References

Medina, J. 2009, January 25. In School for the First Time, Teenage Immigrants Struggle.

New York Times, online

New York Citys Language Learners: Demographics, Summer 2008 New York City

Department of Education Office of English Language Learners

UNICEF. State of the Worlds Children. November, 2009. Statistics by Area/Education.http://www.childinfo.org/education_challenge.html

US Department of Education 2005

Garcia, O. 1999. Educating Latino High School Students with Little Formal Schooling. In

So Much To Say. 1999. Teachers College, Columbia University. New York, NY. Online

Freeman, Y., Freeman, D.E. & Mercuri, S. 2001. Keys to Success for Bilingual Studentswith Limited Formal Schooling. Bilingual Research Journal; Winter 2001; 25, _ Research

Library pg. 203

Morse, A. 2005. A Look at Immigrant Youth Prospects and promising practices.Washington, D.C. National Conference of State Legislatures

DeCapua, A., Smathers, W. & Lixing, F.T. March, 2007. Schooling Interrupted.

Educational Leadership. Pg. 40-43).

Carlos J. Ovando (Apr., 2001) Beyond "Blaming the Victim": Successful Schools forLatino Students. Educational Researcher, Vol. 30, No. 3 p. 30

Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2004) Retrieved from Explanation of Inquiry-

based Learning website:http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html)

Lopez, G. R. 2004. Bringing the Mountain to Mohammed: Parent Involvement in

Migrant-Impacted Schools. In Scholars in the Field: The Challenges of MigrantEducation p. 132-146).

unshuttering the beacon

Documents