Photo: Ben Garvin for The New York Times
On January 9, the New York Times ran an article by Sara Rimer about immigrant students and their parents who are happier with their children in charter schools that cater to an international community. The article takes a good look at why these schools are more comfortable places for recent immigrant students as they learn English and become accustomed to American culture. Perhaps if we were to take a look at what other schools are not doing to make immigrant students feel more comfortable and to create the least-restrictive environment for them to learn we might be able to create a more effective classroom for all students.
First School for First-Time Students
As reported by Jennifer Medina in the New York Times article, In School for the First Time, Teenage Immigrants Struggle, students at this landmark school are drawn from a population classified as Students with Interrupted Formal Education. Though they have more challenges to overcome, these students must meet the same graduation requirements as their US-born counterparts whom have had many more years of formal study. Still, they have aspirations to live the American Dream, and are working hard to get there, despite the fact that, as English teacher Emily Grasso puts it, “They don’t always have a notion of what it means to be a student.”
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