By Sydney Ramirez, Evan Mao, Veronica Lopez
A disproportionate amount of students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds become incarcerated because of harsh school policies. This is what is referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline. The school system is just one institution that exists in a complex system of institutions, policies, and practices that funnel youth into the prison system. Luckily, we can see where the problem is and work to address it.
In U.S. public schools today, 1 in 9 students is an English Language Learner (ELL). By 2025, this number should rise to 1 in 4. Specifically in Texas, 18% of students are ELL.
Most curriculums and public school pedagogy is written for English-speaking students. This creates a bias and unrealistic standard for students whose first language isn’t English. Most ELLs are students who have lower achievement scores on state assessments like reading and math.
ELL students are suspended or expelled twice as much as non-English learners.
Why could this be?
Some studies suggest that ELL students experience the inability to understand and follow directions and show higher rates of externalizing behaviors such as withdrawal, disorganization, timidity, fear, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
The link between academic literacy expectations and punishment is closer than many are aware of. Rewriting curriculums to account for the complex and interlinguistic identities in our country’s youth, especially in multicultural states such as Texas, is imperative. Evidence of colonialism and white supremacy is deep-rooted into our public school system, contributing to the disproportionate rates of ELL being funneled into the prison system.
Texas Senate State Bill 2065 is all about relating to emergent bilingual students and increasing the expenditure required for bilingual education allotment. In other words, it focuses on increasing the funding for ELL students and those who teach their programs. Ultimately, this will lead to more successful academic achievement for ELL students.
Angela Gamez, the principal at Dripping Springs High School, spoke a little bit about how the school’s ELL program has evolved over her time there.
“We are starting to train our teachers more on sheltered instruction so that they can provide that support without them ever having to get pulled out of class,” Gamez said.
Gamez emphasized the importance of social inclusion and language immersion as a strategy for keeping students engaged and encouraging a sense of belonging.
“I think it’s both focused on helping them to learn English as well as helping their academic experience as a whole,” she said. “ I would say it is less of a focus on learning English because they are in an English-speaking environment for 8 hours every day… So our students are inherently picking up the language as they go class to class… it’s more of a support system for students and more of a support for them academically.”
The ELL Program at Dripping Springs includes classroom management and a curriculum specifically structured for the inclusion of the ELL students. The program consists of about 100 students, and about half of that population is receiving direct support from teachers.
“My goal for their experience is for them to feel a part of the community as a whole. I think that our ELL teachers do a really good job of creating a community for our ELL students,” Gamez said.
Preparing students for their future is the biggest priority for schools like Dripping Springs High School. Equipping the students with the tools necessary for future success starts with equipping their teachers with the knowledge and skills to help them.
Gamez said that Dripping Springs ISD’s strategy is “Making sure that our teachers and our staff members are all appropriately and properly trained to support our students.” They are asking questions like: “what does sheltered learning look like,” “what does that mean?” and “what are some easy strategies to incorporate into the classroom?”
Answering those important questions will be the foundation of building a better ELL program for the growing population of ELL students.