Imagine you’re an elementary school student new to your school district — and to the United States — and you hear the fire alarm go off during your first week of school.
Do you know what to do and where to go? Do you know who your teacher is well enough to locate them amid the shuffle as your fellow students evacuate the building? If not, how do you ask, especially if you haven’t learned English yet?
These are the kinds of situations teachers at East Aurora School District 131 presented to district officials about the challenges of acclimating students who are new to the United States into their classrooms, explained Rita Guzman, the district’s executive director of language acquisition and early learning.
And these challenges, Guzman said, are what East Aurora’s new International Newcomer Center is meant to address. The goal is for students in the program, set to begin next fall, to get a crash course in English skills and knowledge of how the school district operates before joining their grade-level peers at their assigned district school.
Classroom teachers may not have the language skills to communicate with these students everything they need to know — or they may not even know what new students don’t know, said Ami Engel, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessments.
“They (teachers) just don’t necessarily know where the gap might be,” Engel said. “Some other places have fire alarms that sound similar to ours, others are completely different. So, we just don’t know exactly what they’re coming in with in terms of knowledge about our systems in the United States and in the education system here in District 131.”
The idea for a newcomer center at East Aurora was first presented at the school board’s curriculum meeting in December, Engel said. In April, Guzman gave a presentation to the board about how it would work, and Engel presented the program again on Monday, the district’s new board president Juan Sifuentes noted at Monday’s board meeting.
Per a presentation for the school board by Guzman and Engel, the criteria for students to be placed in the newcomer center are: being born outside of the U.S., speaking a language other than English or Spanish at home, having spent less than 90 days enrolled in any U.S. school and a WIDA screener score (an English proficiency test by the University of Wisconsin-Madison) of below 3.0. The program will be open to students in grades 1-5, Guzman said.
The center will be housed in two classrooms at Bardwell Elementary, which Guzman noted is across from the district’s administrative building, making it easier for the district to show new families their students’ schools. Students in first and second grade will learn in one classroom, and students in third through fifth grade in the other.
This sort of program is new to East Aurora, according to a district spokesperson, but it’s not a new idea, Guzman noted. As they designed their proposal, district officials looked to examples in Illinois and beyond.
The schedule for East Aurora’s proposed program is similar to a regular school day schedule, Guzman said, but it’s slightly condensed to account for daytime field trips. Students will visit their home school, the district’s presentation to the board said, along with places in the community — the grocery store, library, police and fire stations, etc.
Students will participate in the program for 90 days, according to the presentation, but Guzman said it’s a “fluid program,” meaning students can exit the program sooner if they attain English proficiency. After the program, they’ll transition to their assigned district schools.
And the district doesn’t anticipate this transition being a problem, because they will have some class time with students outside the newcomer program, as well as field trips with their home schools, Engel said. Guzman said it’s better for acclimation if students start in a small setting and then transition to their regular classroom.
According to Engel and Guzman’s presentation to the board, there were 49 students this past school year across the district who would have qualified as newcomers for the program — 35 of which were in kindergarten through fifth grade. Enrollment fluctuates year-to-year — and students sometimes arrive mid-year — so the district doesn’t know yet how many students will be part of the program next year.
Now, the district is moving forward on staffing and logistics as they prepare to open the center next fall.
In April, the board approved staffing requests from the district for two teachers for the newcomer center. And at Monday’s board meeting, they approved two teacher assistant positions and a facilitator role for the program. Each classroom will have a teacher and a teacher’s assistant, Engel said.
From there, Guzman said, the district will begin filling those positions, ordering materials and furniture and developing the curriculum as it prepares to begin the program in the fall.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com