Welcome to the new face of urban education Baltimore

Two week ago, I took a select group of my 10th grade Biology students on a field trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Our group consisted of 20 students, myself, and a community member from Federal Hill who had volunteered to chaperone. As we sat eating lunch before heading back to school, the chaperone commented on how different the demographics of the group were this year than last year. “It seems like you have many more Hispanic students this year,” he said, referencing the five Spanish-speaking students who had come with us. I agreed with him and explained that this year I had a class of 15 ELLs (English Language Learners). I explained to the chaperone that there did seem to be an increase in immigrant students at our school in general. He said it seemed unusual that we still “had immigrants coming into this country at this day and age.”

I held my tongue. I wanted to point out that immigrants are STILL entering the country, and STILL looking for work and education. It seemed pretty naïve and narrow minded to think that immigration in the United States magically disappeared after a certain time period. Clearly, the fact that so many ELL’s were in my classroom, from different countries like Honduras, Mexico, Liberia, Guinea, and the Congo, proved that immigration had not halted. But later, I began to think of his comment within the context of Baltimore City. Most immigrants seemed to gravitate towards major metropolises such as New York or Los Angeles. These are cities where established ethnic populations from every country around the world already exist. What did it mean, then, that Baltimore City was experiencing an increase in immigrants? What would a typical Baltimore City classroom look like in 10 years? How would the needs of students who barely spoke English, were illiterate in their native languages, and had no prior access to formal education be met? These were the challenges I was currently facing with the ELL’s in my own classroom.

A recent New York Times article (link at the end) profiled a secondary school dedicated to such immigrant students. In Ellis Preparatory Academy, students not only face the challenges of learning content, but also a new language, how to read, and sometimes, how to learn – in high school. How do you meet all of these demands? Ellis Prepartory succeeds because of committed teachers who want to work with immigrants, because the state of New York allots more money to immigrant students to help them bridge these gaps, and because of its small school size. But who would serve these students in growing immigrant urban centers like Baltimore where such a demand is not recognized? Of course there are ESOL programs throughout the city, but people seem to forget that learning English is an ongoing process. And an immigrant student does not enter school only at the elementary school level – many high school students are immigrants too. How do you ever “catch them up”?
When people think of “urban education,” most automatically picture poor, black students. Historically, Baltimore fits the stereotypical picture of urban education pretty well. But the face of urban education is rapidly changing to include more immigrants. There are more questions than answers about how to accommodate these students at this point, much like this post. Welcome to the new face of urban education Baltimore.

In School for the First Time, Teenage Immigrants Struggle

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/education/25ellis.html?_r=2&scp=5&sq=immigrant%20students&st=cse