More US Schools Accused of Denying Education to Immigrants

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA — Jul 19, 2016, 5:39 PM ET

Civil rights lawyers have sued a third U.S. school district over what they call a practice of denying older refugee and immigrant students a meaningful education by steering them to alternative high schools.

The plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania are refugees ages 17 to 21 who came to the U.S. from Myanmar, Sudan and other war-torn countries.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the Lancaster School District has steered at least 30 students over three years to a disciplinary high school, denying them the classes and services offered at the traditional high school.

Some of the students had been in refugee camps for years, said Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which filed the suit along with the Education Law Center and others.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/aclu-suit-seeks-school-access-older-immigrant-students-40705843

[yeoman6987]

1. 17-21? High school ends at 18.

Ok we may owe a year to the 17 year olds but the older kids need to apply for college. What age is cut off for educating adults?

[dhol82]

2. I seriously doubt that if you have spent your younger years in refugee camps

that you have had much, if any, education.
These kids need remedial help to at least get up to a GED. They are in no way ready for college. There is probably also a language problem.
Sad that this area is sending them off with the delinquents.

[yeoman6987]

3. I understand that but do we want 21 year olds hanging out with 13 year olds?

Something else needs to be done. We are a smart country, we can think of something that satisfies everyone.

[dhol82]

6. Not sure how many 13 year olds are in the

delinquents school.
Do not know for certain but just expect that the students at that level are older.
Night school would be an alternative. There just needs to be something.

[yeoman6987]

7. They are forcing these adults into regular high schools

[dhol82]

8. Ok. Do you know if they are in regular classes or ESL classes?

Are they in ninth grade English or remedial?
I think we need more information.
You just seem to have a problem with expecting them to be thrown into classes with 13 year olds. What is it you expect to happen?

[yeoman6987]

10. It's the first time I'm hearing adults going to high schools.

They have night classes for GED's. I guess we will see how it turns out. I'm just saying high school has 13-18 year olds depending on birthdays.

[Igel]

12. I teach high school.

I've had 19-year-old sophomores and 20-year-old seniors. One graduated (finally) a few days before his 21st birthday.

It might vary by state. But if you fail a grade you won't graduate when you're 18. Fail two grades and you graduate when you're 20. This has to be worked into the system otherwise if you fail 3rd grade you have to work your butt off to get the high school credits to be able to graduate.

The schools also offer evening school, but that's still public school and not for those over 21.

[ananda]

4. In the districts I worked in here in Texas ...

... students were legally in high school free until the age of 21.
At that age, they had to pay.

Several of my immigrant students tried to fudge their birth dates
because of this, I recall.

[murielm99]

5. Providing schools with the resources to educate these students

would go a long way. What if you have three or four students sitting in your classroom, all older and bigger, who do not speak a word of English? What if they all speak a different language, and there is no one in the district who can communicate with them? How do they learn anything? What is the teacher supposed to do?

What if your school is already paying for aides for other special needs students, and there is no one else available to help these students or communicate with them? How many one-on-one situations can a district afford? Denying them the classes and services of a traditional high school? What if these students are unable to benefit from traditional classes, and there is no alternative?

[dhol82]

9. Not to be pushy but

I think the main problem with this particular event is that the immigrants are brown.

[yeoman6987]

11. I don't think so. I bet a million dollars it's age.

[Igel]

13. I think you're both partly wrong.

A lot of immigrants don't fit in. That means they run into problems with behavioral norms. They often also don't know what's going on, don't understand the curriculum, get frustrated and bored.

A lot of immigrants that are put in with younger kids feel strongly that "they are grown up." You try putting a 17-year-old in with 13-year-olds and see how the attitude plummets. Esp. when the 13-year-olds do better. The kid may not know the difference between simile and metaphor, net force and unbalanced force, molar and molal or words like "coefficient," but fairly quickly the male immigrants know how to say, "fuck this shit." Which, of course, violates a behavior norm.

One problem is language: They have to be put into classrooms in which they can understand what's going on. My school doesn't have enough enrollment for bilingual education--we'd have a science teacher with a bilingual certification teaching 4 different classes for the purpose of teaching 20 students. So they get put in ESL classes where, if truth be told, you can't accommodate them in any sane manner. I've had some. One girl couldn't explain in English that she worked and didn't have time to finish her homework. She'd take 30 minutes to write 3 or 4 bad sentences in English. Yet she was in 10th, 11th, 12th grade English, in chemistry and physics and geometry and algebra II. Bringing us to ...

Another is background: It can be hard for a student moving from out of state to get caught up. Credits don't transfer. Or they plop them in Algebra II when what Algebra I covered in the other state didn't provide the background. (That's what Common Core was supposed to solve.)

We have a bunch of "brown" immigrants in this situation. But also Asians (if you don't want to count them as brown), Africans, and Europeans. In some cases their parents were educated, but their language skills suck. Or they went to a humanities high school and suddenly are put in math and science classes. One student could write better than some native speakers, but her oral skills were abysmal because of her old high school's English teacher.

A third is expectations. I don't know how many immigrant kids have low expectations for themselves. In their home country they slacked off in school and it was okay. Not here. Or they assumed they'd drop out. They don't have the tech skills, study skills. They often don't see a reason to learn the stuff, anyway.

Alternative programs have some things going for them. Yes, they have a lot of delinquents, because they need one-on-one help, they need tutoring, they need more time, and they need to go at a slower pace. They provide motivational counseling.

Some immigrants wind up being delinquents, but also they need one-on-one help, they need tutoring, they need more time, and they need to go at a slower pace. Some also need motivational counseling.

[yeoman6987]

14. Thank you for your reply.

Bottom line not an easy solution. I feel for these kids and young adults really. I have been to 54 countries throughout the world and I have been in places where I was the only English speaker. It actually very unsettling and you think everyone is speaking poorly of you. It probably was far from true after all I am not that special. Lol. But the mind does things to you.