Question:
The students I have worked with generally tend to be Latino/a Americans from Puerto Rico. The expectations for these learners on the part of most of the school professionals is that they will not learn well, that most of them will fall into lower tracks and many will drop out of school. The learners to whom I was referring were Limited English Proficient first graders learning to read for the first time and the medium of instruction was English.
Is this a problem with the schools/teachers/school personnel? Is it the expectations that cause these children to work less hard than Asian or other foreign-born students?
And ESL students from Asia and Europe tend to learn English quickly and succeed quite well in American Schools due in no small part to their support systems at home and to the school's expectation that they will do well. Is it right???
Answer:
There are a couple of problems with this information.First of all the student from Asia has a greater problem in learning English because, not only are the sound to letter conventions different from that of their native tongue, but many/most Asian countries use an alphabet that is diffeent from the one used for English. Students from Europe and the American continents/islands typically do not have to learn another alphabet in addition to the new sounds, new words, and new grammer constructs. Therefore if research indicates that students from Asia and Europe do better than the Latinos, then I would some factor/s greater than the impact of teacher perceptions to be the basis for the lesser achievement. Further, this fact would seem to be at cross purposes with your research, since your research would dilute teacher perceptions towards ALL ESL students rather than pinpoint the group that is not being adequately assimilated. The problem is NOT that teacher perceptions towards the foreign-born are problematical.
I suspect that perceptions of school personnel (teachers and the others who make placement decisions) are based on individual experiences. While most of my experiences with Asian immigrants has been positive, I will not ever forget one lady of age (more than 50) whose son dropped her off every morning at an Adult Learning Center I worked at 14 years ago, and picked her up at the end of his day at the hospital --- she was well-rested from napping all day, having made little effort to learn English. He insisted - she resisted ...!!! Yet I have had experiences with much younger people from spanish-speaking American countries/islands who were equally resistive.
In defense of the receiving school of the bright youngster from Costa Rica, I've been on the teams deciding what to do with youngsters who arrived before their records - American born as well as foreign born. I cannot make a stronger point than to say that FAMILIES can go a long way towards making the transition for their children easier by 1) clearing records/fees at the sending school, 2) handcarrying copies of basic data, and 3) bringing necessary materials to the new school, in person, along with the child, on the first day.
