Serving the Underserved

        Fact: By 10 a.m. on Wednesday, November 9th, hours after our Presidential  election results were announced, three ELL (English Language Learners) families in District 109 called me to request that their child/children be withdrawn from our ELL program. They also requested that their children’s ELL status be erased from their Illinois state school records. More on this later…

        In Serving the Underserved, Salman Khan discusses the “daunting challenges in bringing education to the world’s poorest places.” He focuses on the Indian subcontinent and the issues that region faces, such as “child malnutrition, lack of school building and supplies and shortages of teachers.”  He is “convinced that software based, self paced learning has the best chance of thriving in these circumstances.”  

        He details how to provide inexpensive tablets and cellular Internet connectivity, and explains a model plan that entails “providing high quality, low cost education to the affluent and middle classes and using the revenues to provide the same services for free to the poor.” On page 222, Khan presents the natural parental complacency with education, which is “as long as our kids are educated we don’t worry about kids a block, a nation or a continent away.” The problem with this attitude is that “our kids live in a world of broadening inequality and increasing instability…. the better way to help our kids is to help all kids”.

        So how can we educators best serve the underserved and thus help all kids?  As your District 109 ELL Teacher for the past 9 years I think you know what direction I’ll be heading in to answer this question!  Yes, it would be noble to go live and work in Bangladesh or Pakistan or India in an attempt to improve the unfair and inequitable lack of educational opportunities. Yes, we can open our wallets and contribute the monies that the Khan Academy needs to provide a “free world class education for anyone, anywhere.”   

        As is often the case, though, I believe the best opportunity for us to be of service lies in our own backyard, right here in our own school district.

        We should adjust the lens in which we see the term “underserved,” and interpret that as serving the undervalued, under-recognized and under-appreciated. These terms often define our ELL students and their families. It is in this realm that we can strive to better value, recognize and appreciate our ELLs, and be able to fulfill our responsibility to provide a world class education to all of our students.  

        In a recent post, our Dr. Brian Bullis wrote: “We believe that all students can and should learn and we do not waiver in that pursuit.  All means all. Now is the time to focus on the promotion of equity in education with our head, hands and heart.”

        It is imperative that we be strong, vocal advocates for our ELLs and their families, as their cultures often do not allow for them to question authority or self-promote.  I am willing to bet a hot fudge sundae that Dr. Michael Lubelfeld has never received a phone call from an ELL parent demanding more ELL minutes for their child. In many cultures, education professionals are highly respected. Teachers and administrators are revered on a par with doctors and lawyers. So for many of our District’s ELL families, whatever we propose and however we provide our services is not only fine with them, but much appreciated. We are the highest perceived authority on how to best educate their children and integrate them into our Chicagoland community and overall American culture.

        And that is why we must continually ask ourselves if we are doing the best we can to serve this silent community. We have an ethical, moral, and professional responsibility to make sure we are serving this demographic to the very best of our abilities. Anything less would be a disservice to ELL families that would never dream of questioning the way we do our jobs.

        And this demographic will only continue to grow. Over the years, our district has had to adapt in order to serve our ELL students and their families.

  • In 2008,  I was the only ELL Teacher with 21 ELL students in our District’s six schools.  
  • But since then, Deerfield has followed the national trend of growing diversity in schools. Now our ELL student population is nearing 70 students with 14 different home languages and three ELL Teachers to serve our students and their families.  

It is important that we, the ELL Teachers, continue to expand our roles as not only Teachers to kids, but as ELL Coaches and Support Resources to classroom teachers. We ELL teachers can help provide the necessary modifications and differentiations to ensure that all students are meeting their learning goals. In order to do this, we can be working more collaboratively with classroom teachers.

        But collaboration is a two-way street. I have an important question for our District 109 classroom teachers, and believe me when I say that I want to hear back from you! The question is:

        How can we ELL teachers better serve you in your efforts to better serve our ELLs in the classroom?

        We are open to any and all suggestions. In addition to our ELL instruction, we can “push in” and lead a Guided Reading Group. We can coordinate kindergarten Learning Centers and we can provide check-in, check-out daily support for students as needed. We can also be Readers for MAP/PARCC Math assessments for ELLs. We can provide (through the District’s roster of interpreters) interpreters for Parent Conferences and meetings.

        This type of collaboration is something I have already had success with. Three years ago I reached out to our Deerfield Public Library as a community resource so that we could work together to better serve our ELL families. We held an ELL Family Night at the DPL, where the library staff did a presentation on all the free programs that they offer Deerfield families. We had an “Express Sign-up Lane”  where we issued library cards to 18 ELL families!  

        We are now planning our 3rd Annual ELL Family Night at DPL for March. Our neighboring District 113 Adult Education program offers free “English as a Second Language” classes for adults with class locations throughout Highland Park and Deerfield. I have their flyer if anyone would like copies for their ELL families or neighbors in their communities.

        What other school and/or community resources can we be utilizing to serve our Deerfield ELL families? It is my hope that this article starts a dialogue on how we can best answer that question.

        Now to return to my FACT at the start of my blog. The day after November’s presidential election, the fear in my parents’ voices for the safety and well-being of their children was agonizingly vivid. It is important that we as a district avoid “party affiliation.” But, we must  endeavor to provide a nurturing and safe “educational climate” that is all-inclusive.  (Terms that Dr. Bullis himself used). Last month in New York City, the Broadway production Hamilton had Vice President-elect Mike Pence at their performance, and the cast reached out to him with this appeal:

        “We, sir, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us — our planet, our children, our parents — or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.”

        This goes back to themes that Kahn and Dr. Bullis have echoed. “The better way to help our kids is to help all kids.” “All means all.”  It refers quite literally to “all of us.” This is my take-away from Salman Khan’s chapter Serving the Underserved.

        What more can we do as a district going forward to make certain that we best serve our ELL students and their families?

        In closing I offer you this video from Rupi Kaur, a Canadian poet who emigrated from Punjab, India with her parents. It is a spoken word performance of her poem “Broken English.”