{"id":147,"date":"2014-09-26T18:57:31","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T18:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generationone.kera.org\/?p=147"},"modified":"2014-12-09T18:52:33","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T18:52:33","slug":"going-from-spanish-to-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/generationone\/going-from-spanish-to-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Going From Spanish (Or Urdu Or Arabic) To English"},"content":{"rendered":"

Immigration is transforming Texas and its suburbs. Take the Grapevine-Colleyville school district near Fort Worth. In the last decade, it has seen its overall student population shrink while the number of non-white students doubled. The number of students learning English \u2014 they\u2019re called English language learners \u2014 has climbed 60 percent. How are the schools responding to this change?<\/em><\/p>\n

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At the Grapevine Community Outreach Center, coordinator Colby Mowery helps Rocalyn Gomez with a reading program she’s using on a new touchscreen notebook. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/p><\/div>\n

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As you head to Grapevine\u2019s Mustang-Panther Stadium for a Friday night football game, you might not notice the two red portable buildings sitting in its shadow. But come here after school and the place is packed with kids. They come every day to practice reading, use the computer lab and work on math problems.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Brandy

Brandy Salmeron and her father, Samuel, visit the Grapevine Community Outreach Center. Photo\/Stella M. Ch\u00e1vez<\/p><\/div>\n

Brandy Salmeron, a third grader, is one of them. Like many kids in this neighborhood, Brandy is the daughter of immigrants. Her parents came from El Salvador. They live across the street.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood is more than 50 percent Latino, and nearly half of the families make less than $50,000 a year. Many of the kids struggle with reading and math.<\/p>\n

Why is Brandy having trouble with math? She responds like a lot of third graders would.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t practice math.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dig a little deeper, though, and Brandy tosses out some not-so-simple math terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cStandard form. Word form. And alternate form and expanded form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandy\u2019s making progress. And that\u2019s the point of the Grapevine Community Outreach Center. It\u2019s an eight-year-old partnership between the police and the school district.<\/p>\n

The center began with the idea of lowering crime in the area and getting kids off the street. Back then, a popcorn machine sat outside to draw kids into the computer lab. Today, there are touch-screen tablets.<\/p>\n

Home life has been tough for some of these kids, says Colby Mowery, the center\u2019s outreach coordinator.<\/p>\n

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Colby Mowery is the coordinator of the Grapevine Community Outreach Center. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of structure in their homes or there\u2019s not a lot of certainty,\u201d Mowery said. \u201cChaos is something that they\u2019re used to, unfortunately. And so it\u2019s very hard for them to focus on their studies, to focus on their homework when they have to go home and they\u2019re not sure what home is going to look like when they get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mowery and his wife moved to North Texas from Chicago last year. The job requires him to live nearby.<\/p>\n

Mowery is fluent in Spanish. That\u2019s helped him become something of a mentor — and earned him quite a few nicknames. Some kids call him Officer Colby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are my neighbors,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the kids that I see walking down the street. These are the families we have dinner with. So this is my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the Grapevine Community Outreach Center, as students wait to be picked up, they play computer games. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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In Texas, One In Three Children Have Immigrant Parents<\/h3>\n

In 2012, about 34 percent of Texas children under the age of 18 had at least one parent who\u2019s an immigrant. That’s according to American Community Survey data compiled by the Migration Policy Institute<\/a>. That places Texas among the top five states. Hover over each state below to learn more.<\/p>\n

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MOST<\/div>\n
LEAST<\/div>\n
ALL<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Here\u2019s a look at the states with the highest and lowest percentages of children with immigrant parents:<\/h6>\n

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\"top5\"<\/p>\n

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\"bottom5\"<\/p>\n

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Sources: Migration Policy Institute; 2012 American Community Survey; KERA research<\/p>\n

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Mily Echegaray works at the Language Assessment Center in the Grapevine-Colleyville school district. She cut out a poster in honor of Brazil’s Independence Day. The center’s walls are decorated with items that celebrate the countries represented in the district. Photo\/Stella M. Ch\u00e1vez<\/p><\/div>\n

A one-stop place for families<\/h6>\n

Less than a mile away from the Community Outreach Center is another portable building the school district opened over the summer. It’s called the Language Assessment Center. Kids who aren\u2019t native English speakers get tested at the center and are then placed in the right language program.<\/p>\n

In the last decade, Grapevine-Colleyville student enrollment declined more than 3 percent. Meanwhile, the number of students learning English — they’re called English language learners — has climbed 60 percent.<\/p>\n

The growth among the English language learners has helped fuel the need for the assessment center, said Jodi Cox, director of world languages for the Grapevine-Colleyville district. She oversees the center.<\/p>\n

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Jodi Cox, left, is the director of world languages for the Grapevine-Colleyville school district. Zulma Arroyo is a bilingual assessment specialist. Photo\/Stella M. Ch\u00e1vez<\/p><\/div>\n

Many larger school districts have something similar \u2013 a one-stop place to help families that don\u2019t speak English.<\/p>\n

When families arrive from another country, school districts have to determine a student\u2019s home language and explain to parents how the school system here works.<\/p>\n

Before the Grapevine-Colleyville center opened, the small staff had to travel to other campuses to evaluate new students\u2019 language skills. Cox said it wasn\u2019t the best use of time, and it was challenging to track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many other things that have to happen \u2013 vaccines, residency checks \u2013 all of those other things that often the front office staff at a campus does not have the necessary resources, specifically time or the ability to communicate in a native language, to really fully educate the parent on what their options are,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

Learning a language is not easy, whether you\u2019re 5 or whether you’re 45.
Jodi Cox, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD's world languages director<\/div>
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Evaluating language skills
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\u201cQuiero saber el nivel de ingles que tienes. Te voy decir algo de este examen \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Laura Wernicke, a language acquisition coach, helps Javier Cabezudo with an oral exam at the Language Assessment Center in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. Photo\/Stella M. Ch\u00e1vez<\/p><\/div>\n

Laura Wernicke, a language acquisition coach,\u00a0talks in Spanish with 10th grader Maria Victoria Sotomayer de la Cruz. She tells her the English test she\u2019s about to get starts out easy and gradually gets harder.<\/p>\n

Maria isn’t like a lot of the kids here. She grew up learning English in Puerto Rico. When she\u2019s asked to identify objects and animals, she aces it. It\u2019s not so easy for her 17-year-old cousin, Javier Cabezudo.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you repeat that?\u201d Javier asks.<\/p>\n

Arroyo says: \u201cEarring is to ear as necklace is to?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Javier responds. \u201cI know what is necklace, but I don\u2019t know what complete that sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘We can’t take away the struggle’<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Of the students learning English in Grapevine-Colleyville, most speak Spanish. But kids also speak Korean, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

At Bear Creek Elementary, just 5 miles south of the Language Assessment Center, students speak more than 20 languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cLearning a language is not easy, whether you\u2019re 5 or whether you’re 45,\u201d says Cox, the world languages director.<\/p>\n

Cox stresses centers like these aren\u2019t just there to test a student\u2019s language skills. Many of these kids face other challenges inside and outside the classroom, from learning math to socioeconomic struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t take away the struggle,\u201d Cox says. \u201cWe can acknowledge it and support them through it and connect them with help or resources or an extra English class or a church, outreach. … We can be the people that connect those dots.\u201d<\/p>\n

That also means training for mom and dad \u2013 healthy cooking, exercise and parenting skills.<\/p>\n

One recent morning at the center, the instructor puts on an exercise DVD and tells four immigrant moms to follow along.<\/p>\n

They lift their feet and march in place. They raise their arms and move from side to side, working up a sweat.<\/p>\n

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Mily Echegaray, right, leads parents in an exercise at the Language Assessment Center. Photo\/Stella M. Ch\u00e1vez<\/p><\/div>\n

Marlena Castillo attended because she wants to learn more about nutrition for her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe gusto. Esta bien,\u201d<\/em> Castillo says.<\/p>\n

She says she liked the class.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s originally from El Salvador and has a 14-year-old son who arrived in Texas a few months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cPor que comer saludable es muy bueno,\u201d<\/em> Castillo says.<\/p>\n

Lately, she\u2019s been worried about her son, who\u2019s had a difficult time adjusting to life in North Texas. He\u2019s been eating more and putting on weight.<\/p>\n

She left the center with some ideas to help him.<\/p>\n

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One district, many languages<\/h6>\n

Here\u2019s a sampling of some of the languages spoken by students in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD during the 2013-14 school year:
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Albanian<\/span>Arabic<\/span>Bengali<\/span>Mandarin Chinese<\/span>French<\/span><\/div>
Gujarati<\/span>Hindi<\/span>Indonesian<\/span>Japanese<\/span>Korean<\/span><\/div>
Nepali<\/span>Romanian<\/span>Spanish<\/span>Urdu<\/span>Vietnamese<\/span><\/div>
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Source: Texas Education Agency<\/p>\n

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Slideshow: Explore The Outreach Center<\/h6>\n

The Grapevine Community Outreach Center is a partnership between the police and the school district.<\/p>\n

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  • \"\"
    The Grapevine Community Outreach Center consists of two red portable buildings. Come here after school and the place is packed with kids. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    Uriel Morales, 8, goes to the Outreach Center\u2019s afterschool program. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    Coordinator Colby Mowery helps Rocalyn Gomez with a reading program she is\r\nusing on one of the center\u2019s new touchscreen notebooks. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    As students wait to be picked up from the Grapevine Community Outreach Center, they\r\nplay computer games to improve their language and reading skills. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    From left, Anthony Manson, 17, and Jose Medina, 18, serve dinner to students\r\nin the afterschool program. Students ate spaghetti with corn, bread and peaches. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    Ana Maria Lopez carries her spaghetti plate to another room for dinner. The Grapevine\r\nCommunity Outreach Center is located in a \u201cfood desert\u201d neighborhood, which means\r\ngetting a good meal can be difficult, center coordinator Colby Mowery said. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    The Grapevine Community Outreach Center recently acquired touchscreen Acer\r\nChromebooks, which students use to practice reading and language skills. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    Tahlia Jones, 10, fills out an application for Lighthouse, a group that plans school events\r\nwith teachers. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
  • \"\"
    Bilal Khurshid, 17, helps Joceline Sierra, 10, with her homework as part of an afterschool program. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n