Somalis Assimilation

[xoxoxoBruce]

A friend in Springfield, MA, sent me this newspaper clipping. It's a little long but I don't have a link.

By NATALIA E. ARBULU narbulu@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - The school district has violated the civil rights of Somali refugees by not giving them an effective education, according to an investigation completed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

District officials have voluntarily created a resolution agreement listing the many steps that have or will be taken to address the office's compliance concerns.

Schools Superintendent Joseph P. Burke said the resolution provides targeted support for Somalis, specific summer intervention and eliminates the isolation of Somalis in certain schools.
"We are confident we can follow through on all of the items we said we were," Burke said.

Federal officials investigated the education of Somali children in district schools after Springfield resident, Jean Caldwell, complained the children were being discriminated against based on their national origin, and they were not receiving effective instruction in school subjects and the English language.
Thomas J. Hibino, the office's regional director, informed Caldwell last week that the investigation has been closed, because of the school district's commitment to resolve compliance concerns.

There are about 90 Somali children attending 21 schools in Springfield. Many of them have changed schools in the last year, because of the boundary plan for student assignments, which places children in schools based on where they live.

Somali immigrants first arrived here in 2003 after living in refugee camps through out Africa, where there was no official schooling for children or adults. A plan to relocate the refugees to Holyoke was dropped after the City Council there, adamantly took a position against the move.

The, federal investigation found that the Springfield school district failed to provide Somalis with adequate amounts of instruction geared toward English-language learners, placed middle and high school aged Somalis with teachers, who are not trained to instruct non-English speakers, and did not give teachers the materials needed to work with Somalis.
Some Somali students were removed from the English-language learner program and did not get alternative language programs.
Teachers trained to teach English-language learners could not effectively teach Somalis, because they had no way to clarify what they were saying in Somali, according to the investigation. The district relies on two, part-time Somali-speaking tutors to provide translation services to all of the Somali students.

The terms of the agreement include:
~ Hiring a Somali outreach worker to serve as a translator and liaison for parents of Somali students.
~ Providing an after-school program for high school-aged Somalis. Such a program for middle-school' children is in place. .
~ Hire additional bilingual Somali tutors as paraprofessionals so they can get benefits.
~ Give sole Somali students isolated in a school the option to transfer to another school where there are other Somalis.
~ Provide a summer program for Somalis in language acquisition and other subjects.
~ Assign Somalis to teachers who have certification to teach English-language learners or to those who have received instruction in such language acquisition methods
~ Provide teachers with instructional resources designed to help students learn English and other subjects.
Federal officials will monitor the plan's implementation and the district will provide periodic progress reports.

Caldwell, a volunteer who tutors English-language learners at Rebecca M. Johnson Elementary School, said she was glad the office found her complaint to be valid, but is disappointed it took this long for the School Department to take action.
She said she wrote a letter to school officials in 2004 outlining the problems Somali children, and their teachers faced along with suggestions to remedy the situation, including the creation of a newcomer's program.
"I wish they had done it sooner. I'm glad they are doing it now," Caldwell said.

I'm all warm and fuzzy over these people getting out of those hell hole refugee camps but I don't think the Feds, or anyone else, thought this through. How can you dump a kid that doesn't speak English and more importantly has little or no education, into a Jr High or High School class. At least the kids that are there because they weren't allowed to fail anyone, have picked up some skills just from going through the motions.

Springfield is an old city (the first Springfield in the country) and has been in decline since about 1960. About 150k people, 50% White, 20% Black, 30% Hispanic and lots of poor folks.
How in hell are these people expected to pay for all the extra services. They already have an extensive problem with Spanish/Portuguese speaking students draining resources but most of those kids have been schooled, just not in English.

I wish someone at the Federal level would think, before they burden the cities with unfunded mandates.
I wish someone at the Federal level would think.