Language barriers challenge schools

When more than half of the students are learning English along with their other courses, many methods are used to teach them. DP

New teachers, methods needed to address rise in English learners

BY LORI YOUNT, The Wichita Eagle

In Elida Sandoval's sixth-grade math class, students use gestures when words fail.

The Pleasant Valley Middle School students, who are in their first year at an English-speaking school, read and visualize questions about fractions by using an interactive white board.

This classroom technology equips Sandoval and her colleagues to better communicate with a growing number of a students for whom English is not their first language.

About half of the Wichita middle school's more than 500 students are classified as English Speakers of Other Languages, making it one of the district's largest ESOL programs.

In the Wichita school district, the number of ESOL students has grown 78 percent in the past 10 years to more than 6,000 students, according to district records.

Those numbers are expected to grow steadily as formerly migrant families choose to settle in one location, experts say. To make sure ESOL students succeed, Wichita and schools nationwide will have to attract more ESOL teachers and implement innovative teaching techniques.

One of Wichita's initial steps has been to create a new administrative position to oversee the identification and evaluation of ESOL students.

"The No. 1 goal is to affect student achievement," said Karen Boettcher, the district's new ESOL director.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.