Buffalo Partnership Project: UB collaboration with Lafayette

This project is helping immigrant students and their schools.   - - Donna Poisl

By EILEEN BUCKLEY

A unique partnership has unfolded between the University at Buffalo and Lafayette High School. The Buffalo Partnership Project: A Common Core Collaborative is generating new learning methods for teachers as they instruct many of the refugee and immigrant students at Lafayette. In this Focus on Education report, WBFO's Eileen Buckley explores how this effort is aiding one of the city's six failing schools.

Imagine trying to take a standardized test under the new common core learning rigors -without understanding the English language.

"How difficult is it to take some of the tests?," asked Buckley.  "It's difficult because English is not my first language. I mean I really want the Common Core -- it's difficult for us -- English is our second language," said Hodan Ahmed.  Ahmed arrived two years ago from Somalia.  She's a junior at Lafayette.
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