As part of the series Reading for Life, Foundations’ President and CEO Rhonda H. Lauer shares her expertise and insights about grade level reading. Join Ms. Lauer as she offers key viewpoints and commentary based on her extensive experience working in Philadelphia–and across the country–to give our children and young people the educational opportunities they deserve.
Enormous opportunities exist for literacy development in afterschool time. A similar opportunity exists in afterschool time to develop language skills in English Language Learners (ELLs). Here in Philadelphia, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has a reform plan, Imagine 2014, that is intended to dramatically improve the quality of education for all students in Philadelphia. She calls for providing assistance to ELL pre-schoolers and their families, opening three new regional centers to ease the transition to school for new immigrant students, and creating a number of in-school supports for ELLs.
Afterschool is the perfect time for ELLs to stretch their language development in a safe and supportive environment. As with afterschool literacy programs, enormous challenges exist to creating high-quality, high-impact programs for ELLs. These challenges include untrained staff and a lack of adequate time. Despite these challenges, we must figure out a way to ensure that afterschool is not a missed opportunity for ELL students. As Claudia Weisburd points out, “almost one in five school-age children now live in homes where English is not the primary language.” As Claudia acknowledges in her article, Gaining a Voice After School, many children and youth struggling with language development need more opportunities to practice their language skills in a supportive environment such as afterschool programs rather than during the fast-paced, high-stakes school day.
The Colorado based organization Colorín Colorado echoes this sentiment and describes the diversity of English Language Learners and their radically different needs. The consistent theme however, is that all ELLs can benefit from after school programs designed to support English language development. In Philadelphia, and as I continue to travel to cities like Denver, San Antonio, and Providence with large ELL populations, I witness the struggle that families, and particularly children, whose primary language is not English go through each day. Afterschool programs can mitigate some of these struggles by providing ELL students with meaningful opportunities to acquire new language skills. As our nation becomes an ever-larger melting pot, we must figure out how to build on the talents of and provide the right supports for ELL students across the country.
