There are 45 different languages spoken in Springfield Public Schools.
There are a lot of places in the world where displaced citizens from one country create a crisis for another, but Springfield?
Springfield’s Achilles’ heel is not its refugees. Young children in refugee families are usually quick to embrace Western life, learn English and be part of a society that is generally a lot more developed then where they were born.
Sometimes this assimilation creates division with parents who miss their first culture and climate, but that is the way of young people who want to fit in and be successful.
Resettlement agencies work hard to house and support refugee families, and parents in these households take jobs to support their families. They want their kids to get good grades, even if they are not English speakers themselves or formally educated.
Education is key to success, and everyone knows this today no matter where they were born, or displaced to as refugees.
How much has been enacted of the 2010 Springfield Public Schools English Language Learner Recommended Actions and Learner Plans?
Has a manual, with policies and procedures as well as documentation related to an English Language learner’s experience during the course of a day, been published as recommended? Has a tracking system been developed as students transition out of immersion learning? How many new teachers have been hired, who are certified in English as a Second Language, and how many new teachers who speak native languages other than Spanish, as recommended?
There are 45 different languages spoken in Springfield Public Schools. Some 4,000 students, or about 24 percent of the student population, speak a first language other than English. The majority of these students, some 3,770 students, speak Spanish.
The breakdown among the major languages for refugees is 147 Somali speakers;
127 Vietnamese; 53 Arabic; 51 Nepali; 47 Burmese; 16 Russian; 15 Swahili, and
13 Chinese. Many of these ethnic groups are established in the area, and have adults who are bilingual speakers. It is hard to see how these figures would add up to an
“over saturation of refugees” in the city’s educational arena as has been categorized by Springfield’s mayor.
Refugees are resettled in Springfield, so they can survive in conditions better than were in the camps and countries they fled. Some are not used to mattresses on bed frames, indoor plumbing or even shoes on their feet. Many would have preferred to stay in their native land, but are forced to flee from war, torture, rape. Their hope here is in their children, in what their children can become and contribute.
What better hope for Springfield’s future, and what better challenge for Springfield schools.
Anne-Gerard Flynn is Lifestyle editor of The Republican.