Helping students succeed goal of ELL
"So, what are your plans for after high school? What do you want to do when you finish high school? Are you going on to college? Are you prepared to go into the adult workforce?"
Every high school student is faced with coming up with a plan for after high school. However, high school students who are in the process of learning with English as their second language (English Language Learners, or ELLs) are facing even more challenging concerns.
Bolingbrook High School is one of the two high schools in Valley View School District 365U and it is home to its grades 9 to 12 ELL program. I work with these students as their guidance counselor. According to Ricardo Sanchez, director of bilingual education for Valley View School District, more than 60 percent of our ELL students in the district are U.S. born, with the other 40 percent coming from Mexico, Poland, Korea, Russia, Peru, Dominican Republic, Iraq, Ghana and Rwanda, just to name a few. Our ELL students face barriers just like any high school student: they are unsure of their plans, not familiar with the college admission process and have concerns as to how to pay for their post-high school education.
These students not only have to work hard to learn the typical high school curriculum, but they also must learn a second language, English. Beyond these typical issues, some of our ELL students hold down jobs, or are responsible for taking care of younger siblings while their parents are working. A few of them are homeless. It takes a lot of hard work to get through school, but the great majority of our students make it.
A new survey from the Pew Hispanic Center in California found that 90 percent of Hispanic students say it's "necessary" to get a college education to get ahead in life -- more than any other ethnic or racial group in the country -- but financial pressures are keeping them from attending college. The study shows that Hispanic students want to go to college just as much as their peers, but they face more barriers. Some of these students are the first in their families to attend college and their parents depend on the high school teachers and counseling staff to help their child get into college.
The students want very badly to go to college, but are unsure of the admissions process or of the true cost of college tuition. Nearly 74 percent of those students who dropped out of high school or didn't finish college say they did it to help support their families. According to the same survey, 40 percent of post-high school Hispanic students said they cannot afford college. My job as the ELL counselor is to help break down these barriers.
A few years ago I, in coordination with Valley View Superintendent Phillip Schoffstall and the Senior Leadership Team, Valley View's board of education, the Bolingbrook High School ELL Department and James Mitchem, principal of BHS, put together a plan that has been working successfully when it comes to increasing our high school graduation and college entry rates. Brian Bove, head of the ELL Department at Bolingbrook High School, the rest of our ELL teachers, and I start by exposing the students to the possibilities available to them. The first step is for the students to do some career exploring.
Lauren Keppler, Miriam Alonso, Rebeca Fabian, Sargy Letuchy and David Hernandez, our ELL teachers, use a computer program called Career Cruising to assist the students in their career planning. Career Cruising is an effective tool because it offers interests and abilities surveys, career research and possible college choices.
During the students' sophomore school year, the programs at Will County Vocational Center are presented as a way to introduce students to some of the vocational programs they can take starting their junior school year. Many of our students enroll in its health services and the auto mechanic programs. ELL students who take the Wilco programs are at a great advantage when they go to college. They earn high school credit as well as college credit.
Another way to expose our students to post-secondary choices is to attend local college fairs. Junior and senior ELL students, along with teachers from the ELL Department and I, take an annual field trip to the National Hispanic College Fair held at Aurora East High School. This is a wonderful event in which the students are able to speak directly with representatives from colleges and universities from all over the United States. The students gain valuable information and, more importantly, they gain a sense that yes, it is possible, I can go to college.
On a different field trip, we take the seniors to Joliet Junior College for a tour, during which ELL students receive a presentation from JJC's Admission and Financial Aid Departments. Students learn that financing junior college is not as difficult as they think. JJC has been a great starting spot for our ELL students. During their visit to the JJC campus everyone fills out the free admission application form. Their Latino Support Services offers Hispanic students education and support while helping them reach their academic and career goals. ELL students can even continue developing their English skills through English as a second language classes as they take their regular college courses.
Toward late February of their senior year, ELL students can attend a FAFSA Completion Night at Bolingbrook High School. FAFSA is the financial aid application which all students should fill out to be considered by the federal government for grants, scholarships and student loans, based on their financial status. All the student needs to do is to bring all the necessary documents to the high school, including proof of U.S. citizenship or U.S. legal residency status, and a counselor leads them through the FAFSA on the Web. Most students can have the application completed in one hour.
At the end of the process, ELL students are either registered to Joliet Junior College for the next fall semester or they are ready to enroll in any other college or university. It is a long journey, but we are with them all the way through, encouraging them and answering all their questions. From Valley View
