Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 24

Heritage Profile: guatemala
A Guatemalan Transplant Flourishes In a Cross-Cultural High School
Marlyn Martinez, 17, moved to San Francisco in 2009, but the groundwork for her arrival was laid long before: Her father, who had been a civil engineer in Guatemala, came to the United States 15 years ago, and had been working nights as a janitor while trying to obtain immigration documents for Martinez and her mother. When the papers finally came through, the family was reunited. Martinez’s mother now works as a janitor as well, and the teenager began school at San Francisco International High School, part of a New York-based network of public schools designed to serve immigrant students. Though Martinez has been in the United States for only a few years, that makes her an old hand at San Francisco International, where she is now a junior. Cross-cultural transitions are the norm at the school, which has a college-preparatory focus and enrolls and provides language, academic, and social and emotional support for about 400 immigrant youth. To qualify for enrollment, students must score below a certain level on a test of English-proficiency. At first, it was easiest for Martinez to befriend other students from Guatemala. Besides the shared language, she says, “when you move to a place, the first thing you miss is people from your country.” But the school has only about a dozen Guatemalan students, so Martinez also found herself spending time with Salvadoran and Mexican students. As time has passed, she has become friends with students from many other countries. “It is really good to share with new people and learn about their experiences,” she says. At San Francisco International High, instruction takes place in English, but teachers taught Martinez how to translate words and decode English grammar. The school also runs programs that help students navigate cultural differences. Because of the school’s special purpose, all of Martinez’s teachers were focused on helping students who were still trying to grasp the language and culture as well as the content in classes. “They could help with homework and with English,” she says. She still speaks Spanish at home: While her father has learned some English, her mother is more comfortable speaking in Spanish. Martinez grew up in Guatemala City, that nation’s capital, in a neighborhood she describes as “not very safe.” The ethnically diverse San Francisco neighborhood where she lives is safer, she says. Unlike many of her classmates, Martinez had visited the United States before moving to San Francisco. She and an uncle visited cities on the East Coast before she returned to Guatemala to finish the school year. She officially moved to San Francisco the summer before 9th grade. Martinez attended an all-girls Catholic school in Guatemala, so adapting to the demographic diversity of the International School was intimidating at first. But as an 11th grader, Martinez proved just how well she has adjusted to her new educational milieu: She became the only girl on the school’s wrestling team, which went to the state championship. She has also played on the volleyball and soccer teams and serves on the school’s Student Leadership Committee. Outside of school, Martinez has thrown herself into her church community, where she is a minister. Martinez still thinks of herself as Guatemalan at heart, and she misses the food, the marimba music, the scenery, and the friendliness of people in her homeland. But she plans to stay in the United States, she says: “I have the opportunity, and I don’t want to waste it.” She plans to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a civil engineer. n —Jaclyn zubrzycki

guatemala
Selected statistics on children of guatemalan heritage in the u.S.

Marlyn Martinez, 17, practices the reading she will do later before the start of Sunday Mass at San Carlos Borromeo Catholic Church in San Francisco, where she is a junior minister. Martinez moved to the United States from Guatemala a little over two years ago.

1.9%

Share of latino children who are of guatemalan descent

guatemalan-Heritage education attainment (ages 25-64)
2.4 6.2 15.4 54.2 21.8

20.2% 63.2% 31.2%

l less than high
school

guatemalan-heritage children born outside the united States

l High school
diploma (including ged)

l Some college
(including associate degree)

guatemalan-heritage children living in low-income families

l Bachelor’s degree l graduate or
professional degree

guatemalan-heritage children whose parents are fluent speakers of english

Source: ePe research center, 2012. analysis of data from the american community Survey (2008-2010), u.S. census Bureau.

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however, to give students a visual of vocabulary words. During a recent lesson on words that have the root “morph,” he sent students to the classroom computers or asked those with smartphones to search for a picture that could be linked to “amorphous.” His students need several different methods to fix vocabulary words in their minds; that requires careful lesson scaffolding, he says, in which he builds on previous knowledge. Citrus Grove once had an academic program that allowed students to be taught some regular subjects, such as social studies, in their home language. Euceda says he recommended the school do away with it, and immerse the

children in regular English as soon as possible. “It’s tough on them, but if you’ve got to learn the language, you’ve got to live in that language,” he says. The Citrus Grove principal, Emerce Ladaga, agrees that the change has “totally helped with language acquisition,” as has an admonition from teachers to speak only English with students.

Sheltering Students
The district still maintains some classes that offer basic subject instruction purely in Spanish for secondary students who have very low English proficiency, but such a program is expensive, says Beatriz Pereira, the executive director of

the district’s division of bilingual education and world languages. A school has to have at least 25 students at the same proficiency level, plus a teacher who is qualified in the subject area and in teaching English as a second language. The double dosing of English used in most Miami-Dade schools is more cost-effective, “and I really feel we’re getting good results,” Pereira says. How to incorporate a student’s home language into academic life is an area of active research across the country, says Claude Goldenberg, a professor of education at Stanford University who focuses on academic achievement among language-minority youths. What Miami-Dade is using is a type of “sheltered instruction,” in

which students who are learning English are grouped together in language arts classes, Goldenberg says. The “sheltering” of those students is from competition with proficient English-speakers. Many school districts use that technique, but one broad concern some have with it is that “when you shelter the instruction, you also water it down,” Goldenberg says. “No one purposely wants to offer watered-down instruction, but that’s a potential risk,” he says. “If you keep English-learners in sheltered instruction too long, you’ll be depriving them of high-level, rigorous content.” Miami-Dade tries to avoid that problem by offering most students sheltered instruction only in language arts, for a limited time.

Rosa Castro Feinberg, the former school board member, says that districts without the community resources of Miami-Dade could look to a Mexican or Spanish consulate for help with curricula, such as the Plaza Comunitaria program sponsored by the Mexican government. They could also invest in parent training and consider drawing Spanish-speaking teachers from other countries or from Puerto Rico, she says, and train them until they can “grow their own.” But a broader goal for all districts, in Castro Feinberg’s opinion, is to look at language diversity as a benefit to the community. “Accept the principle that the home language is a resource. And put it to work on behalf of the students,” she says. n

education week | June 7, 2012

ramin rahimian for education week

Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012

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