Cultural awareness affects school success (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Cultural awareness affects school success
http://www.mnsun.com/story.asp?city=Bloomington&story=142071

By Teri Kelsh
Sun Newspapers
(Created 8/26/2004 8:41:53 AM)

As a majority of school districts in Minnesota continue to witness
increased diversity in student population, educators are becoming more
aware of the need for cultural awareness.

Jennifer Skuza, director of urban 4-H development at the University of
Minnesota, said to help all students succeed it’s essential educators
understand and embrace cultural differences.

“We all want to treat everyone alike, and while this can be good in some
cases, it’s not in this one.” Skuza warned, “Trying to treat all
children alike can actually be a detriment to learning.”

Helping a child maintain his or her cultural identity is an asset to
everyone’s learning, she said, even to the point of fostering the
child’s native language, which to some can be a contentious issue.

Educators are becoming increasingly confronted with classrooms of
immigrant students entering school with little or no English
proficiency and whose cultural and educational backgrounds aren’t
corresponding with established educational expectations in the United
States. The U.S. Department of Education estimates the number of
students in U.S. schools with limited English proficiency range from
2.3 million to much higher.

Rob Metz is the principal at Aquila Primary Center, St. Louis Park,
where 20 percent of students are English language learners (ELL). He
refers to Aquila as an English immersion school for ELL children.

He said some parents fear teachers are spending more attention on ELL
children, taking time away from their child.

“But that’s not the case at all. Having these kids in the classroom
doesn’t slow the other guys down. It’s a fear that’s unfounded,” said
Metz. “Having these kids is a benefit for everyone. It generates
eagerness in the building to learn.”

The other side of the coin is ELL students being left behind, creating
an achievement gap.

The key to making sure all children succeed, said Metz, is for teachers
to “differentiate.”

“What that really means is the teacher needs to present lessons that no
matter what level of language understanding a student is at they can
learn.” An example, he said is a hands-on experiment where language
isn’t a barrier.

If a child is literate in his or her own native language, research
suggests they can more easily learn a new language. So the key, said
Metz, is early childhood learning in every culture.

“No matter what the language, a child with a 1,000-word vocabulary is
going to succeed vs. a student with a 200-word vocabulary. If parents
are readers and writers, the kids are much better off.”

Promoting literacy skills at home can help every student succeed, said
Metz, even those with little or no English proficiency.

At a recent early childhood education forum held in Hopkins, a group of
legislators from the bipartisan Early Childhood Education Caucus met
with the community to discuss future policy decisions.

Margaret Boyer from the Minnesota Dakota Ojibwe Language Revitalization
Alliance told legislators for American Indian children to be ready for
school and succeed inside white culture they first need the skills to
operate within their native culture.

“A one-size-fits-all childcare education system won’t work. We need
programs that embrace a child’s native culture and language,” said
Boyer, stating that the problem with the one-size-fits-all system is
that children lose their sense of identity.

“Since we were kids we were told in order to be successful in the white
man’s world we needed to be exactly like them. Well, we’ve all come to
realize now that as adults that’s not the case. Our own identity is
what makes us succeed.”

There have been many strategies to increase the success of American
Indian children in public schools, but many were designed by a
mainstream culture that does not recognize the ways of thinking and
being of the American Indian community, said Boyer.

According to the Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher
Education, research shows that students in a language immersion
experience have greater success in school and had consistent measurable
improvement on local and national measures of achievements.

Mary O’Brien, manager of St. Louis Park’s Community Education Youth and
Services Program, said the School District’s family learning and school
readiness programs encourage immigrant families to maintain their
cultural identities. “But what’s true in all cultures is that it’s
important parents be their child’s first teacher,” she said.

The Minnesota Humanities Commission in St. Paul has several bilingual
family literacy initiatives to help teachers, parent educators and
early childhood educators provide resources and programs to recent
refugee and immigrant groups. The goal is to help them develop literacy
skills and promote the importance of books and reading.

O’Brien said most adults taking English language learning classes
through Adult Basic Education in St. Louis Park bring their children to
school with them, so the School District has used the family learning
program to give immigrant families the opportunity to learn early
childhood family education skills as well.

Fifteen to 20 children per year attend the family learning program,
according to O’Brien. “The advantage of this program is we can teach
parents and children ‘Here’s what schools expect.’ It’s our best way to
reach diverse families in the community.”

The St. Louis Park School District also offers a school readiness
program where last year 50 percent of children ages 4 and 5 who
attended were from a different culture.

“Most have never been in a group setting before so we take them through
the whole system of what it’s going to be like to be in school,”
explained O’Brien.

“All research tells us any preschool learning experience really does
help a child be successful in school. The more experience, the better
opportunities for kids to expand their horizons.”