BBC Features a School for Newcomers in New York City

[Harold Schiffman]

BBC Features a School for Newcomers in New York City

For the fourth time this school year, the ELLIS Preparatory Academy in
the Bronx, a high school for English-language learners who arrive in
the United States as teenagers, is being featured by a news
organization. The BBC published an article about the high school,
which opened this school year and has 85 students, over the weekend.
(Hat tip to GothamSchools.)

The school enrolls a lot of students who are categorized as "Students
with Interrupted Formal Education," or SIFE. (I last wrote about SIFE
students in New York City in February). I visited the ELLIS
Preparatory Academy in the fall, while reporting for Quality Counts
2009. That report included profiles of students from the school, such
as Morry Bamba, now 18, who hadn't ever been to school when he moved
to New York City at age 15. Other news organizations that have written
about ELLIS Prep this school year are the Riverdale Press and the New
York Times.

I hope that the attention paid to this school by news media has helped
raise awareness of the challenges schools face in teaching ELLs who
have missed a lot of school in their home countries. Such students are
a growing population of ELLs in New York City, and I expect, in other
communities as well.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2009/03/the_bbc_features_a_school_for.html

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