Adjusting to a New World of Education

For some teenagers, immigrating to the United States not only means leaving behind friends and family, but also status as top students at school. For one student who won honors in Mexico, the task of regaining his academic stride in California was tough even with the school’s English as a Second Language Program, in which students learn English while they take academic courses in Spanish. He and a coordinator from Van Nuys High School talked to ALLISON COHEN about the difficulties such a transition can cause.

DIEGO ESPINO, 18

Senior who immigrated to Van Nuys from Mexico in 1996

When I came to the United States, I knew how to say nothing--except “table.” In the beginning, let me tell you, it was hard. I just wanted to go back to Mexico.

[At first] I was accidentally placed in English-only classes. Now they seem easy to me, but they weren’t then. After that, I was moved into [math and history classes taught in Spanish] and they were easy for me. I had already passed those classes in Mexico.

After that, the classes weren’t a problem. But if I wouldn’t have gotten the Spanish classes, then maybe I would have dropped out of school because I think I would have failed the classes just taught in English. I would have preferred to have gone to work and to not fail in school.

In [the ESL program], I was the top student. But my school doesn’t place much importance on that. The most important students are those that are in regular classes. I got straight A’s the first year I came to this country in those ESL classes. But the school administration sees that you are in [ESL] and they say that’s why. It was frustrating.

I wanted to be a top student again. To my peers coming from other countries, I was. But I wasn’t a top student for the rest of the school.

I just wanted to keep working so I could get to the level that everyone recognizes.

And that happened last year. I got [into] regular classes. I was a top student. It feels great. I’ve only been in this country for three years and I’m at the level [of] or above the regular English-speaking students. Now I take honors and Advanced Placement classes and I’m succeeding in those. I’m doing all right.

ROBERTA MAILMAN

English language development coordinator at Van Nuys High, where 80 languages are spoken on campus daily

*

I have students that [would have graduated] in their countries next year and then they move here and find out they are academically ninth-graders. That’s very frustrating for them. It’s really hard to tell [them] they must start over at square one.

[Years ago] at the high school level, when someone came in at 15 years old, we would throw them into English classes and they would just drop out. What people say about our grandparents is wrong. When they immigrated here and they had no help, many of them just dropped out too. If we expect these kids to graduate . . . we need to give them support.

These kids are almost adults and they are coming in at a difficult time in their lives. A student like Diego would have been successful no matter what. He had the background. But I am really glad the support is there for those that don’t have the drive and educational background. Without it, many would just drop out.

High school is the worst time to change countries. In elementary or middle school, you can make it up if you work twice as hard as everyone else. You don’t feel like you are being held back. But for high schoolers, it’s the most difficult. It’s at least four years [of additional education] if they come in knowing zero English. It usually takes about seven years to learn a language, and here we are legislating that students learn it in one year.

With [Proposition] 227 [the anti-bilingual education law passed by voters in 1998], students are offered one year of immersion and then you are supposed to be speaking English. That’s ludicrous. Even Diego, at the end of his first year, wasn’t fluent. In fact, he wasn’t even close.

There really is a misconception that if you don’t speak English, your abilities are low. It’s not a political issue. It’s reality. Of the 3,500 students here at Van Nuys High School, 1,700 speak Spanish and 700 speak English as their first language. This is not politics. This is numbers.

Diego is happy to be in this country, but he’s never going to forget his heritage. He has a desire to offer as much as he can to this country from that heritage as he has a desire to assimilate.