Narratives
English Language Learners wrongfully identified
"I remember being in elementary school and being pulled out of class and having to go to a separate classroom with other kids of different races. In the moment and being such a young age, I never thought anything of it. I would just go and work on my vocabulary and spelling and get candy as a reward at the end. Many years later, I realized that I had been placed in an English Language Learner class. My parents are immigrants from India, however, I was born in America. English had always been my first language at home and it was what I was always surrounded with. Since then I have talked to many of my friends who are different races or have immigrant parents and many of them have similar stories. In some cases, the parents did not even know their own child was being pulled out of class to take special ELL classes. Our time learning was cut into along with the stereotyping we were put under because of our parents or race."
-Jasroop Basra |
"In fact, Latino immigrant students are overrepresented in remedial classes and special education, are more likely to be placed in English as a Second Language classes that effectively bar them from courses that prepare students for college, and are more likely to drop out of school" - Pedro Noguera |