Becoming something different, Learning from Esmé by Fairbanks, Crooks, and Ariail

Two educational researchers track a young Mexican immigrant in a primarily Latina/o community from the time she was in 6th grade until the time she was in 11th grade. What we learn after reading the whole article through, that despite her participation, intelligence and most of all strong will to do well in school, Esmé didn't graduate high school. Since being an English Language Learner placed her in remedial classes, she never learned the material necessary for her to pass the standardized test she needed to graduate. On page four, the authors reference works from Gonzalez, Valencia, and Valenzuela, "Researchers argue that perceptions of Latina/o students as lacking English proficiency, adequate motivation, and parental support, combined with the school's devaluing of cultural practices different from the mainstream, too often position Latina/o students as deficient."

When reading the article we learn that Esmé was a very good student, she attended class early, did her homework, she was active in extracurricular activities, she was well behaved and made friends with peers who were also striving for academic achievement. We learn a very important lesson from the article, when a student does not graduate high school, it isn't always the student's unwillingness to learn, the system can fail certain students. If, for example, her guidance counselors had encouraged her to take on more challenging classes instead of writing her off as "deficient" because she was an English Language Learner, perhaps she would have learned the material needed to pass the TAKS. Perhaps if the school had seen her potential in the way the researchers interviewing her had, she could have the bright future she had dreamed of.

Here is a link that reviews some of the problems that English Language Learners face: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/ELL_Policy_Brief_Fall_08_(2).pdf