Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2015 V45 No 1 | Page 30
A bright
future for
English
learners
This district’s array of
evidence-based supports
is helping long-term
English learners overcome
the effects of poverty and
obtain academic success.
30
Leadership
F
ernando Maldonado-Aguiniga
was typical of many of the more
than 8,000 English learners in
Moreno Valley Unified School
District. A bright fifth grader with a shy,
thoughtful demeanor and the desire to be an
engineer, you would assume upon meeting
him that he was destined for a good college.
Yet dig into the data and you would see
that despite being born in the United States
and attending U.S. schools since kindergarten, Fernando had not yet managed to break
free from English learner status. Unless circumstances drastically improved, he would
likely lose out on the high school a-g courses
that would open the doors to college and the
fulfilling STEM career he so wanted. He
might even join the ranks of the 23 percent
of English learners who drop out of district
high schools.
“My English skills weren’t all that good,”
Fernando admitted.
But then an innovative program appeared
on Fernando’s life path. His parents became
aware of the district’s new English Learner
Families For College Program and signed a
contract promising that they and their son
would participate in the initiative from sixth
grade through the fall of 10th grade. Effort and sacrifice would be required. Family members would participate in a series of
family academies; Fernando would devote
his middle school elective time to English
3D, an academic language course.
Fernando and his family had joined the
ranks of the English learner students who
By Martinrex Kedziora, Kimberly Hendricks,
Lilia Villa and Katie Sandberg