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