“Gap” Defined For Multilingual Students

New Haven public school leaders pitched alders on doubling the district’s number of ESOL teachers and adding 18 more multilingual coaches — at a combined annual cost of $4.14 million — while mapping out classroom staffing needs at a time when more and more students enter city schools speaking a language other than English.

At Wednesday’s Board of Alders Education Committee meeting, held in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) administrators and educators presented on the ongoing work of the district’s Department of Multilingual Learner Programs. 

They also made their case for a three-year staff hiring and phase-in plan that would reduce educators’ caseloads and increase multilingual classroom support and resources. 

Currently, one in five NHPS students — or 3,987 in total — are multilingual learners.

The district has a total of 38 certified and non-certified ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers and only two multilingual coaches. NHPS also has 10-part time tutors, 72 bilingual teachers, five native-language tutors, and six Spanish-literacy tutors.

To address gaps in the district’s multilingual learner department, the district would need an additional 38 certified ESOL teachers and an additional 18 multilingual coaches, Asst. Supt. Keisha Redd-Hannans said. Coaches would be assigned to schools with over 20 percent of students identify as multilingual learners.

The Wednesday workshop was a part of the districts ​“Defining the Gap” project, which aims to identify the standard staffing and resource needs to allow each public school to thrive academically. 

“In particular we’re focused around high achievement for all learners, where all means all,” Redd-Hannans said.

The project is being led by a staffing guidelines committee made up of administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, and central office staff. The goal is to provide ​“equitable opportunities” at all NHPS schools, Redd-Hannans added .

The district presenters discussed on Wednesday the current multilingual-learner services available at the schools, and teachers shared their first-hand classroom experiences demonstrating what gaps still remain in resources to help students who do not speak English as a native language excel. 

One such speaker was Fair Haven School ESOL teacher Michael Soares, who has been teaching in New Haven for 20 years. 

He said that Fair Haven School’s under-resourced ​“newcomer” program is divided into classes for K‑3 multilingual learners and for 4th through 8th grade multilingual learners. Each of those classrooms is staffed with an ESOL teacher and a paraprofessional.

“These children in most cases have limited school, extremely dramatic experiences, many of them are from refugee camps,” he said. ​“As a parent myself, I often wonder: Is it developmentally appropriate to have a five-year-old with an 11-year-old together all day? I wouldn’t want my children in that situation. We should consider a third option in the middle that’s age appropriate, developmentally appropriate, and sustainable for the teacher because one teacher teaching five grades, as you know, is quite a task.”

Wednesday’s presentation did not include a specific ask for city dollars — and alders did not take a vote on any particular funding request. 

Rather, it was a workshop at which NHPS representatives described what they believe would be the ideal staffing and support setup for the increasing population of multilingual students. 

All of this comes as the district struggles with a citywide teacher shortage, and a week before the mayor is set to introduced his proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Currently, the district’s programs for K‑12 ESOL students vary. It has ​“sheltered content” high school programs, English as a Second Language K‑12 programming, and two biliteracy programs that parents have the choice of placing their students in. The biliteracy program includes a one-way dual language side-by-side model and a two-way dual language model where instruction happens in two languages. 

The schools with these programs have the district’s highest multilingual learner populations. They include Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration (K‑8), Fair Haven School (K‑6), and John C. Daniels (K‑8) for the two-way dual language model. The one-way dual language side-by-side model is offered at Clinton Avenue School (K‑5), Fair Haven School (7th and 8th), Hill Central (K‑4), John Martinez (K‑4), Barack Obama School (K‑3), and Truman School (K‑7).

Wednesday’s workshop was led by Redd-Hannans, Department of Multilingual Learner Programs Director Pedro Mendia-Landa and Supervisor Rosalyn Díaz-Ortiz. The district leaders were also joined by Wilbur Cross ESOL teacher Kristin Bengtson Mendoza, Fair Haven School ESOL teacher Michael Soares, and John Martinez ESOL teacher Ekaterina Barkhatova. The Education Committee alders present for the meeting included Sarah Miller, Eli Sabin, Sal Punzo, Honda Smith, and Claudia Herrera.

"What Does It Take To Adequately Provide Services To A Newcomer?

One in five NHPS students are multilingual learners, according to the district’s presentation Wednesday night. While the district’s overall student enrollment numbers are on a decline, the number of multilingual learners is increasing. Thirteen of the district’s schools serve student populations that are over 75 percent multilingual learner. 

Seventeen percent of those students are newcomers from countries around the world who have experienced limited or interrupted education in the past. The district’s numbers have been increasing each year since 2017.

In 2018 – 19 enrollment of multilingual learners was at 3,534. That number spiked to 3,767 in 2021 – 22. So far, the district has gained an additional 200 multilingual students this winter. As of February, that brings the number of multilingual learners to 3,987 of the district’s total 19,326 students. 

Redd-Hannans emphasized that the district’s budget doesn’t take into account the hundreds of multilingual students that come mid-year. That causes the district’s already high-in-demand multilingual programming to be under-resourced.

“We haven’t received any additional funding for those additional students,” she said. 

The district’s multilingual students represent 70 different languages and 54 different countries. Eighty-two percent of those students speak Spanish, 9 percent speak Pashto, 2 percent speak Arabic, and Dari, Turkish, and Mandarin are each spoken by less than 1 percent of multilingual students. 

The team also emphasized that many multilingual students come to the district navigating family separation, housing and transportation barriers, and are struggling to learn a new culture for the first time. 

Mendia-Landa emphasized that the district’s multilingual programing not only has gaps with staff, but with resources. 

The district’s committee established its stated recommendations for its Office of Multilingual Learners Services based on national ESOL standards and teacher insight.

Redd-Hannans said team aimed to answer the questions: ​“What does it take to help students with interrupted education and that are multilingual?” and ​“What does It take to adequately provide services to a newcomer?” 

Wilbur Cross ESOL teacher Kristin Bengtson-Mendoza helped to draft the recommendations by sharing her experiences as a high school teacher working with the district’s largest population of multilingual learners. 

The district’s recommendations for fully-resourced multilingual learner programming is an additional 38 ESOL certified teachers and 18 more multilingual learner coaches. 

This would cap ESOL educators’ caseloads at a ratio of 1 teacher for every 50 students for K‑12 teachers. It would also call for an additional certified teacher to be introduced if a school had an influx of more than 40 newcomer students. 

Bengtson-Mendoza reported that some high school ESOL teachers have current caseloads of 125 multilingual students. Despite newcomer high school students sometimes requiring more intensive programming due to needing to catch up to a higher proficiently level based on their age and grade. 

The recommendation for 18 new ESOL coaches would increase the current two-person team that split their time working to service all of the district. The additional coaches would be school based, Bengtson-Mendoza said. 

The recommendations also call for a the district to introduce dual language programs in high schools.

The additional 38 certified teachers would each cost about $75,000 per year, costing a total of $2.84 million to provide all schools with certified ESOL teachers. The 18 additional multilingual learner coaches would cost $1.3 million for annual salaries of about $72,000.

The district leaders pitched the recommendations to the alders to advocate for students needs and fully funded multilingual learner programming as a necessary asset for the district’s students and families during this year’s budget season. 

At Martinez, ESOL teacher Ekaterina Barkhatova said her caseload is 137 students. While she said she does have the resources she needs to teach those students, ​“I still feel that I will benefit from more support.”

She said she often works with six to eight small groups a day. She said she would be more efficient if she could work in even smaller groups. 

“I’m trying to do my best,” she said. 

Barkhatova, who has been at Martinez for 10 years, said as the school’s lone ESOL teacher for the past five years she has been able to get about 10 percent of students to graduate from the multilingual learner program each year. ​“But when I have a tutor or a second ESOL teacher we can do 15 or 17 percent,” she said. ​“If we would have the staffing and funding we would be doing a better job.”

She added that additional professional development for all teachers would be helpful to equip all subject teachers with research-based lessons for teaching multilingual learners. 

287 To 445 Multilingual Learners At Cross From 2017 To 2023

Bengtson-Mendoza added that many of the multilingual high school learners she works with are learning to read for the first time and require literacy intervention in their native language and English. 

“We want equitable access to these new manufacturing pathways that are starting up at Cross in the next year or two, want to make sure the multilingual students have access to that, which means our staff or a coach or someone has to orient those manufacturing teachers and teach them all these sheltered strategies so they can teach those students appropriately,” she said. 

She also described Cross as ​“exploding at the seams” with students. As of Wednesday a total of 445 multilingual learners are enrolled at Cross. 

When she first arrived at Cross in 2017 the school had 287 multilingual learners. 

“The numbers are going up and the team of teachers is staying the same,” she said. 

“How many teachers don’t you have at Wilbur Cross?” West Rock Alder Honda Smith asked. 

School leaders were not able to provide that data during Wednesday’s meeting but Redd-Hannans said she would share the information with the committee in the near future. 

Smith continued; ​“You’re looking to bring in 38 more teachers into this program, I think it’s a good program, but personally I think we need to fill up the spots that we have now where kids are not having a teacher in the classroom.” 

Redd-Hannans explained that the recommendations would be implemented through a phase-in model. She said the district would not hire all additional teachers and coaches at once and would instead follow a three-year plan to work toward filling the gap through vacancies then hiring for new positions as needed. 

Mendia-Landa added that the districts goal over the next three years would be to have all certified ESOL teachers. 

Bengtson-Mendoza said that if a multilingual coach is brought to buildings it will also help improve all teachers’ working conditions and support. ​“We might not see so much turnover and this might be a more desirable place to work because we don’t have caseloads of 130-plus,” she said. 

Absorbing Large Caseloads

Soares said his former colleague who was also a ESOL teacher left Fair Haven School for a $30,000 raise in a different district. ​“We have not been able to fill that position and in fact we struggle to even find [candidates] to interview for that position,” he said. 

Since then Soares said he’s had to absorb that departed teacher’s caseload and has had to teach kindergarten and sixth-grade multilingual classes. 

He and the other educators emphasized the importance of providing support to the district’s ESOL teachers to better serve all children. 

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller spoke in support of increasing multilingual learner resources and teacher support while also expressing hopes that dual language programming be offered to all students in the district at some point. 

Miller added that not only does staffing have gaps but reported that on Wednesday Cross was closed due to water issues caused by a valve in need of repair and that Fair Haven residents are reporting that Fair Haven School has also suffered maintenance concerns causing water to fall on students’ desks in some classrooms. 

Redd-Hannans reported that the valve was fixed Wednesday and promised to share Miller’s concerns with other leaders. She added that the district is investing $14 million of ARP ESSER funds to school building maintenance. 

Redd-Hannans announced that the Board of Education is working to update its policies requiring that important school meetings held for the public be required to offer interpretation services. 

“I’m very concerned about the high school kids that don’t have this kind of help because that’s what helps them in their self esteem,” Fair Haven/East Rock Alder Claudia Herrara said. 

Alder Herrara asked the presenters how they respond to parent concerns about their children ​“losing their culture” by learning something other than their native language. 

“How do you guys approach this idea that kids need to learn two languages?“

Rosalyn Díaz-Ortiz said the department encourages families to continue to speak in their native language with students and share the importance of their students being bilingual. 

Soares added that students who are strong in their native language typically can transition to another language easier and therefore he encourages families to continue to develop their students’ native language skills. 

A "Civil Rights" Issue

During the public comment section of Wedensday’s meeting, Kasia Kwolek, an instructional coach for the multilingual learner department, described addressing multilingual learner students’ needs as a ​“civil rights” issue. 

Kwolek works with over 20 of the 38 schools. She shared about the many programs in the district that would benefit from more support and resources. 

“We want to make our services more comprehensive,” Kwolek said. 

Several current ESOL teachers and tutors work between more than one school on a daily basis. 

“These teachers and tutors are doing this to provide any kind of service to multilingual learners. Well according to me any kind of service is not good enough,” she said. 

ESOL teacher at Roberto Clemente School Emily Nguyen works with 134 multilingual learners at her school, half of whom speak Spanish and the other half Pashto. She typically works with six different groups a day. She said the 1:50 teacher-student ratio would significantly help her. 

“I’m excited for the 1 to 50 guideline because that could help us do a whole lot more and better prioritize students’ hours in English,” Nguyen said. 

She said many of the K‑3 students arrive to her without any formal school experience or literacy skills in their first language and therefore need intervention supports. 

She agreed that all educators need multilingual learner focused professional development because most newcomers spend the majority of their days in general education classes. She said with school-based coaches that professional development could be their responsibility rather than falling on teachers like herself who want better for their students and coaches could offer more contact hours to struggling students. 

Nguyen said she has had to use instructional class time to offer professional development around multilingual learner services to her colleagues. 

Both Nguyen and Kwolek said they are working separately on two workshops to offer to multilingual learners’ families to learn more about how local schools work from family engagement opportunities to parents’ rights to issues like why permission slips are used for field trips. 

The district gap recommendation also includes possibly creating a newcomer welcoming center for families and additional programming for long term multilingual learners.. 

“We just want to live up to being a sanctuary city by ensuring that we have equity and opportunity for our students,” Nguyen said. 

Click here to download Wednesday’s full slideshow presentation by NHPS.