Raising the Bar for Hispanic Students

In this article in Education Next, Nonie Lesaux (Harvard Graduate School of Education) says it is urgent that our schools do better with Hispanic students. Although most families enroll their children in U.S. schools with positive expectations and a sense of hope for the future, only 18 percent of Hispanic students are reading at or above proficiency by middle school, most attend schools that are economically and racially segregated, and too many are at risk of dropping out. “Classrooms in these schools provide them with fewer opportunities to learn than their peers from higher-income backgrounds enjoy,” says Lesaux. 

What we need to do, she believes, is redesign the way literacy is taught. We used to think that teaching students how to put letters and sounds together to learn words would produce comprehension – but recent research has raised serious doubts. “The flaws in this approach have proven particularly problematic for academically vulnerable populations, including many of our Hispanic students,” says Lesaux. We need to focus on the academic language of print – the vocabulary and conceptual knowledge it takes to read textbooks, trade books, magazines, and newspapers. “Beyond the language of the middle-school or high-school texts, academic language is the language of the SAT, the college classroom, and the skilled labor force,” says Lesaux. “It is a powerful tool for personal and professional success.” 

Step one is teacher training and support: “Professional development should outline strategies for integrating sophisticated, abstract vocabulary and language instruction into formal daily lessons, but also present ways to build language during informal interactions and thereby elevate overall language use in the classroom. In the end, unless a school, from the earliest grades to the latest, organizes around strengthening language and literacy for Hispanic students and all their classmates, we simply are never going to catch all of the students who may be struggling.” 

Step two is rethinking the specialist model for at-risk students who have been in U.S. schools since kindergarten. “It is neither feasible nor effective to rely solely on a model that services only those learners who qualify because they have the lowest levels of English proficiency and who receive supports often only for a brief period of time, either in a classroom designed expressly for them or in a small group setting at particular times during the week,” says Lesaux. She believes we should focus on the academic growth of the entire population in strong and supportive language- and content-rich classrooms day after day and year after year. The key ingredients in such classrooms are:

• Content-rich texts that challenge students;
• Lots of oral and written language production and discussion;
• Extended research projects or essays;
• Collaborative experiences such as labs, demonstrations, debates, and projects;
• Accommodating differences while maintaining relentless attention to quality.

“Focus on Higher-Order Literacy Skills” by Nonie Lesaux in Education Next, Spring 2013 (Vol. 13, #2, p. 51, 52, 54, 56), http://educationnext.org/focus-on-higher-order-literacy-skills/ 

From the Marshall Memo #478