Early education goes a long way toward preparing all students for lifelong academic achievement, but it’s perhaps even more important to children who are learning the English language. In addition to the language barrier, these students face other hurdles to accessing high-quality pre-K instruction, such as transportation and knowledge of how to access the educational system. I’m an English language learner myself, and after a decade of working on behalf of a non-profit organization to provide access to families like mine, I’ve found that the best tools in overcoming those barriers are persistence and genuine community engagement.
We offer an online early literacy, numeracy and science instruction program at no cost to families on a first-come-first-served basis, but we actively recruit families from at-risk populations -- including those living in rural areas where access to traditional pre-K is scarce, those with income below 185% of the poverty level and those who are ELLs. Many times, English language learners -- Hispanic ELLs in particular -- fall into all three categories. To ensure families are able to participate in a tech-based program, we provide computers and Internet to families without them. We also assign each family a coach who communicates with them in their home language.
Bridging languages and cultures
The first challenge in providing access to ELLs is, of course, the language barrier. Fortunately, this issue may also be the easiest to overcome. In Utah, where our organization is based, there is a large refugee population. To connect with those families, we’ve partnered with interpretation services to support families in 21 different languages to date.
Beyond the language barrier, however, there is also often a cultural barrier. With refugees, this may run even deeper than the typical struggles families might encounter as they try to make a new life in the U.S. It’s not uncommon for refugees to live in camps for years and, for that reason, they may not be familiar with the internet or even personal computers. These families often need support beyond the over-the-phone coaching and assistance we provide every family, so our refugee supervisor Claudia Jimenez visits participating refugee families in their own homes to help solve obstacles keeping their children from accessing our program.