Bobby Ray home of new ELL center
An overflow of non-English speaking students at Hickory Creek Elementary School has prompted school system officials to establish a second elementary English Language Learner (ELL) program, which recently opened at Bobby Ray Elementary School.
“(Instructor) Heather Williamson had 70 to 80 students she was working with directly and even more she had to monitor. She was overwhelmed,” explained Dianna Zadeh, the school system’s ELL, testing and equity director. “When looking for the best place to add a program we found Bobby Ray to be the zone from which a lot of the students were being bussed.”
Upon entering the school system, all students from non-English speaking households are tested for English proficiency. Those found not to be proficient, no matter which school zone they’re in, are encouraged to attend, with bus service provided, those schools with established ELL programs.
Prior to the 2003-2004 school year, these included Hickory Creek, Warren County Middle School and Warren County High School.
While not mandatory, these ELL programs have been shown to dramatically decrease the time it takes students to learn the English language and better integrate themselves into American society.
Williamson, who made the move to Bobby Ray to establish the new ELL program there, said she currently has 40 students. About half of those had previously been bussed to Hickory Creek, while the other half had opted out of the program.
Like the system’s other ELL programs, Bobby Ray’s is what’s known as a “pull out” program, in which participating students are pulled out of their regular classrooms for a minimum of 40 minutes a day for the special English instruction. Her students, she said, are at varying levels of fluency, with some attending her class for three 40-minute periods a day.
In addition to teaching the students English, Williamson and her bilingual assistant Isabel Garabaldi, also teach them other material, including American culture.
She stressed the ELL program is not bilingual education, as some people mistakenly think.
“We are not teaching Spanish or in Spanish. We teach English. We’re teaching them to be better citizens and teaching them to contribute to the community,” she said.