Public schools have influx of immigrants
English a second language for many Harrisonburg students
By Andrew J. Fitch, contributing writer
Posted on September 21, 2006

Over the last decade, Harrisonburg City Public Schools have received a rather large injection of foreign students. Many of these foreign students are not familiar with the English language and are labeled as Limited English Proficiency (LEP).

Sara J. Prouty, a Massachusetts Assistant Teaching Principal, said the English as a Second Language program is a smart choice for Harrisonburg. 

“Harrisonburg is a very diverse community and the ESL program will help its student population to achieve in school,” Prouty said. The Harrisonburg Public Schools Web site posted that during the 1993-’94 school year the number of LEP students in the school system was 160, which represented just 5 percent of the entire student population. As of the 2004-’05 school year the LEP student population had jumped to 1,422 students, which represents 34 percent of the entire student population. 

Harrisonburg teachers adapted their teaching methods to include these students through the initiation of the ESL program.  Within this program, LEP are taught in separate classes that bring them up to speed on the English language while teaching them the regular curriculum.

LEP students aren’t all taught in separate classes, however.  Bing Jie Xue, a 16-year-old Harrisonburg High School student, took ESL classes until last year.  “Some classes like English include only ESL students,” Xue said, “but I studied math with all students.”  
Xue added that she is treated the same in school as every other student, though her closest friends at school have been students with Chinese descent and they don’t associate closely with American students.  “I don’t hang out with them because I don’t like to speak English.”

Xue’s mother, Chen said, “The teachers are all very good and very nice.” She makes sure, however, that her daughter is treated differently from other students. “Compared to the Chinese education style, the American education style has less homework,” Chen said. She requested that her daughter receive more homework.

Certain schools within the Harrisonburg City Public Schools have a higher concentration of LEP students than others. Spotswood Elementary School stands as the school with the highest concentration at 48 percent. Harrisonburg High School and Thomas Harrison Middle School have more LEP students than the other schools, but are tied at a 30 percent LEP enrollment and stand as the schools with the lowest concentrations.

The highest group of international students hails from Mexico and constitutes 14 percent of the international student community. Furthermore, the Spanish language is the foreign language most spoken in Harrisonburg public schools.  The Harrisonburg City Public Schools Web site confirms that 1,026 students, 72 percent of the international student population, speak Spanish. 

This large number of Spanish speakers has had a visible impact on the school system. Jackie Ciccone, Director of Program Operations at JMU’s Office of International Programs, is a mother of children in the Harrisonburg school system, who noticed some changes. Ciccone said, “[The schools] send home the calendars and all the instruction on the fronts is in English and the backs are in Spanish.”