Conroe ISD, Mexican consulate partner to help migrant students learn quickly
While most high school students in Conroe ISD are studying Shakespeare or algebra, students at the Newcomer Program at Hauke Academic Alternative High School are learning to read.
These 19 recent immigrants are the first in Texas to plunge into an ambitious program aimed at helping them overcome years of educational deficiencies in a single year of instruction.
A year and a half ago, district officials collaborated with the Mexican consulate’s Plazas Comunitarias program to create a new curriculum to help academically deficient students achieve an elementary and secondary education in one year.
The recently immigrated students are far behind the district’s requirements for 15- to 17-yearolds. Still, the odds of graduating from an American high school are in their favor.
“Since these are mature kids, we’re able to take it further and faster than your average secondgrader,” said Rod Chaves, director of community outreach, dropout prevention and health services.
“They’re very smart.”
Dayren Carlisle, Conroe ISD coordinator of bilingual/ ESL programs, was smuggled into the U.S. from Cuba when she was 5. Her father came to the country in the Mariel boatlift in 1980, but she didn’t receive citizenship until she was 22.
“My story is a lot like the stories I hear from the students, so I have a very personal connection with what they’ve been through,” she said.
Some of the 15-to 17-yearolds in the program at Hauke have below a fifth-grade education. Some primarily speak Quiché, an indigenous language from Guatemala. Some stopped going to elementary school because they were afraid of gangs, Chaves said.
The students, mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela, tell harrowing stories of violence and unrest.
Their teacher, Adriana Guarinos, makes home visits and talks to the families regularly to ensure students are safe and supported.
“We work on building trust so that they can view our program as a haven, and having been in war-torn situations, they really enjoy how peaceful it is at our school,” Chaves said.
New collaboration
In the Newcomer Programs, students take classes only with other English learners for math, science, English and social studies and spend electives like art and gym with the rest of the student population. In five years, the number of English learners in the district has risen from 6,770 in 2013 to 8,586 in 2018. Now four high schools and two junior highs have a Newcomer Program. Five years ago, the district had none.
While most of the children who immigrate to Conroe have had enough education in their country of origin to jump into English learner programs, some need more support.
The program at Hauke is taught in Spanish and uses the Mexican consulate’s Plazas Comunitarias curriculum for math and science.
Students can earn elementary and secondary certificates that say they completed up to ninth grade, based on Mexican education standards, in science and math instruction. Those credits count toward the graduation requirements set by the Texas Education Agency.
There are 231 Plazas Comunitarias programs in 32 states across the country, according to AASA, The School Superintendents Association. Five are in Houston, but this is the first time the program has been used as curriculum for a school district in Texas, said Nuria Zuñiga, under counsel for community and cultural affairs for the Consulate General of Mexico in Houston.
“It’s the most successful,” Zuñiga said. “It’s a role model for all the school districts in the United States because they not only have the students acquire a certificate, but they also transition them.”
All 17 students in the program last year completed the elementary certificate, and nine went on to complete the secondary requirements for math and science in the Plazas Comunitarias program.
The students, who are at a high risk of dropping out, get a double block of ESL classes and a world history class that uses ESL techniques and support from a Newcomer Program aide. While the ultimate goal is graduation, even if a student completes the elementary or secondary school certificates, Carlisle deems the program a success.
‘Give them hope’
Chaves was born in Costa Rica and came to the United States on a student visa. He said hardly any staff spoke Spanish when he started working for the district 20 years ago.
In 2001, he started a district hotline for Spanishspeaking parents to ask school-related questions. Chaves, however, found that most of the questions had to do with housing, health care and immigration. It was the beginning of a relationship with the Hispanic community.
“They think a lot of times there isn’t a voice at this level who understands what the families have gone through,” Carlisle said.
Carlisle said she talks to students about what it means to have grit and determination, to push through the obstacles they will face as new immigrants to the United States. She said she wants to be an example to the students, so they can see that they can be successful, too.
“I try to give them hope,” she said.