Delavan-Darien puts English learners into mainstream

Dani McClain:

So while it might surprise a visitor to this small city in Walworth County that Latino children are just shy of 40% of the district enrollment, longtime residents know the stories of families drawn to the area by a range of jobs, including work at nearby farms, canneries and resorts.

But despite the rich ethnic diversity, youths in this district of a little more than 2,700 students often found themselves on different academic tracks for years, based on how quickly they could grasp the difference between scene and seen or wade through vocabulary words specific to a chemistry class.

That's changing this year as the district pushes to better integrate English language learners into mainstream classrooms, pairing up content-area teachers with those who previously specialized in English as a Second Language or bilingual education.

The implications for the schools and the community as a whole could be far-reaching.

"Now that they're all in the room together, they're really seeing the commonalities," said Carole Schroth, who along with fellow veteran teacher Sonia Lee is leading the change. "And hopefully that will feed into the cafeteria and the hallways."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 4, 2008 12:00 AM
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