Goooooaaaaaaaalll!

It was a hard fought soccer game. The boys were aggressively moving around the field, challenging one another. Several collided and one, from the other team, fell and took his time getting up. One of my 8 year-old’s teammates began pressing towards the goal. “Get up! Get off the floor!” yelled a spectator for the other team. Wait…floor? The game was outdoors, on natural grass, at Badger Park. Was it just a slip? Clearly he meant ground. But he was relentless in his error, continuing to choose THAT word. “Get up off the floor!” “Stop rolling around on the floor!”
As an ex-English teacher, it took every ounce of me not to go correct the young man who so clearly meant something else. I knew him, I knew his story — that English was his second language. I knew that he had recently completed his high school course of study, but had not earned a diploma. Despite the fact that he’d been in California public schools his entire life, he had not fully mastered English — not even enough to properly use it on the soccer pitch, let alone in an academic setting. And it broke my heart. He deserved better, he deserves to have learned more at our school, my school.
This may seem like an over-reaction to one word, but that word represents what I and countless other educators know to be true: many of our English learning students only master informal language. They can function in casual situations on the street, in a restaurant or supermarket, but their language mastery has fossilized at an intermediate level that is largely non-academic and riddled with grammatical errors, not to mention a limited vocabulary.
As a state and nation, we’ve never done a great job instructing English Learners. In the name of equal opportunity, we’ve placed them in college preparatory courses, learning math, science, history and technology without the one foundational skill they need to have any opportunity to access the curriculum: academic English. How can you learn Geometry without knowing proper syntax to construct a proof? How can basic scientific or historical knowledge be gained when you can’t derive meaning from the textbook? What does this reality mean for these students, a massive portion of California’s, Sonoma County’s and Healdsburg’s populace? It means that they’re less marketable and will have a linguistically-constructed glass ceiling above them for the rest of their lives, capping the economic success they’ll realize in any career. It means that they’ll have years of remedial coursework to do at a community college before they can even access college level courses. In short, it means less opportunity.
We’re busy reversing this tragic reality at Healdsburg High School and throughout our district. This year, we’ve completely changed our approach to English instruction for second language learners. Recognizing the need to give students a solid foundation in basic English grammar, reading, vocabulary and writing, we’ve invested substantial time and resources into this area. Our new Accelerated English Program requires all English learner students to be enrolled 3 English classes. Teachers and administrators receive constant coaching and staff development from experts in the field. Students are provided explicit grammar – based instruction, expected to produce language constantly, both verbally and in written form, and regularly assessed to ensure that progress is made. Once a student shows mastery of the required formal language skills, they are able to move back into more mainstream classes. Only this time they’ll have the English tools necessary to unlock learning in Geometry, Biology, and Economics. Thus far, through the first third of the year, Accelerated English (AE) has been a tremendous success. Students have shown gains on assessments and are mastering grammatical structures, building more sophisticated vocabulary and internalizing tools to help them comprehend what they read.
We’re very committed to this approach as lack of English skill has become a question of social and economic justice. All students deserve a post-high school future of unlimited possibilities. It is our duty to ensure that they have access to appropriate instruction, so they’re able to pursue their dreams and ambitions, whether enrolling in college level courses or starting down a career path. We will not continue to graduate students unprepared for the world they live in, lacking the most basic tool they’ll need to excel and survive: formal English. They deserve better and they’re getting it through Accelerated English.
Chris Vanden Heuvel is the Principal of Healdsburg High School.