Older Immigrant Students Struggle With ESL
When compared to students in lower grades, high school students who aren’t fluent in English have only a few short years to grasp the language while learning the same subjects as their peers. And for many, that can mean losing the chance of getting into the college of their choice — or going to college at all.
“English is the only thing holding me back,” said Jean Carlos, a student in a bilingual class at Wilby High School in Waterbury. Carlos said high school classes in his native Bolivia were much harder. He wants to be a mechanic and likely will go to a trade school. In Waterbury, there are as many students in English learning programs at the high school level as there are at the middle school level. In the city’s high schools, there are 425 students in language programs, including 86 in bilingual classes in Spanish and Albanian.
