Every Tuesday and Thursday, students arrive at St. Michael’s Religious Education Center for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. The ESL classes are sponsored by the St. Michael’s Hispanic Ministry of Galena Social Action Committee. Most of the students are immigrants from Mexico who moved to Galena for better job opportunities for themselves and better education opportunities for their children.

Forty-two students are registered, but only about 25 can regularly attend due to child care and work responsibilities. Twenty-six tutors assist with the classes.
Each class begins with everyone, students and tutors, in one room. Carmela Cordero makes announcements and then pairs students with a tutor. (more…)

For nearly 45 minutes, teacher Brandon Bufe stands at the front of a classroom occupied by 14 adult refugees, largely from Nepal, Burma and the Congo, explaining how to write a check.

The name of the business to which money is owed goes here, he says. And your name goes there.

Laboriously, the students write on the long line the name of the subsidized apartment complex where many of them live and their own name on the short line. But several transpose the two. (more…)

By some estimates, one in four Oaklanders is hampered by a serious lack of English literacy skills; but Oakland Library’s Second Start Program has been tackling that problem since 1984 and you can help.

On Saturday, April 16, the Second Start crew will be holding a neighborhood outreach event at the beautiful new 81st Avenue Library with a day of tutor and student recruitment.

Why is this program, funded by Measure Q, so important now?

A recent study just released by Central Connecticut State University compares literacy rates by state. California, once a state with a renowned K-12 and public university system, now has no city that can be ranked in the top 10 most literate cities in the country. (more…)

Things have changed dramatically for English as a Second Language teachers since Sylvia Helmer left their ranks in 1997: there used to be set ratios for the number of students per teacher, there used to be money for extra supplies, and there used to be more ESL specialist teachers.

But starting in 2001, the number of ESL teachers and their resources began to shrink, according to the BC Teachers Federation. That was the year ESL services were removed from the teacher’s collective bargaining agreements, leading to the cutting of 229.54 Full Time Equivalency ESL teaching positions, says the BCTF. (more…)