International Families Flourish in DeKalb Classrooms

“The Language Line is an amazing endeavor,” said Sandra Nunez as she recently conducted a tour of the International Student Center.

As director of the systemwide English Language Learners Program for the DeKalb County School System, Nunez is all about communication all the time. The Language Line, a telephone service that connects teachers and administrators to an interpreter within a scant 15 minutes, is indispensable as parents new to the district attempt to advocate for their children and understand schools’ expectations.

There are 15,402 international students in the DeKalb County School System. That is about 16 percent of the total enrollment of 98,241. An international student is defined as a person whose primary home language is not English.

Among the 41 home languages of school system students are: Spanish (8,510 students), Chinese (246 students), Kunama (124 students), Swahili (87 students), Bangla (53 students), and German (30 students). Within certain languages, such as Ethiopian, students may speak various dialects: Oromo, Amharic, Somalian and Tigrinya.

Atlanta’s Refugee Family Services and Refugee Resettlement & Immigration Services also provide translators for newly arrived families.

Soon after arriving in DeKalb County, all refugee and immigrant students pass through the doors of the International Student Center where Nunez and her staff evaluate transcripts and conduct intensive testing.

Some students will be placed in classes at the center while others will move on to the schools in their particular district. In the North Druid Hills-Briarcliff area, the elementary schools with more than 100 international students are McClendon (54 percent of total enrollment), Briar Vista (42 percent), Henderson Mill (40 percent) and Sagamore Hills (31 percent).

The furor over illegal immigration has obscured the extent to which the United States provides public and private assistance for legal immigrants and refugees. In DeKalb County, these services are superb and have drawn national recognition.

Such debate has also overshadowed the nation’s complicated history of both welcoming and discriminating against men, women and children who have come here to start a new life.

During the year 1820, immigrants numbered 8,305; by 1846, 70,000 were arriving yearly, and in 1854 yearly volume exceeded 330,000. The enormous growth reflected the effects of the Great Potato Famine (1848-1852) as well as political and social unrest in Europe during the late 1840s.

In 1900, the start of the decade when the United States saw its highest tide of immigration, New York City superintendent William H. Maxwell visited a single school where 29 languages or dialects were spoken.    

Five years later, more than 70,000 children of immigrants were turned away from that city’s public schools because there simply was not enough classroom space.

Soon after, the U.S. Senate Immigration Committee ordered investigators to survey students’ ethnicity in 37 cities nationwide. Sixty nationalities showed up – not just in well-known destinations such as New York, Boston and Chicago, but also in Kansas where Swedes and German Mennonites had established farming communities, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Czechs, Slovaks, Lebanese and Syrians found jobs in the meatpacking industry.

The early 20th century surge in immigration led to the introduction of the “Americanization” program, a curriculum organized by educators, social and settlement workers, government administrators, businessmen and philanthropists. Broadly speaking, the goal was to encourage immigrants to embrace new cultural and social norms: the American way of life.

Children were coached in health, hygiene,  manners and dress – and of course they studied English in school, often using special textbooks. Adults attended classes sponsored by the public schools in order to learn all of the above, plus household economy, cooking, nutrition, family conduct, interaction with school officials and prospective employers, and social conventions. 

From the perspective of those who led it, the Americanization program modernized the beliefs and behavior of new citizens. Yet as early as 1913, the U.S. commissioner of education, Philander Claxton, said, “Racial and national virtues must not be thoughtlessly exchanged for American vices.”

Helping immigrant parents to keep up with their children is a tradition in our country, and the public schools are an ideal venue for it. More than 300 parents have participated in a Parent Outreach program created by Nunez. It meets twice a week.

Classes in English language and computer literacy are in great demand as adult refugees and immigrants aim for self-sufficiency. They also benefit from orientation that helps them to better meet the needs of their children. Building family literacy is a major goal of the Parent Outreach program.

Reflecting on the work of the International Student Center, which goes on day and night, Nunez said: “The best orientation comes from an immigrant or refugee who has successfully navigated through the system.”

For many, that process begins when they take seats in a DeKalb classroom.  

This is the second of two columns on the International Student Center.