One year after the implementation of the Structured English Immersion Program (SEIP), many believe the program has not been any more successful than the program it replaced
SEIP separates students by their native tongue and places them into a one-year intensive language program. By the end of the school year, students should be fluent in English.
Previously, foreign language students stayed in bilingual education classes until they were fluent in English.
Somerville Haitian Coalition Executive Director Franklin said the intensity of SEIP may have adverse affects for the immigrant community. Many students may drop out, or be placed in special education programs because language barriers can be misinterpreted as learning disabilities, he said.
Freshman Julia Goldberg, who began tutoring East Somerville Community School students through the Association of Latin American Students, said that the number of students leaving the program with a good grasp of English actually decreased under the new system.
"When you segregate the students [by language], they speak their own language with each other and their English doesn't get better," she said.
The state implemented the Transitional Bilingual program in 1971. This school year is the first for the new program, SEIP.
A benefit of SEIP is that it puts students who are new to the U.S. with a group of their peers who speak the same language
Joan Stankus, a guidance counselor at East Somerville, which caters largely to Spanish-speaking students, stresses the benefits for students to be with others who speak the same language.
"The students can connect school and their culture faster," she said. She added that many of the students in the SEIP program have little prior education, so the entire school experience is foreign to them. Having others like them nearby can only make them feel more comfortable in a new setting, she said.
Goldberg said she has mentored a Portuguese-speaking student at East Somerville who felt alienated because the other bilingual students spoke a different language.
Because students' native languages are not used in the classroom, students who speak less-represented native languages may face difficulties in school.
"Whenever you have a school in a community with a majority in a certain language group, the school will have programs that work for that majority," University College Program Manager Shirley Mark said. "It's very hard to create programs for students in the minority."
Jack Hamilton, the Executive Director of the Community Action Agency of Somerville, which works with low-income and immigrant families, said he has heard complaints that students are not receiving adequate bilingual education.
Still, he said, the school district should not be blamed for the problem. The schools are simply "working with mixed guidelines and limited funding" as a result of the new legislation.
The new law has "cut the legs out from under anyone who wants to do a good job," Hamilton said. Schools have already spent money attempting to adjust to the new system by hiring teachers trained in immersion education and buying materials geared towards English immersion.
Dalembert said he is not opposed to the segregation SEIP provides. "We're not proposing isolation or segregation," he said. "But when it comes to learning, we have to do what is best for the kids."
However, Dalembert is opposed to SEIP's time table. "One year is simply not enough time to really assimilate a new language, for anyone," he said.
More from The Tufts Daily
