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FIRN, Howard Public Schools Partner on ESOL Program

(The Business Monthly) -- By Mark R. Smith

Two years ago, Foreign-born Information and Referral Network (FIRN) Executive Director Roy Appletree and his volunteers had a simple idea: to offer free assistance to some of the 1,600 students in Howard County's public schools who did not speak fluent English in learning the language and getting acclimated to American culture.

Its beginnings were humble, as the fledgling English as a second language (ESOL) after-school program started out of Phelp's Luck Elementary School with a mere six children.

But today, it is offered in 10 county schools and hosted about 70 children during the last school year, and with the help of grant money and a new partnership with the Howard County Public School System, Appletree is hoping the program can soar to greater heights.

"The public schools will bring a lot to our table, such as textbooks, tech support, training, curriculum, access to materials and assistance in communication issues," he said, adding, "I think we are probably one of the largest volunteer academic enrichment programs in Howard County, if not the largest."

Spanning the Globe

FIRN has been tutoring the children in what it calls its Learning English After-school Program, or Club LEAP, once or twice a week to expedite the process of teaching English.

"We focus mostly on elementary schools to help the kids make that leap. That way, they can fit in with the mainstream in the classroom and absorb everything else going on around them," Appletree said.

The program was established via a Horizon Foundation grant of $47,000 in October of 2003, which facilitated the hiring of Volunteer Coordinator Don Downing, to whom Appletree offered most of the credit in building the program.

The following school year, there were six schools in place. "We see kids from many countries, including El Salvador, Pakistan, Mexico, Korea and Vietnam, and the list goes on. Maryland and Howard County have a very diverse foreign-born population," Appletree said.

But that population is not weighted toward any one race. "The largest group is Asians, followed by Hispanics. But we serve kids from all over the world. It's a wonderful experience," he emphasized.

One More Wish

After Horizon, the second funding source is Volunteer Maryland, which is akin to the Peace Corps or VISTA. It offered FIRN an assistant to Downing, Glyness Ryan, a former Baltimore County elementary school teacher who doubles as a second volunteer coordinator in the program.

Appletree said he and Paula Blake, instructional facilitator for educational partnerships with the county public schools, are looking for a third funding source in the private sector.

Blake got a call from Appletree several months ago to formalize the ongoing relationship. "When I heard that the program was expanding, I saw the benefit to our ESOL population," she said, noting the 70 different cultures in Howard County. "So we met to discuss goals for the program last spring. Now, Roy is tweaking it and we plan to sign the declaration at an event in the fall.

"We would not have had the resources for such a program working only with volunteers," Blake continued. "Usually, there is no money [in the public school system] for after-school program coordinators."

In addition, Blake said, Ryan has established some procedures that can be easily implemented, such as the training of volunteers by school system personnel and establishing fun activities for the kids while serving as a liaison for FIRN at each school.

"I don't think any other county has a FIRN," she said. "It is really a godsend for people who come here with nothing but a green card, and no way to find jobs and social and medical support. FIRN introduces them to other people from their own culture who can help."

Blake said that the school system is involved in 600 partnerships, but called the liaison with FIRN "a triple-A partnership, because it accelerates academic achievement, as opposed to a more 'feel-good' activity."

Culture Shock

There are some alternatives available locally. The Howard County Library offers its Project Literacy program and there are some church-related programs, said Rebecca Price, ESOL program coordinator at Howard Community College (HCC). She is impressed by the partnership, calling it a "win-win for everybody."

"These kids come from homes where they don't get much exposure to English because they all have their own cultures. Most students who start that young acquire adequate English skills to complete their high school degree, but it can be a challenge for many students."

The Club LEAP program can provide a children's version of the college's [mostly] free community-based classes that are funded by a $300,000 grant from the Maryland State Department of Education, or its intensive academic credit offerings for $105 per credit hour. The college "offers about 90 classes each semester and get about 3,100 registrations per year," Price said.

Ryan said that the diversity of the Club LEAP tutors is an important part of the mix. "They want to help the foreign population, since they often understand how it feels for a child to make the transition to a new culture," she said.

That can be a big deal when considering that all cultures have their various nuances. "Something as simple as raising one's hand and asking the teacher for the bathroom pass can be intimidating," Ryan said. "In some parts of the world, it is considered disrespectful to look directly at your teacher without being addressed first."

Overall, the kids "pick English up quickly as they get accustomed to our culture," Blake said. "But the teachers really make a difference and notice that the students benefit from the reinforcement.

"These types of partnerships are something that we have no school system budget [for]," she said, "and these students achieve instead of dropping out when they get behind."