PROPOSAL

TO PROVIDE EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT 

TO HAITIAN AND OTHER IMMIGRANT YOUTH

 

ABSTRACT

The goal of this proposal is to request funding from a DC Metropolitan area public school system, to address the needs of Haitian and other immigrant youth, ages 6 to18.  The project will be conducted within a three year period, from June 2010 to June 2013, and will seek to educate teachers on the needs of limited English proficiency (LEP) students. 

Program evaluation will be based upon received surveys and periodic interviews of program participants, as well as evaluation conducted by an outside consultant.  This project is presented in partnership by a local public school system and Sarah-Jane Thomas, a teacher and doctoral student (curriculum vitae attached). 

 

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

According to Sampatkumar (2007) globalization is “the most compelling phenomenon that touches every country and every individual” today.  This is evidenced in the sheer number of first- and second-generation immigrants in the United States.  Birman et al. (2007) stated two years ago that 10.6% of school-aged children in the United States were first-generation immigrants, and that 20% of students enrolled were second-generation immigrants.  Furthermore, Ball (2009) states that “by 2020, more than 50% of the U.S. public school population will be classified as students of color – from Latino, African American, Pacific Islander, and American Indian backgrounds.”

The 1990 Census showed that 292,036 persons of Haitian descent lived in the United States, and of those, 229,060 stated that they had emigrated from Haiti (Catanese, 1998).  The bulk of Haitians and Haitian-Americans were found in cities such as New York and Miami, with other large populations in Boston, Chicago, and the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area (Catanese, 1998; Zéphir, 1997).

The proposed project, entitled Project HACO (Haitian-American Community Outreach), will seek to address several of the challenges faced by Haitian-American youth, as well as other immigrant students, such as marginalization, educational equity, and linguistic barriers in a DC Metropolitan Area school system.  Project HACO staff will achieve these objectives through the use of technology, music, and several other techniques, described below. 

In the development of Project HACO, the researcher drew from several other successful studies involving Haitian students, and implemented attributes that worked, while attempting to incorporate suggestions from reviewing agencies.  Three of the main themes addressed in these programs were educational equity, linguistic difficulties, and marginalization.  A description of project activities is included within the “Goal, Objectives, and Outcomes” section below.

 

GOAL, OBJECTIVES, AND OUTCOMES

            The goal of Project HACO is to address the needs of Haitian and other immigrant children from ages 6-18 in the DC Metropolitan area, through the fulfillment of the program’s objectives.

            The objectives of the project are:

1.     To promote educational equity, by providing professional development in the area of multicultural diversity.

2.     To alleviate linguistic difficulties faced by LEP students, in order to help foster success for all county’s students.

3.     To prevent the cultural marginalization of participants in the after-school program.

The outcomes and activities of the project will include:

Phase I:  (Objective 1 – Promote educational equity)

 Oden (2007) discussed the 1983 publication from the National Commission on Excellence in Education, entitled A Nation at Risk.  This document advocated United States educational standards rooted in excellence, and equity, about which Oden notes that,

wholesale demographic changes were taking place in the USA, particularly with respect to non-native English speakers entering school and larger numbers of minority and economically disadvantaged students. The desire was to ensure that this broad population would also receive a quality education (p. 179).

Twenty-six years later, this objective has not yet been met.  Thus, Project HACO proposes to undertake the following activities: 

            a. Provide information and referral services to members of the Haitian community, and work collaboratively with the public school system to conduct in-service professional development opportunities for teachers on various aspects of Haitian culture, and strategies to assist Haitian students overcome educational barriers.  In these sessions, Project HACO team members will seek to cultivate a team approach, while advocating for strong leadership and active administrative support, as suggested by Hayden (2007). 

            b. Conduct preliminary research to assess the resources already available to the local Haitian community.  Initial contact will be made within the school system to identify key personnel, and available information.  Teachers will then be educated on the backgrounds of their students, as well as challenges that immigrant children typically face.  They will also learn about ways to remedy these challenges, in order to assist all students to be educationally successful.

            c. Assist the school system in providing the following:

• bilingual parent liaison services;
• establishment of, or referral to a "Newcomer" program, to assist students as they adjust to a new culture, without sacrificing their own;
• assistance in conducting home visits, which can help teachers reach a better understanding of family situations, and facilitate parent-teacher communication;
• interpretation services for Parent-Teacher Conferences, to allow parents to communicate with teachers;
• after-school programs embracing different cultures, as for example international dinners and festivals, which incorporate displays or activities representing immigrant cultures;
• orientations for immigrant parents, incorporating information on how and when to contact the school.

Phase II.  (Objective 2 - Alleviate linguistic difficulties)

According to Dabbagh and Benson (2007),

telecommunications technology has radically changed the way we learn.  Internet connectivity and the World Wide Web’s universal browser protocol have paved the way to widespread collaborative activities and information-sharing capabilities that until only a few years ago were not perceived possible (p. 188).

            More and more, students are using features of the Internet, such as social networking to keep in touch.  Such resources will be utilized in Project HACO, as participants in grades 5-12 will be required to participate in online knowledge networks, such as Classblogmeister.com and Gaggle.net, to converse among themselves, and with teachers and staff, and simultaneously practice their written proficiency in both English and Haitian Creole.

One successful project that addressed language barriers was Project Bridges, which utilized instruction in ESL, native language arts, and bilingual or ESL content area classes in mathematics, science, and social studies (Berney & Adelman, 1989).  The project achieved its objective by making significant gains on standardized and teacher-created assessments. 

The Read-Along project, utilized within the ESL program in New York Public Schools in 1987, was another initiative that yielded positive results.  At the time, students listened to audio tapes (Guerrero, Walker, & and Langois, 1987); however, with current technological advances, students now have the option to use methods such as the Internet, podcasting, and wikis, among others.

In Phase II of the initiative, Project HACO will:

            a. identify, interview, and select five bilingual mentors for the after-school enrichment program  

            b. develop and implement the services identified in Phase I .c above. 

            c. Train mentors on the goals and objectives of Project HACO, as well as strategies to assist the youth who will participate in the program. 

            d. Continue to implement the practices identified in Phase I.

            Phase III.  (Objective 3 – Prevent Marginalization)

            One major difficulty that Haitians and other immigrant groups face upon entering the United States is racial discrimination, which Seaton (2008) describes as "dominant group members' actions, which are systematic and result in differential and negative effects on subordinate racial/ethnic groups."  The author stated that 66% of Haitian-American youth perceived that they had had suffered from discrimination in the past. 

Pearce (2007) reported on acculturation in two dimensions: relations within the culture and contact with the dominant community.  When an individual does not value his or her own culture, nor his or her host culture, this is known as marginalization, which Pearce states, is “perceived as a danger in societies in which assimilation is expected (p. 130).”  Marginalization is likely to occur in cases of discrimination, as individuals may be ridiculed to the point of feeling shame about their native cultures.  They are equally as likely to reject their host culture, as a result of being treated unfairly.

The direct opposite of marginalization is integration, as reported by Pearce.  In this scenario, individuals value their own culture, as well as their host culture.  One of the major objectives of Project HACO is to instill a sense of cultural integration among the participants through the following activities: 

a. Recruitment of immigrant students through announcements and fliers, distributed through the school.  Students will be selected to participate in Project HACO on a first-come, first-served basis.  The goal will be to recruit up to ten students the first year, and ten more each upcoming year.  As the number of students increase, so will the number of mentors, at a rate of one new mentor for every two students.

b.  We also intend to fulfill the objective of cultural integration by encouraging our participants to practice additive acculturation, whereby they can preserve their native identity, while adapting to their new surroundings.  As suggested by Vang (2006), we will encourage our students to speak both English and Haitian Creole in our group after-school tutoring sessions.  We will hire bilingual tutors to facilitate students’ adjustment.  Zéphir affirmed that students may be more willing to receive instruction from a person who shares their language and/or their culture, because this person may be viewed as an "insider," who understands the challenges that students face.  We seek to actively reject the “native speaker fallacy,” as identified by Grimshaw (2007), which is “the belief that ‘the ideal teacher of English is a native speaker’ (p. 372).”

In Phase III, the activities outlined in Phases I and II will continue.

 

 

 

PROJECTED TIMETABLE

·      Phase I                                                June 2010 - June 2011

·      Phase 2                                    June 2011 - June 2012

·      Phase 3                                    June 2012 - June 2013

 

EVALUATION AND MONITORING

Monitoring of the project will occur in coordination with the partner school system, and will be based upon the funding requirements. Program evaluation will be based upon documentation of received surveys, and assessment modules, as well as periodic interviews of program participants.

 

CONCLUDING STATEMENT

According to Rasanen (2007), “people agree on the need to be prepared for an increasingly multicultural and globalized world (p. 58).”  In the current age of globalization, this is now more important than ever before.  This project will assist in filling a need in the cultural and educational adjustment of LEP students.  It will also serve to promote educational achievement in all students, by increasing educators’ knowledge of cultural diversity.

Early in the Ph.D. program, I was interested in conducting a project such as this, once I earned my degree.  However, after having taken both EDUC 853 this semester, and EDUC 802 (Leadership Seminar) last semester, I have been inspired to seek funding for this proposal in local school districts while still working on my degree.  I plan to expand upon this document in the future, in order to offer the first phase of this program as professional development for teachers in Prince Georges County, perhaps as part of my internship required for the program.

This class has also inspired me to seek publication for several papers that I have written in my coursework, and to present at educational conferences.  Although I am still conducting preliminary research for my dissertation, I feel that my papers may offer something to the field. I plan to use my future experiences, both as a doctoral student, and as a program coordinator, in my writing.  As I am nearing the end of my coursework here at George Mason, I am enthusiastic about the possibilities that lie ahead.
REFERENCES

Ball, A. (2009). Toward a theory of generative change in culturally and linguistically complex

classrooms. American Educational Research Journal, 46(1), 45-72.

 

Berney, T. & Adelman, M. (1989). Bilingual resource instruction for development of gainful

employment skills.  New York City Board of Education.     

 

 

Birman, D., Weinstein, T., Chan, W., & Beehler, S. (2007). Immigrant youth in U.S. schools:

Opportunities for prevention. The prevention researcher , 14(4).

 

Catanese, A. V.  (1998) Haitian Americans.  Migration world magazine.  26, 5; Research library

core.

 

Dabbagh, N. & Benson, A. (2007). Technology, globalization and distance education:

Pedagogical models and constructs. In M. Hayden, J. Levy, & J. Thompson, The SAGE

handbook of research in international education (pp. 188-198). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

 

Dooly, M., & Villaneuva, M. (2006). Internationalisation as a key dimension to teacher

education.  European Journal of Teacher Education, 29(2), 223-240.

 

Grimshaw, T. (2007). Critical perspectives on language. In M. Hayden, J. Levy, & J. Thompson,

The SAGE handbook of research in international education (pp. 365-378). Los Angeles:

Sage Publications.

 

Guerrero, F., Walker, S., & and Langois, C. (1987). Chapter I English as a Second Language

Program, 1985-1986. OEA evaluation section report. New York City Board of Education,

Brooklyn.

 

Hayden, M. (2007). Professional development of educators: the international education context.

In M. Hayden, J. Levy, & J. Thompson, The SAGE handbook of research in international

education (pp. 223-231). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

 

Oden, T. (2007). The role of standards in K-12 international education. In M. Hayden, J. Levy, &

J. Thompson, The SAGE handbook of research in international education (pp. 176-187).

Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

 

Pearce, R. (2007). Culture and identity: Exploring individuals within groups. In M. Hayden, J.

Levy, & J. Thompson, The SAGE handbook of research in international education (pp.

128-139). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

 

Rasanen, R. (2007). International education as an ethical issue. In M. L. Hayden, The SAGE

handbook of research in international education. (pp. 57-69). Los Angeles: SAGE.

 

Sampatkumar, R. (2007). Global citizenship and the role of human values. In M. Hayden, J.

Levy, & J. Thompson, The SAGE handbook to research in international education (pp. 70-78). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

 

Seaton, E., Caldwell, C., Sellers, R., & Jackson, J. (2008). The Prevalence of Perceived

Discrimination among African American and Caribbean Black Youth. Developmental

Psychology, 44(5), 1288-1297.

 

Vang, C. T. (2006) Minority parents should know more about school culture and its impact on

their children's education.  Multicultural education.

 

Zéphir, F. (1997) Haitian Creole language and bilingual education in the United States: Problem,

right, or resource? Journal of multilingual and multicultural development. Vol. 18, No. 3

APPENDIX – CURRICULUM VITAE

SARAH-JANE THOMAS

Teacher, Ph.D. Student

College of Education and Human Development

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

Email: sthomasg@gmu.edu

 

John Hanson French Immersion School

6360 Oxon Hill Road

Oxon Hill, MD 20745

  

 

HIGHER EDUCATION

PhD Student, George Mason University; Major: International Education;
Minor: Literacy and Reading; Expected Date of Graduation: May 2012.

Master of Education, Howard University; Major: Elementary Education; May 2007.
Thesis:  The Effects of Classical Music on the Behaviors of First-Grade Students.

Bachelor of Arts, Howard University; Major: Radio-Television-Film;
Minor: French; May 2003.

 

CURRENT POSITION

Technology Coordinator/Teacher at John Hanson French Immersion School.
Responsibilities include teaching French Technology classes (grades 3-8), and coordinating technology initiatives at the school.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Institution	Dates	Title
Prince Georges County Public Schools	2008-present	Technology Coordinator
	2008-present	Technology Teacher
	2008-2009	Reading Teacher
	2005-2008	1st Grade Teacher
	2004-2005	5th Grade Teacher

                                      

 

 

 

 

 

RECENT PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

 Technology Coordinator, John Hanson French Immersion School, 2008-present.

STEP Program Committee Member, John Hanson French Immersion School, 2008-present.

Social Studies Department Chair, Clinton Grove Elementary School, 2007-2008.

School Leadership Team Member, Clinton Grove Elementary School, 2007-2008.

PGCEA Union Representative, Barnaby Manor Elementary School, 2006-2007.

School Planning Community Member, Barnaby Manor Elementary School, 2006.

Drama Club Coordinator, Concord Elementary School, 2004.

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

French – proficiency

Haitian Creole – proficiency

Spanish – basic knowledge

 

PUBLICATIONS

RESEARCH REPORTS

 Thomas, S. (2007). Classical Music and its Effect on the Behaviors of First Grade Students.  Howard University.

 

MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION

 Thomas, S. Challenges Faced by Haitian Youths Upon Immigrating to the United States.

PRESENTATIONS

REGIONAL

Thomas, S., & Dounda, S.  (2009, November).  STEP in a French Immersion School.  Presented at the Powering Up with Technology Conference, Prince George's County Public Schools, MD.

GRANT ACTIVITIES

Proposal Writer (2008-present). Sharing Technology with Educators Program (STEP).
Awarded by Prince Georges County Public Schools.

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

Digital Arts (Creative Category), Prince Georges County Public Schools, 2009.

The Praxis Series: ETS Recognition of Excellence – Elementary Education: Content Knowledge, 2004.

Cum Laude Honor, Howard University, Spring 2003.

Certificate of Excellence, Howard University School of Communication Annenberg Honors Program, Spring 2003.

Ralph Bunche Women Ambassador’s Essay Contest (first place winner), 2003.

Outstanding Student Award, Spotlight, Howard University, Spring 2003.

Capstone and Annenberg Honors Scholarships, Howard University, 1999-2003.

 

MEMBERSHIP

Kappa Delta Pi, Howard University, 2007.

National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Howard University Chapter, 2000.