Martial Codjovi entered Grover Cleveland High School as a senior three months ago from his native West African country of Benin, where he spoke only French.
Come June, he must pass the English/Language Arts Regents exam -considered a challenge even for native-born English speakers — or he cannot graduate.
“It is a difficult exam,” said Martial, 16, enunciating carefully.
Like many immigrant students, he finds it easier to speak English than to understand the English spoken to him.
“I want to learn English because I need to go to university here,” said the student at Buffalo’s high school for students with limited English.
The state’s no-exceptions deadline for the English/Language Arts Regents exam is looming for dozens of limited-English students in Buffalo’s schools this year, as teachers scramble to give these teen-agers their best shot at graduating on time.
Under the state’s new requirements, the upcoming exam in June is the last chance for this year’s seniors throughout the state — both limited-English and native-born — to graduate with their classmates.
But the deadline imposes a special pressure on limited-English students, many of whom eventually learn to speak passable English but have a far tougher time with the nuances of language and literary analysis on the Regents exam.
“A (limited-English) child could have all the credits they need to graduate, and if they haven’t passed the English Regents, they would not get a diploma,” said David Baez, the district’s director of foreign languages and bilingual education.
Baez and other bilingual directors from around the state gathered in New York City this week to urge state education officials to consider some changes that would take into consideration the special circumstances of the limited-English students.
One idea bilingual educators favor is developing a special English/Language Arts Regents exam for limited-English students.
Other suggestions: Let limited-English students use glossaries during the test, give them the test in a separate room so they don’t feel the subtle pressure of working next to native speakers or let them hear the passages for the listening comprehension portion more than once.
The goal is to have the Regents “realize the harm they’re going to do these kids with these higher expectations. We’re hoping there will be some modifications made to the exam,” Baez said.
The state already has made one concession by allowing limited-English students a total of nine hours to take the exam — split into two sessions -instead of the usual six hours, said Alan Ray, a spokesman for the state Education Department. But so far, the state does not plan to to use any of the other suggestions made at the meeting.
The requirement that the limited-English students take the exam on schedule with their native-speaking classmates ultimately works in their best interest, Ray said.
“Everybody in this country needs a firm grasp of English in order to function, and the best time to get that level of English proficiency is in the earlier years,” Ray said.
Still, the exceptional circumstances of many of the limited-English children are prompting district officials to ask if it is fair to hold both groups to the same standard.
In Buffalo this year, some limited-English students have just come from refugee camps, survived civil war and bombings, or have never been in school at all. Many of these most severe cases won’t take the June exam because they can’t perform at grade level yet, but the lost years of their childhood will affect their academic performance even when they do catch up in school, said Benjamin Randle, Grover Cleveland’s principal.
“Right now, I have 61 kids who have never been in school before coming to Grover Cleveland,” Randle said. “They’re not only limited-English-proficient, they’re illiterate in their native language. Some have been exposed to the equivalent of genocide. Several have post-traumatic stress syndrome. They’re going to be held to the same standards to get a high school diploma.”
Though Grover Cleveland has the majority of the limited-English high school students in the district, 2,796 limited-English children are scattered throughout Buffalo Public Schools, Baez said, “and that increases every week.” Grover Cleveland has about 140 juniors and seniors with limited English.
In June, 38 of the 65 Grover Cleveland juniors who took the exam were limited-English students, and 23 of them passed with a score of 55 or higher. Randle says he considers those results surprisingly good and calls them a testament to the district’s efforts with these students.
Students who do not pass the English Regents in June of their junior year will have up to three more chances to pass it before the end of their senior year. After that, the students can stay in school and continue to try to pass the exam until age 21.
District officials say many of the limited-English students will do just that. Many immigrant families want their children to succeed, they say, and even parents who speak no English themselves often urge their children to stay in school as long as it takes to graduate.
“I think if the message is gotten out, and people know they can stay longer, they will be likely to do that,” said Kathleen Kreis, the district’s director of English and language arts. “The state has laid the groundwork for students to stay longer. I think we have to encourage people to be patient.”
The school system, meanwhile, is ratcheting up its effort with these students. Some are taking four classes of English a day. Last year, the schools spent $ 16,500 on three portable “language labs” for Grover Cleveland that allow as many as 20 students at a time to work with headphones and audiotapes. For the past two years, English/language arts teachers and bilingual teachers have been meeting regularly to improve their teaching techniques in preparation for the English Regents.
Three Grover Cleveland students bracing themselves for the exam hope to pass, but all three believe they should have been exempt until they had the chance to take all three English courses their native-English-speaking classmates had.
Marilyn Hernandez, an 18-year-old senior raised in Puerto Rico, grew up speaking only rudimentary English. She failed the exam last year but said, “I’m going to pass this time.”
Phillip Le, 18, a senior from Vietnam, and Tewodros Araya, 17, a junior from Ethiopia, are facing the test for the first time in June.
“My teacher told me the test will be hard,” Tewodros said. “I will pass it.”
“I might not, but I going to try the best,” Phillip said. “I want to go to college for four year.”
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