Colleagues,

We are excited to share this wonderful piece from Southeastern Vocational Technical High School, where Christine DeLuca teaches and coordinates the English-learning program. English learners improve performance at a faster rate than students with similar capabilities across the state.

We extend our appreciation to Catie Tuccinardi, Vice Principal of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for sharing this with us.

David

How dedicated teaching and resources help Southeastern English learners

Immigrant students often face trauma that can impact their ability to learn in American schools. At Southeastern Vocational Technical High School, English learners improve performance faster than state peers.

Jacob Posner The Enterprise

Christine DeLuca’s students have stories of walking through parts of South and Central America to reach the U.S., becoming trapped under rubble after an earthquake in Haiti destroyed their home, or losing a parent and moving to the U.S. to live with the parent who’s still alive.

Immigrant kids sometimes struggle to learn in American schools not just because they have to learn English, but because of their traumatic experiences, DeLuca said.

English learners typically perform worse on Massachusetts standardized tests than their American-born peers and have been struggling to return to pre-pandemic scores. Students across the state are in the midst of taking the MCAS this spring.

But, at Southeastern Vocational Technical High School, where DeLuca teaches and coordinates the English-learning program, English learners improve performance at a faster rate than students with similar capabilities across the state.

"I consider my ESL classes quite rigorous," DeLuca said. "It is like, bell-to-bell, like minute-to-minute, it’s reading, writing – it is constant. I have really high expectations of my students."

Southeastern helps students exit English-learner status

The school currently has 76 English learners, according to state data, which is around 4.6% of the high school’s 1,636 students. The school has around 126 others who have exited the English-learner status since arriving at Southeastern, and who the school continues to monitor, according to Catie Tuccinardi, vice principal of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

The school is quite good at getting students to test out of the status, Tuccinardi told The Enterprise during a tour of the school in February. The current senior class has only three students classified as English learners, she said, down from 33 when the cohort was in grade nine.<![if !vml]><![endif]>

When DeLuca was interviewing for the job in 2019, the school had only 15 English learners, around 1% of the student body. She noted that English learners are the fastest growing student group in the state – in spite of recent drops related to the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

DeLuca said she has a much better learning environment at Southeastern than previous jobs in other public schools in Massachusetts.

DeLuca described how, at a former job, "I was down in the basement with – I shared the room with a social worker, so I had to make sure I wasn’t there on certain days. And then the band was practicing outside my room."

"A lot of my friends teach in Providence. They’re still teaching out of closets, where I have a whole classroom, and a smartboard," she added.

Southeastern is a career technical education school, which means all students there must learn skills related to a specific career path, like medical assisting, precision manufacturing, or plumbing.

Interest in career technical education schools across the state has increased significantly in recent years, with thousands of students on waitlists. Southeastern admitted around 33% of all applicants for this year’s freshman class.

Southeastern, located in Easton, serves students from Sharon, Easton, Mansfield, Stoughton, Foxboro, Norton, West Bridgewater, East Bridgewater and Brockton. DeLuca said most of her students live in Brockton.

<![if !vml]><![endif]>’This is the first year I didn’t fall asleep during the test’

DeLuca said she noticed many of her students arrive at Southeastern with little interest in – or even knowledge of – the test they must pass to no longer qualify as English learners.

Kids in their freshman year at Southeastern will tell her, “This is the first year I didn’t fall asleep during the test."

DeLuca said most of her students have already achieved social fluency in English. They can communicate well enough to get through daily life but lack specific academic vocabulary to pass state exams.

They need to know technical words relevant to math class – like slope or y-axis – or, for social studies, words like economy, geography and imperialism.

‘They’re so successful’

DeLuca said she aims to persuade her students to care about their future and help them see how passing the state exam fits into that future.

It can be a challenge because of the difficult experiences many have been through.

She said, "it’s so traumatic, moving to another country, that, at 13, 14, whatever, … do you really see a future for yourself?"

She tries to highlight the progress they’re making. "We spend a lot of time talking about their goals, their previous scores, their growth," she said.

It also might help that students are taking career-oriented courses, she said.

"Maybe they do see their future blossoming in front of them once they’re placed into a shop, and they start talking about their future, whether that’s college or career," she said.

DeLuca said working at Southeastern changed her perspective on the value of teaching.

"When I was hired, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a teacher anymore," she said. "But I am a die-hard advocate now for vocational and technical education."

"Even beyond graduation, I have a lot of students who keep in touch with me," she added. "They’re so successful in college. They’re so successful in their career."

Chapter 74 Vocational Technical & Agricultural Education

LEARNING THAT WORKS FOR MASSACHUSETTS

David J. Ferreira

MAVA Communications Coordinator

DavidFerreira