True to Oak Park’s mission of being a welcoming, diverse, and helping community, Oak Park and River Forest High School is taking steps to welcome migrant students to their already growing ELL programs.
Before the winter break, OPRF had nine migrant asylum-seeking students enrolled. However, that number can change at any time as students transition out of Oak Park.
Laurie Fiorenza, assistant superintendent for student learning, said the high school has welcomed the students in various ways to ensure their needs are being met as much as possible.
“It’s important because they are students,” Fiorenza said. “This is what education is. It is welcoming students and helping them continue in their learning and growing and their development. Whether the student is from Illinois, whether they transition from another state, whether they transition from out of the country, I personally believe it is really important to always facilitate a welcoming, supporting environment where students can learn, grow and thrive.”
The students were connected with a community outreach coordinator who provided information on Oak Park resources, including transportation, clothing, food and other help throughout the community.
Instructional coaches also worked with instructional coordinators to find resources for translation services and other ways to academically support students.
OPRF’s ASPIRA club, a school affiliate of the national organization that is devoted to education and leadership of Latinx students, also stepped up to be part of the welcoming by taking migrant students under their wings and providing tours, as well as introducing them to other students, beginning to build a sense of community and friendship amongst the newly arrived.
“They welcomed and befriended the migrant students,” said Fiorenza.
Claudia Sahagun, division head of the World Languages Division at OPRF, said the migrant students enrolled in the English Language Learning class to start working on their English skills.
Students were also enrolled in electives, as well as placed into their appropriate math classes, said Sahagun.
According to Sahagun, while students are in their classrooms, they have a teacher aide who is with them throughout the day to help them with the transition.
“Our TAs are usually with students who are new to our school and do not know the English language yet,” Sahagun said.
During an ELL programming presentation at the OPRF Board of Education Dec. 21 board meeting, the high school district announced the need to modify and make changes to the current ELL program.
Due to recent enrollment changes, the district has surpassed the ISBE threshold of 20 students with the same first language this year, which created the necessity of a more supportive ELL program that included elements such as Spanish Language Arts and a Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee.
Fiorenza said during the meeting it was not the migrant students who required for those changes to be made, but the ELL students who were already in the building.
“We were already at that threshold before we got those migrant students,” she said. “When we got the additional nine, it just made it even more pressing.”
OPRF had 28 Spanish-speaking ELL students, not including other students who spoke a different language. The total was around 45 students.
The migrant students brought that number closer to 60 students.
The board approved the English Learner Literacy class requested, which would teach literacy skills using other content areas, as well as Spanish Language Arts.
The English Learner Literacy class would take “a supportive, transformative approach to provide engaging, equitable learning experiences for ELL students,” read the proposal documents. It would help English learners with appropriate level materials to teach literacy strategies related to the reading
Spanish Language Arts is designed to help students to continue to develop their literacy skills while exploring cultures and literatures of the Hispanic world to better gain an understanding of the Spanish language with an emphasis on critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.
Modifications to two classes have also been approved.
In October 2023, the board also approved the English Language Learning Study Skills and Support, which is formatted as an intensive study hall, as an accredited class.
“We are expediting that support to this semester instead of waiting until August,” said Fiorenza during the board meeting.
Additionally, the current ELL class was split to have Level 1 and Level 2 students in one class and Level 3 and Level 4 students in another to help expedite their learning.
The hiring of the necessary staff requested would bring a total cost between $31,434 and $44,085, as outlined in the proposal documents presented to the board during the meeting.
OPRF has also added a Spanish speaking advisory committee and hopes to add peer tutoring, report cards in the home language, and ELL summer school.
With the number of migrant students enrolled in Oak Park Elementary School District 97, the high school is anticipating 28 migrant freshman students next year and is considering additional ELL classes including an ELL Science class.
Fiorenza said the high school has 12 teachers who have bilingual and ESL endorsements and have put out a call to them to determine their level of interest in teaching ESL classes. The district has also added a bilingual preference to applications moving forward.
“We have made that shift so we pay more attention to ensuring as we do interviews and look at candidates, we are considering that strongly, that we know our population is going to increase,” Fiorenza said.
But the focus cannot be solely on the academic side of things.
The migrant students arriving at OPRF had been through a traumatic experience, said Fiorenza, which only highlighted and strengthened their need to receive support: socially, emotionally, and academically.
Viewing the high school as an extension of the larger community surrounding it, Fiorenza said it was important for OPRF to continue that support.
The students, Fiorenza said, were looking for kindness.
“These students were experiencing trauma,” she said. “It’s important that we show humanity and the Oak Park community is incredibly well-known for being service oriented and community focused so it was natural to embrace and support these young people and their families.”