Community Inquiry Project- A Detailed Description

For my Community Inquiry Project, I want to examine NCLB and its impact (positive and/or negative) on English Language Learners (ELL’s) in Newark and Carteret, NJ. The focus of my project will be ESL programs, limitations that language creates for teachers and students, the possible limitations of ESL programs, and how it relates to NCLB, AYP goals and test scores, and possible restrictions and effects on schools and students. To answer this question, I will need to research ESL programs in the state as well as ESL programs in Newark and/or Carteret. First, my research will take me into the neighborhood surrounding East Side High School in Newark and then into the school itself. I have mapped out this neighborhood and I have included 10 sites. I did so to get a feel of the culture there and the appearance of the neighborhood itself. I chose this school specifically because it serves a sizeable population of Hispanic students. Carteret High School is another school that also serves Hispanic students. I feel that both schools will provide me the opportunity to speak to ESL teachers about issues facing ELL’s in New Jersey.

I would then want to look at the effect of NCLB restrictions on ESL/ELL students and see what could be changed as well what has already been put into place to help these students. For example, are resources available to these students? Do they have access to extra help after school or during school? Are there any special programs in existence to help ELL’s? How often do teachers engage with parents? Furthermore, what programs are put in place to help teachers to better serve this population of students?

Part of this project will like involve research into programs that make the transition from Spanish to English smoother for ELL’s in Newark and Carteret. I plan to research state and government websites (and others from my Annotated Bibliography) that provide me with information about the school itself and its status in the state. With regard to the issues facing English Language Learners and students with limited language capability, I would also like to determine:
• What policies are being put into place?
• Is there any information available on how programs are helping ELL’s?
• What works and what doesn’t as far as both lessening the burden for teachers with only an operational knowledge of Spanish who are teaching ELL’s and helping ELL’s to learn English?

To tie in the element of urban education, I plan to research how some issues associated with urban education that we have discussed in class (ie. parental involvement, ancillary issues in the home, primary language spoken in the home, and/or poor reading skills, reading at grade level, and NCLB restrictions that affect English capability and thus, test scores) impact learning and English language acquisition. My questions will be geared towards establishing whether any of these issues impact the education of English Language Learners (ELL’s) in the state (namely at East Side High/Carteret) and how much they come into play, if at all.

I have contacted Ms. Bis, an ESL teacher, and Ms. Borja, head of ESL at East Side High, regarding my project. I am also in the process of contacting an ESL teacher at Carteret High and establishing contacts in other departments that will suit my project. A few questions I will ask are:

• What challenges do you face within the ESL program? What challenges do you face while teaching ELL’s? What challenges do you face in the hopes of integrating English Language Learners into a classroom where English is the primary language?
• Do you feel as though the ESL program has an adequate teacher to student ratio? Do you find that you are able to reach every student?
• Do you feel that the ESL program at East Side High is preparing students for success both in school and out of school?
• Do you feel parental involvement and/or primary language in the home affects progress in the classroom and progress in the ESL program?
• Do your students read above or at their grade level?
• Do your students have difficulty reading? Do they meet difficulty in their Language Arts classrooms? How do you approach this/areas of difficulty in your classroom?
• What are they doing in their classroom to engage these students who are facing difficulties with English? What are they doing to help them learn English faster/better? What types of issues ARE the students facing? What do they think would help fix the situation if they feel it does need to be fixed? Do they feel NCLB restrictions impact their success?
• Do the limited language capabilities of English Language Learners impact AYP numbers/goals?
• Do you feel as though these state tests disadvantage these learners?
• Is there any way for you to better prepare ELL’s for state tests?


As a possible aside for the project, I would like to examine ways that schools involve ELL’s in their education. This could include forays into curriculum and teaching methods that include a multicultural perspective. I could ask the following questions of teachers and administrators:
• What part, if any, of the curriculum is devoted to teaching subjects in a multicultural way that engages students whose first language isn’t English?
• What about literature that incorporates the culture of students in urban areas?
• Does this personalize education?
• Are there other schools incorporating a diversified curriculum that includes Latin and African American literature?
• What changes are being put into place-curriculum wise- to involve and inspire children that are being educated in urban areas?

I would also want to contact Language Arts teachers (my area of certification/MAT) and ask them if and how the English/Literature curriculum at these schools aims to serve the population of Hispanic students that they are teaching. I would ask Language Arts teachers the following questions:
• Why did you choose to teach English at East Side High School?
• Do you possess an ESL certificate or training that enables you to better serve English Language Learners?
• What are you doing in your classroom to engage these students who are facing difficulties with English?
• Are you meeting any difficulties when teaching students whose first language may not be English?
• What are they doing to help them learn English faster/better and how do you go about doing this?
• What types of issues ARE these students facing in the classroom?
• How much time, if any, do you devote towards students who many need after school / extra help?
• What do you think would help fix the issues ELL’s face? Do you feel as though there are some things that need to be fixed?
• Do they feel that NCLB restrictions impact your success as teachers?
• Do you feel as though NCLB restricts ELL’s?
• Do you feel as though these students possess skills needed for state tests? Why or why not?