Preventing Student Disconnects

Rigorous Learning Experiences Engage Diverse Learners

By Hilda C. Heine

Culturally diverse learners, including many from Pacific island communities who migrate to Hawai‘i and other continental U.S. schools, often feel disconnected. In their new schools, these students are challenged by different expectations and policies. Their mastery of the language of instruction and social play is often inadequate. They face classroom rules and instructional content that are unusual and sometimes ambiguous; extracurricular activities that seem strange and unfamiliar; and cafeteria food and school attire that take a lot of getting used to. In my research, I have had the opportunity to speak with Micronesian students about their experiences. Their stories and suggestions provide valuable information for educators tasked with providing a safe and supportive learning environment for culturally diverse students.

Many diverse students feel safest sticking together and so ignore the rest of the school. Participation in class and extracurricular activities is often minimal because of cultural values and beliefs. One student mentioned that she skipped physical education classes because it is culturally inappropriate for her to wear shorts to class, and she feels “shy and embarrassed” wearing them. Experiences like this may seem inconsequential but can add up to enough emotional trauma that students consciously seek the margins. Marginalization further disconnects them from school life and may prevent them from earning their degrees.

School disconnect often results in higher absentee rates, low academic performance, and higher school dropout rates. In talk-story sessions with Marshallese high school students in Honolulu, Salem (Oregon), and Springdale (Arkansas), the students list absenteeism as their number one problem. One student said, “I feel bored in class, so I go hang out in the park.” In Salem, high school students spend countless school hours at a nearby community college chatting over the Internet with Marshallese friends across the country.

Disconnect can be chronic at the high school level, where students often become lost and disengaged, and where change is especially difficult. What causes these disconnects, and how do we prevent them? The large size of many schools is an overwhelming problem. “Teachers don’t know me, and they don’t care,” is a common response. For learners from Micronesia, where developing self-directed learning skills is not a top priority, less direction from a teacher can be interpreted as the “teacher doesn’t care.”

For students to connect, they must feel that they belong. Then they can begin to see themselves as part of the academic enterprise. On another level, connectedness can mean developing ties with those who can provide guidance and assistance. By establishing ties with the student’s home, family, and community, school staff can help students connect. Teachers need to see students as individuals and work with them on a one-to-one basis for this to happen.

Students I talked with offered suggestions for bridging cultural differences and eliminating student disconnects. Suggestions include providing rigorous and relevant learning experiences, adult advocates, and school/family connectivity.

Learning Environment
Research findings overwhelmingly indicate that a school’s failure to help students establish and maintain a positive self-concept and cultural identity can result in disengagement. Students’ self-concepts are affected by how they are valued in school. Diverse learners are often placed in English Language Learner (ELL) or other less rigorous tracks. At some schools, staff members believe that placing students in lower tracks helps them cope with school materials, which are often above students’ reading levels. However, lower expectations can mean lower performance. Isolating ELL or lower-performing students does not promote a positive self-image or respect from other students. Lower tracks are often taught by under-prepared staff, contributing to a less rigorous learning environment and lower expectations.

Adult Advocates
It is not enough to register culturally diverse students for classes, point them to their counselors, [continued on page 12] [continued from page 10] classrooms, and teachers, and leave them to fend for themselves. Making them feel at home in their new schools is critical, with lasting consequences for success or failure. Providing adult mentors and advocates throughout high school can help personalize the diverse learner’s educational experience. A mentor can be a classroom teacher, school counselor, band director, or athletic coach. Knowing that someone is there for them can help students combat the loneliness that frequently engulfs adolescents. This is especially critical for immigrant learners whose parents may have limited understanding of the educational system and cannot help their children through difficult times. In a recently published report, “Preventing School Dropout and Ensuring Success for English Language Learners and Native American Students,” Naomi Housman and Monica Martinez look at dropout rates for many U.S. high schools. They conclude that one of the strongest predictors is the “degree to which students felt that the teachers were good teachers who respected them as well as taught them well” (available at www.goodschools.gwu.edu/pubs/annual/csrconpsd02.pdf).

School/Family Connectivity
Partnerships that connect the school and home are crucial because the isolation and devaluation diverse learners often experience in school also function to isolate and devalue family and community members. Creating effective long-term school/family programs is critical to fostering a sense of school/family connectivity. Opening the schools and inviting family members to take literacy classes, to acquire computer and other job-related skills, and to learn about school expectations and policies are ways of building a solid partnership with families and communities. Parents who participate in similar programs tend to be more involved and less intimidated by school.

School attendance is closely related to students’ attitudes about their schools. Isolation or disconnect, a feeling of worthlessness, an inability to see where education leads, and the absence of personal relationships at school cause school dropouts. Programs and school efforts to help bridge personal and cultural gaps go a long way to help alleviate high dropout rates for culturally diverse learners.

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