A teacher at Summerdale School in Baldwin County opened up to 1819 News about problems she has been facing due to an increase in English Language Learning students (ELL).
An English Learner (EL) student has been identified as using a language other than English and is assessed for English Language proficiency.
The teacher spoke on the condition of anonymity.
For the past two years, the teacher said her class has faced challenges with communication, behavioral issues that cause distractions and a lack of resources. She believes that all students are impacted.
The educator currently has around five students who speak little to no English.
After over 20 years of teaching, she said she has never been so frustrated.
"It's not fair to us as teachers, and I don't appreciate it, to be honest with you," she said. "Everybody keeps saying that we need to do more; we need to get the scores up."
"Well, hell, we're doing as much as we can, and those people are not in the classroom," she said. "They don't know what we're facing, and I'm tired of them trying to constantly compare us to the Eastern Shore and Gulf Shores, where they don't have the problems that we do."
The teacher said other students have to work as translators.
"It's hindering their learning and that's not fair to them because they need to be able to do their work and learn instead of being my translator for the kids that don't know English," she said. "I can't stand it because I can't communicate with these kiddos, and it makes me feel like I'm a failure to all of the students."
"It makes me also feel like I'm taking away from the students that are English-first-language because I'm having to spend so much time with my other two sets of children that are in the classroom," she said.
The teacher said in some cases, behavior issues arise because students are not accustomed to being in school.
"At least one of those students has never set foot in a classroom, whether it be in his country where he came from or when he got here," she said. "This is his first time ever being in a classroom."
"He's a huge behavior issue for us," she explained. "Not only are we trying to teach him to read and write but we're trying to teach him how to behave with the other kids and how to act."
According to state data, 10.78% of Baldwin County students are EL students, and Summerdale has one of the highest percentages in the county.
Baldwin County Schools provided percentages of EL1 and EL2+ students, showing Summerdale School is at 23.72%. The schools with higher percentages are Silverhill School, 28.93%; Foley Middle School, 26.17%; Foley Elementary, 23.86%; and Florence B. Mathis Elementary, 25.05%.
Languages other than English represented in Baldwin County Schools are Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Cambodian, Chinese, Finnish, French, German, Gujarati, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Nepali, Norwegian, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Udu, Vietnamese, and other indigenous languages.
Spanish is the language most frequently noted.
While Summerdale has a higher percentage of EL students, only 8.57% of students at the school are considered immigrants.
The teacher said she welcomes everyone in her classroom and wants all students to have a fair chance at earning a quality education. However, she said more needs to be done to address issues.
"Everybody wants it to be in a nice, neat little box with a bow on it, and we don't have a nice, neat little box with a bow on it," she said.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email erica.thomas@1819news.com.
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