Monday, April 18, 2011

Sink or Swim

Wendy Owen
Intel surprises Beaverton and Hillsboro schools with influx of Israeli families
http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2011/04/intel_surprises_beaverton_and_hillsboro_schools_with_influx_of_israeli_families_sending_principals_and_teachers_scramb.html
4/16/2011
Topic: student influx

Intel has brought around 300 Israeli families as part of a training program to their campus, adding around 400 children to the area. Children are flooding the Beaverton and Hillsboro schools, and with little warning, teachers and administrators are scrambling to accommodate these kids into classes and with supplies. Intended audience: Beaverton and Hillsboro area parents and students

Key points: Intel is offering no amount of funding for the lack of supplies; schools are trying to figure out ESL classes for the kids,

Relevance: We were discussing the pros and cons of a track program and full immersion program for students who do not speak English. I feel like many of these students feel like they are being fully immersed in English speaking culture, it is time for sink or swim right? I am curious how this all turns out…

5 comments:

  1. Interesting topic! I found that more and more students' parents were working in Intel, which brought school districts more ELL students. Who should pay for the supplies? I would say that Intel should be one part to pay for school supplies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's a lot of kids in not a lot of time! But... I don't really think that it is Intel's responsibility to pay for more supplies that the school provided for other students(workbooks, desks, etc.) The article points out that the parents of these children will be paying taxes just like any other Intel employee while they are here. The schools will also receive some money for each child in next year's budget... I loved the bit at the end about the elementary school having it's international day with 21 countries celebrated! That's amazing. What a cool experience for the Israeli kids and all the other kids here to be exposed to people from different backgrounds.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I could not get the article to pull up for me, so I do not know the specifics, but what I think could have been a better strategy was for Intel to reach out to the communities in a public relations type of way to let them know about all the new families that were arriving. Intel could have put together a packet showing how many kids would be arriving, what communities they were moving to, what grades they would be in, etc. and then worked with the schools to strategize how to work things out. It would have made for good relations between Intel, the schools and the communities and also would have shown Intel being a proactive company.

    So because Intel was not being proactive maybe Intel can pay for part of the costs as a sign of goodwill to the schools and communities? Or just because they have more money than the school districts?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Paul I wonder though had they made it more public and given people more time to respond, would protests have risen? Would some people in the community have voted against, or just voiced their dissatisfaction with the influx of new families? I wonder if companies like Intel plan around these things, or are already aware of the repercussions to both giving people time vs swamping them with what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just for fun I read some of the blog comments on Oregon Live about this article and of course they included the usual suspects: damn immigrants! Speak English! Big Business screwing the little guy again! Etc. Too bad this story couldn't have been more personal, talked to some teachers, talked to some of the parents of these kids and other kids and taken a more positve angle. Really, some books and penicls, come on, it's not the end of the world. I think you're right Javier, Intel probably plans these kinds of things well in advance and had a good reason (in their view) for not telling anybody.

    ReplyDelete