Five years ago the Jones County School District responded to the increase of non-English speaking people moving into the county and hired instructors to help students learn the English language and adjust to their new environment.

These new instructors are English Language Learner teachers who teach English as a Second Language class. In conjunction with the No Child Left Behind Act, JCSD hired Debbie Blackledge and Gwen King as ESL teachers to serve all county schools. Since then four more teachers have joined the district and assist students throughout the county in grades kindergarten-12th. Courtney Crager, Nilda Witty, Gina Barnett, Christi Robinson, Blackledge and King make up JCSD’s ESL teachers. Students are assigned to specific teachers who work one-on-one at each school to ensure they get the instruction they need.

Students are required to pass four Mississippi Subject Area Tests before being allowed to graduate from high school. These tests are Biology I, Algebra I, English II and U.S. History from 1877. So far 13 students enrolled in the ESL class have passed the subject area tests and graduated.

King gave an example of a student who enrolled in the JCSD their junior year and like so many ELL students, citizens and non-citizens, couldn’t speak a word of English. The student had to learn the English language, and pass all four subject area tests in order to graduate.

“They have overcome so many obstacles,” Blackledge said. “It’s a challenge for them.”

The first goal ESL teachers have is to ensure their students learn the English language. Their second goal is to ensure they graduate from high school.

Every student who enrolls in the Jones County School District takes an English proficiency exam. This exam determines at what level in the English language that student is at this level then determines if that should be enrolled in the ESL class. Once a student scores “intermediate” on the exam, that student is enrolled in regular classes and monitored by ESL teachers.

Blackledge said statistics report that one can learn to speak a language anywhere from six months to two years, enough to have basic conversation. And to be like a native speaker it takes an average of five to nine years. Many of the ELL students are accomplishing this in less than a year.

Blackledge said many students spend the first year at school absorbing the language before really being able to speak it fluently and comfortably.

“These kids are unbelievable,” said Blackledge.

Many students have excelled beyond anyone’s expectations and some elementary students are enrolled in Star Reach, the JCSD gifted program.

The majority of non-English speaking students in the county are Hispanic but other nationalities are also represented in the district. Students from Vietnam, China and India are also enrolled in the ESL class.

“You get very good at signals, pictionary, and a lot of acting to help students understand the language,” King commented on the challenges of being an ESL teacher.

“When you learn a language there is so much more than learning the history or how to speak it, it could be your motivation, your personality, or your home life. All of these things impact whether you learn the language or not,” said Blackledge. “We try to make them feel comfortable because that is the very first thing in learning a new language. You have to feel comfortable in your surroundings in order to learn.”

“We try to be more than a teacher. We go to their birthday parties, take them to the doctor, tutor them at home when they can’t make it to school and translate for them,” King said. “When hurricanes are in the forecast we go around and make sure they know what is going on.”