Youth Launch SMART Campaign with Chancellor Rhee

ESL students from the LAYC and the D.C. Language Access Coalition’s SMART program met with Michelle Rhee yesterday to share their problems and concerns about DCPS. A similar meeting was held this time last year, when students presented issues including the need for more materials, bilingual security guards, bilingual counselors, better teachers, and more supports for newcomers. While some of these issues were addressed over the year, others have yet to be solved and were brought up again at this second meeting.

About 25 students were in the room, along with Coalition members, the Office of Bilingual Education, and Chancellor Rhee. The students expressed the need for bilingual after-school programs targeted at the ESL population, better interpretation and translation services to communicate with parents, and more support for ESL students through bilingual guidance counselors and academic advisors so that they can prepare for college. Students also spoke about the need for more support and orientation for newcomers so that they are able to navigate the school system.

Chancellor Rhee was receptive to the issues, responding that principals should feel accountable to every student in their building, not just the majority, and that students and parents can email her office directly to address problems that are not being solved within the schools. She asked that the students maintain constant communication with her office to help identify and fix these issues systematically, so that long-term solutions are developed.

Students suggested that some possible solutions are to bring in outside organizations like the LAYC to run stronger after-school programs than the school can provide on its own, and to train students and staff as interpreters so that they can help the schools from the inside to communicate with parents as needed. They also proposed a buddy system for newcomers. Chancellor Rhee was excited by these ideas, and asked that students gather information and present what is working well in schools like Wilson High School and Bell Middle School so that these programs can be used as models for weaker schools.