A Two-Way Street for Immigrants
County's School System Welcomes Koreans by Explaining and Listening

By Joshua Zumbrun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006

Maha Abdelkader, a teacher at Bryant Woods Elementary School, stood before the roughly 100 teachers, administrators and community members. She passed around a work sheet in Arabic and began delivering a short lecture, also in Arabic.

After a few minutes, she stopped and looked around the room. "Got it?" she asked. The room was silent.

"That's how our ELLs feel during their first week of school," she said, referring to English language learners.

The focus of Monday night's seventh annual Korean Education Seminar was to help Korean students and their parents better understand the education system. But the event also was designed to help educators better understand them.

In many ways, the seminar symbolized the two-step approach the Howard County public school system has taken toward its foreign-born population. Over a dinner of Korean dishes -- kimchi, mandoo , jeon and bulgogi , prepared by Korean families -- those attending listened to the stories of four students.

For Mehae Roldan, who came to Howard from Korea in 1987 midway through her third-grade year, the change was difficult. Roldan said she was the only student in her class who did not have to take spelling tests. One day, another student asked why, and the teacher responded, "Because Mehae doesn't speak English." Roldan said she was devastated.

About 8 percent of Howard public school students, or roughly 4,000, are Korean. By contrast, the number of Spanish speakers, who come from many national backgrounds, is half that.

The Korean population in the county continues to grow rapidly. Although the school system does not have precise demographic data, it says the number of Asian students, of which Koreans have been the vast majority, has doubled in the past 10 years.

Howard has taken many steps to increase support for immigrant families. And while ELL and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs work well, they are not enough, according to Young-Chan Han, head of the school system's Office of International Student and Family Services.

"Students quickly move out of ESOL," she said, "but many parents do not." Adults generally find it more difficult to learn languages, and many immigrant parents are working multiple jobs and have little time. This led Han to develop programs such as the Korean Education Seminar to continue outreach to parents.

This year's seminar, which attracted 300 people, featured a keynote address by Ilryong Moon, chairman of the Fairfax County School Board, who shared, in Korean, his story of coming to the United States in high school, struggling through many classes, and eventually gaining admission to Harvard.

The address was followed by four workshops, with tips on how parents can help their children with writing, from elementary school assignments to the new SAT writing section.

For parents who speak little or no English, the opportunity to attend a workshop in Korean is highly valued, according to Han. After the seminar, many parents expressed gratitude. "They feel empowered in their child's education," Han said.

But though the system has taken big strides, demand for services is mounting. Requests for interpreters have increased from 1,020 five years ago to 6,350 last year. To keep pace with demand, the school system now employs 12 full-time bilingual community liaisons, including Mehae Roldan, who insisted on taking her spelling tests in class and graduated from Mount Hebron High School. After college, she returned as a substitute in Howard County, then became a Spanish teacher and a liaison in 2005.

Today, Roldan works with about 130 families in eastern Howard County, mostly Spanish-speaking but also some Korean. Her goal is to continue making communication a two-way process between families and schools. She calls parents to notify them of parent-teacher conferences and to help arrange for interpreters, but she also encourages parents to call her when they have questions or concerns.

"I can remember how my parents felt, 19 years back," she said. "Being familiar with the issues immigrant families face, and having taught in the schools, lets me see it from a lot of views -- not as an outsider."

Although the Korean Education Seminar and the growing bilingual liaison programs are welcome complements to the many ESOL teachers in the schools, the challenge is still growing.

Today, the public school system is home to students from roughly 80 countries speaking about 70 languages. And given the school system's reputation for welcoming international students, families are flocking to Howard County.