ESL needs grow in Waynesboro

This article is from newsleader.com 

It's been a stretch lending a hand to Waynesboro students who need help learning English.

The city has the largest number of students who are still learning English in the area, but only one more English as a second language specialist than does Staunton, which has one-fifth as many students in need of help.

Serving students who are still learning English has special challenges. Needs vary widely from student to student, and the support each receives varies with need, area school officials say.

In Waynesboro, the city schools seek to meet the needs of their 171 English language learners — ELL in educational jargon — with three English-as-a-second-language teachers.

That's barely enough teachers to meet the state standard of one ESL teacher for every 58 students needing to learn English. Nearly 5 percent of Waynesboro students are learning English.

Keeping up has been a challenge. While the number of ELL students in Waynesboro is down from last year, it is still up sharply from the 2009-10 school year, when Waynesboro officials scrambled to cope with an unexpected 100-plus student jump in enrollment, many of whom did not speak English.

Maggie VanHuss, director of student services, said the number also fluctuates throughout the school year as families move in and out of the city.

"Part of it is just due to student mobility," she said.

Augusta County has a different challenge. With seven teachers serving 153 students, or 1.5 percent of its student population, Augusta's student-to-teacher ratio meets the state standard easily. But some are on the road a lot. Some county schools have as many as 30 English language learners while others have only one or two.

Staunton, which has the smallest percentage of English language learners at 1.2 percent of its total enrollment, has seen little variation in the numbers served from year to year, but frequent changes during the course of a school year.

"There appears to be a higher degree of transiency," said Stephanie Haskins, director of assessment and school improvement. She added there is no one reason for the fluctuation.