RALEIGH, N.C. -- How does the Wake County Public School System measure up to other cities when it comes to educating Immigrant students?

Discuss This Story

That’s one of the questions posed by a group of Princeton University, who compared Wake schools to systems in Houston, Texas and Seattle, Washington.

The researchers found some very strong efforts at Wake County Schools. Among them is a change this year to include English as a Second Language teachers at every school.

Read the Report

The school system’s ESL director Tim Hart says it’s a milestone in the way immigrant students are handled.

“It just gets too complicated now with what we have to do to try to bus them to another school to get the service, it makes more sense to get the services available at every school,” Hart said.

Princeton researchers compared Houston, Seattle and Raleigh because they say Houston is about 21 percent foreign-born residents. Seattle's population is about 15 percent foreign-born and Raleigh is at almost 11 percent.

But for Wake County Schools, the surge in immigrant families has happened quickly over the last two decades.

“Parents are likely immigrants and these children are really first generation. If you're born in the United States your're a citizen,” Hart said.

In 1990 only about 5 percent of the population was foreign-born. In 2000 that number nearly doubled to about 9 percent. Now in 2008, almost 11 percent are foreign-born.

The researchers found that Seattle and Houston had longer experiences with immigrants, and several school programs reflected that.

Among the programs not included at Wake County Schools is: a staff of trained interpreters.

Most interpreting for students is from teachers or community members who volunteer. Some work is contracted out to private vendors.

Researchers also found that Wake County Schools do not offer a coordinated bi-lingual program.

Instead, instruction is focused on getting students to become proficient in English, and not fostering their native language.

One of the project advisors for Princeton, Professor Marcela Gonzalez Rivas, offered a few suggestions for Wake County Schools.

She recommended hiring more teachers who are fluent in a second language, making sure ESL teachers are certified, and begin a program aimed at teaching non immigrant students to be more welcoming of immigrant students.