Beyond the “soft bigotry of low expectations”: Redefining success in PHS’s ELL programs

In 2003, English Language Learner (ELL) teacher Michael Klinger took a simple photograph on his trip to Guatemala: bare-faced and bare-footed, children stared from their dirt-floor huts. More than 20 years later, he sees the image as a motivator for the work he does everyday for students at PHS that come from realities nearly identical to those in the photograph.

“A Princeton High School diploma for this kid is amazing,” said Klinger. “This really puts your work into perspective as well — the idea that these students become the same students that graduate with high school [diplomas]”.

For decades, the unspoken agreement within ELL classrooms has been simple: if a student sits passively to the side without causing any trouble, they receive a passing grade, regardless of their level of engagement. Klinger described this as an entrenched tradition in line with the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” referencing George W. Bush’s speech addressing an annual NAACP conference in 2000.

“I think that a lot of American schools, including these here, have been guilty of that,” said Klinger.

To dismantle this trap, PHS’s College Counseling and ELL Department are launching a renewed partnership this December to reshape the district’s support of ELL students. By breaking down communication gaps, they hope that their mission to support these students will be fully realized. “Right now, [we’re] more of a team, which is what we need,” said Nipurna Shah, PHS’s College Counselor. “We just [need] to communicate and work together. You can’t be successful in a silo or working against each other.”

Shah’s approach to college counseling is central to the new partnership: she offers individualized support to every student that comes through her doors by upholding the dreams of the students. “We want to set students up for success,” said Shah. “We want students to have opportunities and open pathways to really reach whatever goal it is that they want to do.”

Back in the classroom, Klinger mirrors Shah’s ambition for the students, but believes that seizing those opportunities requires a fundamental shift in academic expectations.

“I’ve started to give the kids quizzes every week, and they’ve never had quizzes before,” said Klinger. “We had some quizzes today, and the kids did not study, and the results were not good.”

For Klinger, however, these failures are not a reason to retreat to the old, softer standard: instead, they are stepping stones towards building genuine agency. He views his efforts in increased rigor as “growing pains” for students who have rarely been asked to take ownership of their learning in the past.

“You have to have these moments of maybe stumbling and falling on your face for them to get the message of ‘No, I’m serious [about] my expectation that you spend some time studying,’” said Klinger. “That you’re actually committing some of your own personal mental energy. You’re not just sitting there passively, because that’s what’s happening.Too many of our kids are just sitting passively through their days and not learning enough.”

The increased rigor is also paired with an introspection into how material is taught. Klinger explained that, for too long, high school English teachers attempted to teach literary analysis to students who still needed support with foundational literacy. To address this, he has begun to work with experts like Sarah Moore, an elementary school literacy specialist, as well as Dr. Solange Murphy-Lopez at The College of New Jersey to redefine the program’s approach towards phonology and basic reading instruction.

By aligning the curriculum towards students’ true needs, Klinger hopes that the program moves toward empowerment rather than pity.

“When we’re throwing seven hours of English at these kids a day, and then they don’t understand 90 to 95 percent of it, that’s frustrating ... they’re normalizing tuning it out,” said Klinger.

Raising the bar within the classroom is only half the battle, however. To ensure that students have support beyond their four years at PHS, the College Counseling Office helps students navigate the bureaucracy of the enrollment and scholarship process. Shah also acknowledged that a four-year university can sometimes be out of reach, especially for students that need to work to support families at home and abroad.

“I want to meet the students where they are, I want to listen to what their goals are and then help them provide the pathways to get to that goal. And that’s the same whether you’re an ESL student or whether you’re a ... student in any population,” said Shah. “I don’t tell them, here’s what you need to do, X, Y, and Z.”

Through the 101: Fund scholarship, PHS students can receive complete tuition support for two years at Mercer County Community College, giving students a stepping stone into higher education as some still try to figure out their future.

“Two free years of college ... Why not take advantage of a unique opportunity that’s only at Princeton High School? There are no other high schools that have this scholarship program,” said Shah.

Even with free tuition on the table, Shah recognizes that immediate employment is a necessity, not a choice, with some students working over 40 hours to support their families. To that end, Shah’s goal is to ensure that bureaucracy is never a hurdle in the scholarship application process, and that every student receives individualized support to set them up for success.

Dr. Andrea Dinan, director of the IDEAS Center, has come to better understand the experiences of students from immigrant communities through her work with first-generation students. For her, helping is walking a fine line between caring and being overbearing.

“We have to respect the kids’ dreams. It’s really easy for anyone that starts working with kids with such sad stories to start feeling bad. They want to be their savior,” said Dinan. “That’s not the way to do it. You got to find out what the kid wants.”

With these challenges in mind, the ultimate goal of the new partnership is to foster agency among students. The staff hopes to replicate the success stories of ELL program graduates like Carolina Soto ’17. After graduating from PHS, she served in the military police through an ROTC program and is now an education major at Dickinson College. Soto plans to return to PHS as a part-time ELL and part-time Spanish teacher.

For now, Klinger is steadfast to a simple goal within the ELL program: help his students learn English. Working single-mindedly to this singular goal then gives students the agency to make the right decision for their own futures.

“We can assist them, and we can encourage them, and we can present options to them,” said Klinger. “But that’s [the] agency. That’s respecting them as autonomous, human beings that have come to this country with a plan, [and] have come to this country with a vision.”