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It may seem that each day you turn on the news, or show up to work, there is a new change within education. Whether that be at the federal level, the state level, or even just your local elementary school, the changes can feel overwhelming. Each change requires additional work from everyone involved to plan and implement a new system. And through it all, the priority is always that these updates do not disrupt the students or, more importantly, that new changes improve their ability to effectively learn.
District 214 proudly offers a program called Newcomer, which serves immigrant, multilingual students as they transition into the American school system while simultaneously bringing their English proficiency to a level where they can thrive within the six core schools. Over the past few years, the Newcomer school has seen an influx of students. The maximum capacity of the cohort is approximately 100 students, but the current total enrollment is around 300.
Due to an influx in enrollment, District 214 made the decision to begin transferring students who reach ESL 1 into their core high school for the 2025-2026 school year. We knew it was going to be crucial that we not only create a welcoming environment within the core schools, but also make changes in the library that allow the students to feel represented and supported.
Christie Sylvester, our Head Librarian here at Prospect High School (PHS), came across the My Library Is… grant and immediately saw the impact it could have on our library. As an involved librarian, she knows the importance of seeing yourself represented at your library. Christie thought it was crucial to provide books written in the native language of our new students as well as books that match their English proficiency levels. This encouraged students as they worked their way through ESL 1 while also showing them that their native language is important to who they are and, therefore, an important part of our library and school culture.
Our library staff has also taken the time to familiarize themselves with the new titles, which has allowed them to better connect with our new students.
Though this is our first year implementing this practice, our library staff highly recommended that each school in the district prioritize diversifying its library in this way. Whether you are home to 1 ESL student or 500, taking the time to prioritize their native language as well as where the students are in their journey to learn English encourages involvement at school. That involvement can be academic or extracurricular. Having these titles in the library also increases the presence of the native languages within the school, which in turn positively impacts the fluent English speakers as well.
This has been such a success at Prospect High School that the district has sought other funding sources to replicate the practice at our five other core high schools. Each has begun to see their own success, with the librarians seeing an increase in usage of library resources among ESL students as these books have been introduced to the collection.
The impact each student has on the student body as a whole is immense. As the transferring students from Newcomer saw themselves represented in the literature available at their school library, it reiterated the reality that they also have a hand in building the Prospect High School culture.
Today's blog post was written by Ayah Jaber (she/her), Grants Supervisor at Prospect High School.
This project was made possible by the My Library Is... Grant.