Up to Speed

Many schools are trying to leave no immigrant family behind.

By Alexandra R. Moses

When Eun Young Lee emigrated from Korea a little more than two years ago, she landed on a foreign planet. Along with all the other strangeness she found in the United States, her son’s new school—St. John’s Lane Elementary, in Ellicott City, Maryland—practiced odd customs. Not only did teachers speak an unfamiliar language and let her son play between lessons; they also invited and even expected her to openly question them about his education. Lee says she felt isolated and afraid whenever she had to set foot on school grounds.

But that feeling changed this past fall, when she attended an eight-week program at St. John’s called Parent and Child Adult ESOL. PACE helped her understand what and how her son learns in his 4th grade class and encouraged her to learn English, Lee...