Brooklyn, New York, June 28, 2011 — Some were only a few credits or exams shy of graduation when Samuel J. Tilden High School closed its doors last year, 44 Haitian English Language Learner students did not receive a diploma.  Once again, Haitian English Language Learner have become casualties of the DOE’s policy of closing failing schools.  This time it’s 44 newcomer students that fell through the cracks, many of them were identified as Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) and with low literacy levels. Despite the efforts of Flanbwayan and other advocacy groups to get the Department of Education to focus on meeting the needs of these students, the support plan that was put into place, is too little too late.

“Tilden High School was a disaster in so many ways and it kept getting worst” said Sony Pierre a student who did not receive a high school diploma.

The Haitian students at Tilden came to the United States in search of better educational opportunities, but they didn’t find it.  Students at Tilden were not offered an education program that enabled them to graduate, there wasn’t sufficient language support to help students become English proficient, and resources for newcomer immigrant students.   What happened at Tilden high school shows how closing schools without proper planning and alternative plans for the students in the school causes severe hardship to students who needed the most help. “The Department of Education needs to strengthen academic outcomes for English Language Learners not deprive them of an education,” said Darnell Benoit, Executive Director of Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, “Some of the students should have never been placed in a school that was scheduled to close”.  Dwindling resources, inappropriate school placements and poor planning equate to a disaster for immigrant students that travel far in hopes of getting a good education in the U.S.

Flanbwayan is collaborating with advocates in attempting to work with the DOE to assist these students.  Flanbwayan has been working hard to locate students, DOE has offered students prep classes, unfortunately they are scattered around and we’ve only been able to find four . “It is too little too late” said Benoit.  On the one year anniversary of the closing of Tilden High School we want to remind the Department of Education to focus on the specific needs of immigrant students, especially those in large failing and closing schools.  We want to make sure that what happened at Tilden doesn’t happen again.