NASHUA – Imagine being a teenager with a native tongue of Spanish, Vietnamese, or Arabic and arriving at Nashua High School North or South.

You end up working so hard just to fit in and learn English that you may not even realize that you have the opportunity to train for a careers in fields such as computer networking, construction, culinary arts or cosmetology – all while still in high school.

In an effort to address this problem, educators, administrators, New Hampshire Department of Education officials and others gathered Thursday morning in Nashua High School North’s Career Center to discuss tactics for getting more English Language Learner (ELL) students to participate in Career Technical Education (CTE) classes.

Nationwide, only 6% of CTE students are ELL, according to childtrends.org.

Locally, approximately 20% of the Nashua School District now consists of students classified as ELL. However, only 2% of the students enrolled in career and technical education in Nashua are ELL.

Nashua Technology Center Co-Directors Amanda Bastoni and Mike McQuilkin have continued to build on partnerships throughout this year. A more recent partnership has been made with Elina Martinez, the CTE Pathway director from Denver Public Schools, and members of her team.

Martinez had been looking for answers as to why ELL students are not enrolling in CTE programs in her district. In research, she found CTE programs in Boston and Nashua. She then began collaborating with the directors.

Martinez and her team traveled from Denver to be a part of the large conversation that took place Thursday at Nashua North.

“This is an equity and an opportunity issue, period,” Martinez said during the discussion. “We are doing an injustice to our students and our economy by not engaging our students in CTE. We have jobs that are not filled — we have students that are capable.”

Traci Sanchez, one of several CTE directors in Denver, was also in attendance. During the discussion, she said career and technical education introduces students to every opportunity, including a four-year university, if that is the direction a student wants to take.

“Career and technical education is no longer for those students who are not going to college, but it is for all students,” Sanchez said. “It is our responsibility to ensure that all students have equal access and opportunity to figure out who they are, where they want to go in the world and how they are going to contribute to our society.”

The Nashua Technology Center has already been using different tactics, including an Intro to CTE training, ELL baking, and vertical alignment for students to visit the middle schools to speak with ELL students.

Upon researching other solutions to reach more ELL students, Bastoni and Director of Student Services & ELL Robert Cioppa surveyed staff members and teachers from both high schools. They asked them what groups they thought were the most at risk of dropping out of school.

The results showed staff and teachers believed students on free and reduced lunch, students who have significant discipline activity and ELL students were at the most risk.

“Our teachers, our staff recognize the problem,” Bastoni said during the discussion.

They also asked the staff in a survey, what barriers they believe may cause students to drop out out of school. More than half those surveyed said lack of an advocate may cause students to drop out of school, which Bastoni said they wanted to put into their solution.

“I think all students need an advocate… someone who cares. Unfortunately, not every student has that whether it be a family member or a teacher.” This was a response that came out of the survey.

Bastoni said she and Martinez have two big ideas: every high school ELL student will participate in a CTE program or pathway class, and every CTE teacher/industry professional in the nation will have some form of an ELL credential.

They also want to create post high school goals for students in industries and with community college, based on the path of the student.

Bastoni said the ultimate goal is to create a sustainable program. For now, she said they need to build partnerships within industry and keep their current partnerships going.

Grace Pecci may be reached at 594-1243, or at gpecci@nashuatelegraph.com.

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