ESL students are already under-supported.
With an ESL student-to-teacher ratio of nearly 600:1, there are not enough resources to adequately support ESL students in a traditional classroom setting. We are failing our ESL learners in the United States, and exploring innovation is a vital next step to avoid falling even further behind.
Non-English Speakers are under-valued.
And make $0.74 for every English speaker’s dollar. By failing to support our ESL students in mastering the English language before sending them off to the workforce, the American Education System is directly responsible for perpetuating the wage gap and further growing the divide between English and non-English speaking US residents.
ESL students are at a disadvantage.
Without sharing a common language with their teachers or peers, ESL students cannot fully engage academically or socially. This can lead to emotional troubles stemming from isolation and loneliness, behavioral problems due to miscommunication and frustration, and academic troubles because there is too much going on to keep up in class.
Not only does the American education system’s failure to address the support that ESL students need create more friction in the classrooms, put more strain on the few ESL teachers we do have, and further grow the socioeconomic divide between English and non-English speaking Americans – our refusal to innovate or address the problem at a systemic level until now is embarrassing.