HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-10-09-2020-min (Demographic Change Subcommittee)Town of Lexington
Subcommittee on Demographic Change
Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, October 9th, 2012
Reed Room, Town Office Building
Present: Nirmala Garimella, Bhumip Khasnabish, Dan Krupka, Peter Lee, Susie Lee - Snell, John Lee, Pat
Costello, Nancy Corcoran - Ronchetti. Guest: Robyn Dowling- Grant, K -12 Coordinator English Learner
Education Program, Lexington Public Schools, Marian Cohen (20/20 Vision Committee)
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m.
Approval of minutes of previous meeting
The Subcommittee approved the minutes of its meeting on September 11.
Action Items (to be reported on at the next meeting):
• Interview guide: review draft 2.2 of the interview questions
Presentation by and Discussion with Robyn Dowling- Grant, K -12 Coordinator
ELEP, LHS
• Home language survey administered as a part of enrollment process for ELEP
• Bilingual students outperform academically (data backed claim)
• SELP, WIDA: professionally recognized English proficiency assessment
• Students receive daily lessons
• Target outcome: deeper understanding of English; make students proficient — takes about 3
years
• Started 2006 with 205 students; this year, 374 — increase of 82%
• The vast majority (307 students) are at primary level
• Problem areas: history and science — due to lack of exposure
• 6663 students in Lexington School District, of which 1430 students indicated that English is not
their first language
o Half of 1430 students whose mother tongue is not English are Asian
0 466 Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese)
0 68 Hindi, Bengali, Marathi
0 70 Japanese
0 223 Korean — however, 60% of Korean students are identified as transient
• Students need language instruction to transfer the knowledge from language 1 to language 2
• The Program needs native language speaking translator, psychiatrist /psychologist, social works
Review of Action Items
Interview Guide discussion points
- Who should do the interview?
- How to go about training? (Modeling, mock interview, critique, etc.)
- When to decide?
A list of interviewees is on the back of today (October 9 2012)'s agenda. The similar number
of other interviewees will be chosen from the PTA member pool.
• Peter Lee: ask to focus on first experience since we want to know what got them to get
involved in the first place and if they did subsequent ones, the first experience must have
been positive enough for him /her to continue with the next one
• Consent form needs drafting
• Update wording on Question 4: need to be more specific question or, the whole interview
should be more conversational. Tweak it for each group, particular interviewee.
• Substitute "Asian" with specific demographic of the interviewee.
Our next meeting: November 13 at 7:30 PM in the Reed Room.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM
Minutes submitted by John Lee
PJ