Dr. Angélica M. Ramsey assumed the role of superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) in September 2022. She brings to FWISD a remarkable track record as a student advocate, an accomplished educator, and a dynamic leader focused on achieving results. Most recently, Dr. Ramsey served as superintendent of schools in the Midland Independent School District in Midland, Texas. Previously, she was superintendent of the Pleasant Valley School District in California for almost five years. Her education career began as a classroom teacher in the Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas, where she became an assistant principal and a principal. She was later named chief academic officer of the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Dr. Ramsey is an inclusive and deliberative CEO who places students first. Under her leadership, systems thrive, and educational outcomes for students improve. She is visible in classrooms and the community. Dr. Ramsey received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of the Pacific, her Master’s Degree from the University of Texas at El Paso, and her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Liberty University.
It’s perfectly normal for young people to be nervous to start school. It’s a new environment, you’re away from your family for eight hours for the first time, and you’re not quite sure what to expect.
And for people like me — the children of immigrants — it was also perfectly normal to feel uneasy and scared porque no hablaba inglés. For years, students have not been valued for the assets they bring from home, including their bi or multilingualism.
No más.
On my journey as an educator, I’ve strived to not repeat those patterns. It is vital that our students and families feel respected, seen, and valued, and one of the first steps of that is making sure their language and culture are prioritized.
The halls of Fort Worth ISD — like school districts across the country — are filled with the sounds of multiple languages. All over our district, students are learning both English and Spanish. Gone are the days where students are taught to abandon their home language in pursuit of learning English alone.
In an effort to help make sure all students achieve, here are tactics Fort Worth ISD has put in place that I believe can serve others.
At the elementary level, try to offer both one-way and two-way dual language programs. By putting this in place, students have the opportunity to learn both English and Spanish and become literate in both languages. This model helps students in many ways. One, as educators we know that students who can speak multiple languages are engaging their minds in ways that help them perform better in the classroom. Two, it means schools eventually graduate students who are bilingual, which is necessary in the workforce today. Three, students of all backgrounds participate in this program, so everyone is learning about different cultures.
For elementary and secondary students who speak a language other than Spanish, consider offering English Second Language programming that helps them learn English. The programming is designed to accelerate their English proficiency while also learning grade-level content. In Texas, the most common languages we hear are English and Spanish, but schools across the country can still implement this model with the languages that fit their needs.
Across the district, we also offer Language Centers and newcomer campuses. Fort Worth is home to many people who are refugees or seeking asylum, and that makes their learning needs a little different from some of our other students. Across the country, there are people coming to the U.S. as refugees or seeking asylum, this practice would be beneficial in all kinds of communities.
Our Language Centers are located at some secondary campuses and serve students who speak multiple languages. Centers are staffed with ESL teachers specially prepared to address the cognitive, linguistic, and affective needs of these students.
Districts could also benefit from having campuses specifically designed for helping families who are new to the country. Fort Worth ISD’s International Newcomer Academy and Success High School help students whose families are new to the country and need both language help and instruction.
All of these programs help to serve students who have traditionally been left behind in public schools. There was a time when it was considered acceptable for these students to fail. But in Fort Worth ISD — and across the country — these students are a significantly large part of our student population.
But they don’t just matter because there are so many of them, they matter because they are children who need us to provide them with the best education possible. And they deserve enough respect to get our undivided attention on an education that uplifts them and their culture.
It is not enough to teach students curriculum if they do not understand the language it is taught in. And it is not enough to teach them a new language if they are not also getting the curriculum their classmates receive. All students deserve the respect of both.
In Texas, this might not translate to overwhelming success in standardized testing. In fact, Texas does not give its standardized test — the STAAR — in any languages besides English and Spanish. It also does not allow a student to take a test in Spanish after the 5th grade.
So, what does that mean for our refugee students, who don’t fully know either of the languages the test is given in? What about when they get to the short answer portion and can either barely write it in English or they write a perfect response in a different language, but the AI grading the test doesn’t register it?
I hope the education system catches up to Fort Worth ISD and that other places start to put these practices into place. I hope there will one day be a world where we do not set English as the norm in education because it is not the norm of this world.
Until then, we in Fort Worth ISD will make sure that if any child is nervous for the first day of school, it’s because they’re going to be away from their parents for the first time, or because they might not know how to make friends yet, or maybe just because it’s an unfamiliar place. We will continue to be a beacon of hope for children and families whose quest of achieving the American dream is in English and in their home language.