Local educator among first in CSU doctorate program
Helping children who are learning English in the classroom is the focus of Kay Vang’s doctorate studies. The Apricot Valley Elementary School assistant principal, who immigrated to the United States as a child, is using her position to monitor the engagement of English-learners. Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator
Kay Vang, an assistant principal at Patterson’s Apricot Valley Elementary School, is in line to be one of the first people awarded her doctorate by a California State University.
California doctorates had long been limited to the realm of the University of California system, explained Steven Lee, who heads the fledgling program at California State University, Stanislaus.
So schools like University of California, Davis; University of California, Berkley; and University of California, Los Angeles, could award the advanced degrees, but institutions like Stan State could not.
Now, for some disciplines, that’s changed, and Vang is one of the first people likely to receive the title.
Vang, 32, started in the program in September along with about 29 other students. These students have the chance to receive their doctorates as early as 2011.
The program is set up for education professionals who are working in the field.
The plan is for students to blend programs from their doctoral studies into the curriculum where they work. For Vang, that means expanding the research on students who are trying to learn English.
“A majority of the time, we see that these children are not engaged,” Vang said.
Now, Vang tracks about five students each school year, as do other educators at the district’s other schools
The monitors record how much each child participates. For example, the researchers record whether a student sits and listens to a lecture or responds to question.
Engaged children tend to learn better and perform better on tests that keep the district’s funds flowing relatively smoothly, Vang said. This goes for both English learners and non-English learners, she added, stressing that the teaching strategies she used to help English-learners also benefits the other students.
As for the need to focus on English learners, Vang points out that English is not a primary language in the home for 209, or about 27 percent, of Apricot Valley students. These children often underperform on standardized tests when compared to the other students.
“I can so totally relate to what these little guys are going through,” she said.
Vang struggled with the same challenges as she tried to learn English in her youth, she said. Around the age of 4, Vang came to the United States via a Thai refugee camp. Vang, her parents and two siblings had left their home after the Vietnam War, she said. Her people, the Hmong, were recruited by the United States to help in the war, but when the U.S. was eventually kicked out of the country, the Hmong struggled, she said.
“Our people were just so hated that we were pretty much hunted,” she said.
Eventually, the family managed to immigrate to the United States. Vang, like almost all children around her age in the States, entered school, but it wouldn’t be until sixth grade, when she found a teacher by the name of Ms. Sasaki, that she really took to learning.
“She embraced multicultural education,” Vang said. “She never made me feel like I was different.”
The quality Sasaki had that connected with Vang is the quality she hopes to instill in the teachers she works with, though she says it can often be a challenge.
Her plan is to expand the number of Apricot Valley students she monitors to about 30 and have teachers monitor children in other peoples’ classrooms.
She hopes that will clearly demonstrate to teachers what it takes to get children participating.
Contact John Saiz at 892-6187 or john@pattersonirrigator.com.