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Tim Vandenack covers immigration, multicultural issues and Northern Utah for KSL. He worked several years for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden and has lived and reported in Mexico, Chile and along the U.S.-Mexico border.
OGDEN — Michael Medina, a Ben Lomond High School senior, has plenty of praise for his teachers. Medina's instructors have pushed him in his efforts to master English, his second language after Spanish, and it's paid off.
The student, originally from Mexico, has been taking a concurrent enrollment course on entrepreneurship, taught in English and geared to higher-achieving students, which will potentially allow him to get college credit. His success "has a lot to do with the environment," Medina said. Sharon Emmert, who teaches a classroom of Ben Lomond English-language learners, including Medina, "pushes us a lot. She's kept me on track.
"Medina and the other students in her class of multi-language learners, many of them immigrants, are as capable as any, Emmert maintains, and efforts to help them at Ben Lomond High, Ogden High and other schools around Utah seem to be yielding results. At Ben Lomond, according to new Utah State Board of Education figures, around 70% of students from the class of 2025 took higher-level courses and earned a C or better or completed a technical education pathway program.
That's higher than the statewide figure of 60% for multi-language learners, the term in Utah schools for students learning English as a second language.
"I have confidence in my students that they can all do things like this all the time," Emmert said. The higher-level courses include advanced placement, International Baccalaureate and concurrent enrollment classes. Numerous Utah high schools, including Ogden High in Ogden, were recognized for their efforts to prepare English-language learners for advanced classes. The April 30 photo shows a class of English-language learners at the school.
At Ogden High School, 84% of multi-language learners in higher-level courses earned a C or higher. They surpassed the 60% rate of their English-language learning counterparts across Utah and even the 80% figure applicable to all students in such classes statewide. Preparing multi-language learners for advanced coursework "stretches them and helps them realize they can be successful," said Shauna Haney, the Ogden High School principal.
As at Ben Lomond, she said the efforts to help multi-language learners are tailored to their particular needs and meant to "bridge the gap" they may have with the student body at large. Across Utah, Ogden High School was one of 12 schools where 80% or more of multi-languag
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