News From Iowa

In an Iowa school district that embraced diversity, once scared students are now thriving teachers

Iowa Public Radio | By Sheila Brummer

Published September 27, 2024 at 7:47 AM CDT

A young female teacher sits behind a desk as she helps two young male students on a laptop and tablet. — Vanesa Sanchez teaches second grade students in Denison's dual language program. "I know now we have a lot more Hispanic teachers in the community, which is wonderful because now the kids can see more of their kind of people and connect with teachers," she said.

Studies show that ELL students, or English language learners, are at a higher risk of dropping out due to the challenges they face. A teacher in one western Iowa district inspired her students to stay in school. In fact, some of them are still there.

Teacher Vanesa Sanchez grabbed the attention of her second graders at the Denison Community School District.

“I love their personalities. I love just seeing those aha moments in the classroom,” Sanchez said.

Her students appear happy and engaged — the opposite of how Sanchez started school here 25 years ago. Her family moved from Mexico to Iowa for packing plant jobs.

I didn’t understand the language. It was exhausting.

Vanesa Sanchez, former ESL student turned teacher

“That was my number one goal, to get ahead in life and have more than they did,” Sanchez said. “They stressed that to us on a daily basis, ‘You go to school to learn. You go to school to be better than we are.'”

However, Sanchez struggled with culture shock and a new education system.

“I would get some core instruction, but not very much," she said. "I wasn’t getting anything because I didn’t understand the language. It was exhausting.”

Things changed when she met the district’s only teacher of English as a second language, as it used to be called.

A pretty woman with light blonde hair is smiling. She is wearing a black t-shirt with a purple and yellow lion that says Monarchs. She is standing in a brick stairwell. There is a banner above her that has a lion and the words Roaring With Pride. — School administrator and former ESL teacher Heather Langenfeld grew up in Denison. "It's definitely changed since I was in high school. I'm just super appreciative for my own kids to go through the system here and to grow up with diversity," she said.

Heather Langenfeld now works in administration at the Denison school district, where 63% of students are Hispanic.

“When I came back to teach, it was the beginning of when we started getting students primarily from Mexico at that time,” Langenfeld said. “But it has evolved, and now we’re getting students from all Latin American countries, both in Central America and South America, and many students from Africa, Cuba and Haiti.”

As director of elementary school improvement, she also oversees the dual language program where students learn one week in English and the next in Spanish.

We want to value the culture and the backgrounds that our students are coming from.

Heather Langenfeld, Denison Community School District Administrator

“You always want to validate those students’ home language. You never want to tell them that English is more important than Spanish,” Langenfeld said. “We want to value the culture and the backgrounds that our students are coming from and build on that.”

Denison is Langenfeld’s hometown, and she wanted Sanchez and other immigrants to feel at ease and grow as community members.

“After high school, she called me and said, ‘Hey, do you want to work for us? What are you doing after school, after you graduate?' I said, ‘I don’t know,’” Sanchez said.

After three years as an assistant, then college, Sanchez flourished.

She is now one of about a dozen of Langenfeld’s former ESL students who teach in Denison. Others work as essential staff members.

“I think it’s vitally important for our students to see other people who speak another language and maybe look like them. Sometimes there are trust issues. I speak Spanish, but don’t look like them,” Langenfeld said.

District succeeds with diversity

Superintendent Kim Buryanek sees the value of diversity. English and math proficiency scores in Denison exceed the state average. That’s with 700 English language learners in the district of more than 2,000 students — not including the many who passed the program.

“When your teaching staff can already mirror your student population, there’s just those connections that are more automatic, and relationships are just built a little easier," Buryanek said. “We’re fortunate to see an increase in our former English language learner students returning to Denison as employees.”

A woman with a shoulder-length blonde bob is smiling. She is standing next to an office chair and has her arm propped up on it. She is wearing a long necklace with a round medallion and a beige silk shirt with a patterned cover over the top. — Kim Buryanek came to the Denison Community School District after serving as the administrator for the Pre-K-12 Division at the Iowa Department of Education and associate superintendent in Sioux City — another majority-minority district. "Especially if you're an older student, it's harder to pick up that second language, and English is a difficult language to learn. The research years ago was that it took you five years to acquire an academic language, and now they're saying it's longer than that — it's seven to even 12 years," she said.

Former students see success

High school secretary Alondra Alvarado was another student who stayed. She moved from Mexico to Denison at the age of seven.

“I think I cried the first day of school because I didn’t know any English," Alvarado said. “I didn’t know anybody. I was new to it all, so I was really scared. I didn’t know what I was in for.”

As a working mother, Alvarado takes classes online to reach her goal to earn a teaching license.

“Being able to relate with the students and knowing that I can make a difference in their life, just like Mrs. Langenfeld and other teachers that made a difference in my life, that’s kind of inspired me to just do the same with those students,” Alvarado added.

High School Spanish teacher Rachel Ortiz is another of Langenfeld’s students. She came to the United States two decades ago.

“Being a second language learner myself, I knew that I went through the same thing, so I wanted to help others,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz also holds a special bond with her former teacher, Langenfeld, who dropped by during a recent lesson.

A young woman reads from a paper as she teaches in front of a classroom of students. Flags of Spanish language countries line the walls. — Rachel Ortiz teaches high school Spanish. "We say, 'Denison is a great place to grow,' and now many of us are raising our children here because it's a welcoming place," she said.

“Ms. Ortiz, when she moved here from Mexico in fifth grade and didn’t know any English, she was my student and I taught her English,” Langenfeld told the class. “I'm so proud of her, because now she's successful here at the high school teaching all of you Spanish, right?”

They embraced each other in an emotional, full-circle moment, where a teacher felt pride in a former student who overcame uncertainty through education, experience — and most of all, empathy.

“A lot of times when school isn’t easy for someone, they don’t want to come back and spend more time in school,” Langenfeld said. “But I think through the years they really mastered English through that, and now see their role of helping be a model for our students today.”

Spanish teacher Rachel Ortiz hugs her mentor and friend Heather Langenfeld.

Vanesa Sanchez, who treasures her second graders, feels the same as the other teachers who came to Denison as immigrants. This is where she wants to guide future generations.

“I just knew I wanted to go back to the community that is home to me. I want to help students who struggle, who are struggling like we did when we were little,” Sanchez said. “I want to be that person, even if they’re not in my classroom, I want to be that person that can help them and make them feel better.”