Some Challenge schools have created opportunities for bilingual students to serve as tutors or buddies for newcomers who share their language.
Smaller classes help, as do strong relationships with teachers or mentors.
Multiple-choice tests top the list, teachers say, because the student must read every statement in order to figure out the differences among them. It's also hard for kids to catch the details of school requirements and opportunities when they are rattled off rapidly in routine homeroom announcements. Better to be involved than theoretically pure. Better to be searching for common ground than for ideological distinction. Better to be in the middle of a road headed somewhere than stuck in a ditch on either side.