ABSTRACT
The Riverside Language Program is a not-for-profit school that teaches English to newly arrived refugee and immigrant adults. The program was started in 1979 by three teachers: Phyllis Berman, Anne LeLan, and Leslie Robbins. We knew that there was an enormous need for literacy and ESL classes for refugees and immigrants in our community, and to meet the needs of these students we wanted to develop a program that was designed by experienced teachers, not by administrators with little experience in the classroom. We wanted a program that put students first-a school in which the administrators served the teachers, so that the teachers could serve the students. In the past 17 years we have taught over 25,000 students from all around the world and quadrupled our budget. Still, with all our success, we are faced with an uncertaiP future because of recent anti-immigrant feeling that has gripped this country.
