The Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) has launched an innovative new online course that helps English-learning immigrants and refugees successfully integrate into the United States. The free course, called Access America, includes units aligned with the stages of immigrant integration.
Access America is a part of USA Learns, a free SCOE-developed website for computers, phones, and tablets that helps adults learn English, obtain job skills, and prepare for U.S. citizenship online. The new course helps learners access community resources and teaches families how to communicate with their schools, find housing and employment, obtain medical care, interact with the local community, and much more.
“The course contains a wealth of vital information that newcomers to our country need,” said David W. Gordon, Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools. “Beyond preparing to meet citizenship requirements, many immigrants also want to continue improving their English, find housing, or sharpen their workforce skills to better support their families.”
Access America can be used by individuals and by instructors teaching in remote, hybrid, or conventional classroom environments. The program includes thousands of multimedia elements, including custom animated videos, images, and audio files. Instructional videos for the new program, including conversational exercises involving speaking and listening to English, were produced in partnership with the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium (SECC).
“Access America is a self-paced or teacher-guided course that provides English instruction and helpful information about living in the United States,” said Andrea Willis, Director of Internet and Media Services/USA Learns at SCOE. “This new standards-based course focuses on immigrant integration while encouraging immigrants to preserve their cultural identities.”
Visit the USA Learns website to get started with the new Access America lessons.