School to be less bilingual
TEMECULA---Parents of some students enrolled in a bilingual education program are considering pulling their children out of the charter school where the mix of Spanish and English teaching has been changed. After Temecula school board members questioned the effectiveness of an almost complete Spanish-immersion program recently, the leaders of the charter school announced last week that English would be taught 70 percent of the time at all grade levels. Charter school leaders said the change was necessary to bring state-mandated test scores to acceptable levels. Temecula Valley Unified trustees recently gave the school a one-year extension to improve test scores. Several parents attending a teacher/parent night Thursday at the Language Acqusition Magnet Program (LAMP) housed at Sparkman Elementary were discouraged to hear that less Spanish will be taught. During the school's four years of operation, kindergarten pupils were taught in Spanish 90 percent of the time and English the remaining 10 percent. The balance then gradually shifted. By the fifth grade, 10 percent of the teaching is in Spanish, with 90 percent in English. On Monday, teachers changed to a 50-50 format. When the next tri-mester begins in mid-November, the program will change to 70 percent English and 30 percent Spanish and stay that way for the rest of the year. Parents who enrolled their children in the program said they were told by school officials that students would achieve grade level in both languages. "I feel slighted, like we were sold something else," said parent Tim Kleinman, who is considering taking his third-grader out of the school. "I'd rather have him come up to speed in a regular third grade than have him struggle in junior high." LAMP school board members met with parents after the teacher conferences and said that students still were going to learn Spanish. The program is taking more of an enrichment approach than an immersion program, board members said. After-school involvement in Spanish-related activities could make up for the reduction in time devoted to the language at school, board members said. |