Nava Principal Says School Working Out Bilingual Program Kinks
"Dual immersion" bilingual education intended to produce students literate in both Spanish and English instead of merely transitioning non-English speakers to English proficiency is struggling to find acceptance in Santa Fe schools. In contrast to how dual-immersion programs are thriving in Las Vegas, N.M., and elsewhere around the state, Santa Fe's Nava Elementary School has a dual-immersion program that was partially put on hold this school year because of parental opposition. Nava continues to offer an optional dual-immersion program in which students begin in kindergarten or first grade taking almost all subject areas in Spanish and gradually have more classroom time in English from year to year in three grades. But the program, initially mandatory starting with a group of kindergarteners three years ago, is now only optional, and the school's second-grade program has been stopped. Problem program "Our dual-immersion program is up and running, but I decided to reorganize it," said Theresa Watson, Nava's principal. "Our program began three years ago, and this is my first year as principal," she said. "When it began, large, giant steps were implemented instead of baby steps. This year, we offer the dual-immersion program in kindergarten, first grade and fifth grade, but it is optional for each of those grades we offer an alternative, regular education program." Watson said it was the second-grade dual-language program for the students who started the program three years ago as kindergarteners "that was stumbling," and that is why she halted it during the present reorganization. Watson said it was not just parents but Nava's staff and school district personnel who had concerns about the program as it originally was implemented. "I think any time you start something new, there should be an alternative," Watson said. "Many parents weren't informed on what they were getting into." The fact that the program wasn't optional provoked parental opposition and prompted the halting of the second-grade program. "Immigrant parents only wanted their children to learn English," Watson said. And local parents, whose Hispanic, English-speaking children comprise the majority of the students, "felt their children were only getting a half-day's education. They objected to their children sitting in the Spanish class. They felt their children were not learning anything." But Watson said it takes time for students to manifest language learning. She said there is a five- to seven-year period for language acquisition to take hold. In Las Vegas, where a dual-immersion program at Los Ninos Elementary has gone well, the five-year-old program always has been optional which school administrators say has helped make the Las Vegas program attractive to parents. It now has more than 90 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. In the Las Vegas program, kindergarteners and first-graders have 90 percent of classroom time in Spanish. The Spanish-English split evolves to 50-50 by the fifth grade. At Nava, another challenge is that the school's attendance boundaries were changed, Watson said. "We now have Coronado Apartments in our district, so we're getting a lot of immigrant children from Mexico and Guatemala" whose parents only want them to learn English, she said. Losing Spanish Polly Beckmon, a district bilingual teacher resource specialist who mentors teachers in bilingual education, said there needs to be more emphasis on bilingual education. "Both nationally and locally, people do not value bilingualism," Beckmon said. When New Mexico was admitted into the union in 1912, it had been predominantly Spanish-speaking for almost three centuries. But Beckmon said that when New Mexico became a state, "it got drawn into that mindset" that being bilingual was not important. "Spanish is being lost in the native New Mexican community," Beckmon said. "It is losing its value they think they are English speakers now. And the new immigrants just want their kids to learn English. They aren't aware that these programs serve the entire community. Parents are uninformed and uneducated about the values of enriched education. These are not remedial programs." At Nava, for the grades not offering dual immersion, the school provides "a maintenance program, where we maintain their Spanish language through creative arts," Watson said. Nava Elementary is fortunate, Watson said, because the school has a bilingual-certified teacher for each grade level. "These programs require trained teachers who believe in (them)," she said. The school is also working on the issue of parental involvement. "We now have a parental advisory committee run by Ana Velasco, one of our teachers," Watson said. "They will meet every other Monday into the spring. They will visit the dual-immersion programs in Las Vegas and Albuquerque and inform the other parents." Watson insisted her school will continue with a dual-language program. "I am a true advocate for bilingual education. There are no ifs, ands, or buts Nava will have a dual-immersion program," she said. She said good bilingual education prepares students "to be global citizens." As for the future, Watson said, "Our long-term plan, the big, big question is: Do we want to be a magnet school, attracting all dual-immersion kids to Nava?" Beckmon said the Santa Fe schools need more leadership support for bilingual education. "We need to educate administrators about bilingual education," she said. "What is the history of bilingual education in New Mexico and the United States? What are the theories of dual-language immersion? What's a maintenance program? An enrichment program? "These elementary schools in Santa Fe need a principal who is a leader, who gets the staff to see how these programs work and that the community plays a major role," Beckmon said. "We need a superintendent and a board of directors to say, 'We need and want dual-immersion programs, and we're going to support them.' "If one of these elementary schools would dedicate itself for three to five years (to a dual-immersion program), the results would be an exemplary program." Community support Beckmon cited a study by Drs. Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia P. Collier of George Mason University in Virginia. The 1995 study compared the efficacy of five bilingual methods of teaching, including dual immersion. The study measured the average performance of native English speakers making one year's progress in each grade in each of the five methods. It demonstrated clearly that students in the dual-immersion program far exceeded the students in other methodologies. According to Collier, co-author of the study, "The original study tested over 42,000 students all over the U.S., mainly urban and suburban schools. We used whatever each specific school district was giving as a standardized, norm-referenced test, which are national norms. It's your kids compared to kids all over the country. The results are very generalizable to the whole country." The study authors have just completed a second national study, using federal funding, that produced similar results, Collier said. The results of the new study will be published online in January at www.ncbe.gwu.edu. Collier also said the Texas Legislature has passed legislation, with funding, to encourage the two-way or dual-immersion programs as Texas' official model for bilingual education. Walter Archuleta, coordinator of bilingual education for Santa Fe Public Schools, said that the dual-immersion program has been slow to catch on in Santa Fe because "these types of programs have to be planned in advance, at least one to two years in advance, to be successful. "And the community has to support them. You have to have the support of the parents for them to be successful and for them to continue. Those are the keys: advance planning and community support," he said. |