U.S. Officials Challenges L.A. Schools on Bilingual Programs

Education: Federal fund director says his agency is eager to help, but the district must aggressively pursue grants.

As he toured Humphreys Elementary School in Los Angeles, Eugene E. Garcia, the new director of bilingual education for the U.S. Department of Education, was greeted at nearly every turn Thursday by parents, teachers and school officials clamoring for more government help.

“We need parent education,” said Hermalinda Salcido, mother of three elementary schoolchildren.

“We need more teacher networking, teacher training,” said instructor Maria Hillary.

On his first official visit to Southern California, the former dean of social sciences at UC Santa Cruz found that even at one of the Los Angeles school district’s star campuses for bilingual education, the staff struggles to meet the sometimes overwhelming needs of students who speak little or no English.

His tour at Humphreys Elementary — cited by the U.S Department of Education for excellence in bilingual education — came at time when the giant school district is under intense state pressure to reform its ailing bilingual education programs in middle and senior high schools.

A scathing state audit found that secondary students are stuck in unchallenging courses and are not able to take even the basic courses needed for graduation. The district embarked on a stepped-up plan to turn around the trend after state officials threatened to withhold $60 million.

Garcia, who oversees a $250-million federal bilingual education budget, challenged the school district to come up with more cutting-edge programs to address its problems and pledged to give its funding requests special attention.

His tour of the school, however, highlighted a gap in the district’s track record when it comes to pursuing funding.

Currently, the Los Angeles Unified School District — which has nearly 280,000 students who speak limited English, among the most of any district in the nation — receives only $2.8 million in federal bilingual education funds designed to help launch model programs.

“Either they are not applying for grants or their programs were not being funded,” Garcia said. “But they have to apply for the dollars, submit a grant and compete. . . . We do not fund bad programs.”

Assistant Supt. of Instruction Amelia McKenna said the district’s federal grant awards have greatly increased since five years ago, when schools received only about $200,000 for special bilingual programs.

“The thing to remember is that the investment in time in writing a grant is great,” she said. “We don’t have the luxury of that resource.” Also, Garcia noted, past Republican administrations did not favor controversial bilingual education policies that promote teaching students basic courses in their native language while they learn English. Because the Los Angeles school district has embraced such a policy, it may have hurt its grant chances in the past, Garcia said.

“This Administration supports native-language instruction — it is not an issue with us,” Garcia said, adding that California school authorities can expect more federal support for bilingual education.

McKenna said that the district will be applying for about $1 million in federal grant money needed to fully launch its bilingual education reform plan in secondary schools.

The grants will seek funding to train monolingual teachers to better communicate with their students. Also, the district wants funding to help bilingual teacher aides become fully credentialed teachers.

Humphreys school is an example of how well-trained teachers who are given additional instructional materials can improve the achievement of students who speak little English.

With a federal and state grant that was first awarded in 1985, Humphreys has raised student achievement to a level 55% to 75% higher than schools without the program. Currently there are 15 Los Angeles schools participating in the program that received a $191,000 grant three years ago.



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