Bilingual Ed Backers Chalk Up Victory

Marshall Elementary School bilingual education advocates scored a victory Monday night with the Modesto City Schools Board of Education. Starting today, first- and second-grade teachers at Marshall will begin using a dual instruction approach when teaching English learners in their classroom. More advanced students will be taught primarily in English, or English immersion. Students just beginning to learn the language will be taught primarily in Spanish until their skills improve.

“The kids will get the instruction they need,” said second-grade teacher Raquel Flores. “I can now give homework in Spanish, and the parents will understand it.”

The board’s decision came after 21/2 hours of contentious, often passionate debate between Modesto City administrators, board members and Marshall parents and teachers. The consensus contrasted with the district’s recommendation to continue its existing English learner programs.

Under Proposition 227, which became law in California in August 1998, English learners are placed in English immersion classes, unless their school districts approve parental waivers for bilingual instruction.

Sixteen Marshall first- and second-graders had those waivers, yet were placed in immersion classes this year because bilingual classes were already full. Several parents came forward at the Oct. 4 board meeting to express their concern. The board directed the district to consult with the state Department of Education to find a solution.

On Monday, more than 50 Marshall parents, teachers and other advocates packed the district board room to hear Associate Superintendent Wendell Chun’s findings.

The district’s placement of bilingual-eligible students in an immersion class is perfectly legal, he said. Parents had been given the option to transfer to other bilingual programs in the district.

Two other alternatives legal under Prop. 227 — creating a bilingual combination class with the “overflow” first- and second-graders and the dual language approach — would create an undue burden on teachers and cut down on the amount of time they could spend with students, Chun said.

Prior to Prop. 227, Flores said she had used the dual instruction approach for years with her students learning English.

“I can balance a balancing act that we’ve done before,” she said. “That would work for me.”

Moreover, those first-grade students with waivers in English immersion classes outperformed their counterparts in bilingual classes on recent classroom reading tests, pointed out Chun and Marshall Principal Will Pool.

“I believe our program is working at this time,” Chun said.

Maria Avila, whose son Cudberto is in a first-grade English immersion class and has a waiver, disagreed. After excelling in a kindergarten bilingual class, Cudberto now bangs his heads in frustration when he tries to do his English homework.

On Nov. 15, the school board will vote on whether to adopt a new districtwide policy on bilingual overflow students like those at Marshall. Under a plan proposed by trustee Ricardo Cordova, teachers of English immersion classes in which more than one-third of their students have waivers could teach in both English and Spanish.



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