Controversial Classes Endure

Bilingual Program Open to All Kids

Dan Garcia teaches 10 classes twice a week at Puesta del Sol Elementary School, where bilingual classes are optional for both Spanish and non-Spanish speakers.

“Yo me llamo Senor Garcia,” the teacher greets the class.

The class begins with a rousing rendition of “Frere Jacque” but it’s in Spanish.

“Some of them are relearning Spanish. Most are learning it for the first time,” Garcia said.

It’s the only elementary school in Rio Rancho that offers bilingual classes this year, after the district rejected $250,000 a year in funding in a dispute with the state Department of Education. The bilingual program at Rio Rancho centers on a language-arts class, rather than other subjects, said bilingual director Mary Render.

Rio Rancho has 1,690 students whose home language is not English, Render said. Of these, 429 are limited in their English proficiency.

Under the traditional method of bilingual education, students who speak or who have relatives speaking the Spanish language at home are pulled out of class daily for bilingual classes. Rio Rancho decided it might work better to bring the lessons to the whole classroom, exposing all children to both Spanish and English instruction.

A survey of parents, both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking, showed many wanted their children to be proficient in English and to be able to converse in Spanish.

Last year, Rio Rancho got permission from the state to try the new approach in three schools. At the end of last year, the district surveyed parents and looked at test scores and proficiency levels in Spanish and English. The results didn’t indicate that either approach was superior, Render said.

Rio Rancho wanted to expand its program, offering the classes at all six elementary schools, but the state said otherwise. From the state’s point of view, Rio Rancho had not proven that its program was preferable, said Mary Jean Habermann-Lopez, state bilingual education director.

“The information was inconclusive,” said Habermann-Lopez. “It was very difficult to see results that showed one program was better than the other.”

There also was an issue involving the amount of time Rio Rancho was spending on bilingual education. Rio Rancho says English lessons were provided daily, while Spanish was provided twice a week. “It was just very difficult to understand why the approach was different, and why the lack-of-time factors couldn’t be accounted for,” said Habermann-Lopez.

Rio Rancho assistant superintendent Walter Gibson said the district balked at “a one-size-fits-all model. We think that we know what our needs are better than someone who hasn’t visited our district in forever,” he said.

Unable to offer its program at all six schools, Rio Rancho simply canceled most bilingual education for the 1998-99 school year. Puesta’s survived under a special arrangement with the district.

The district plans to resubmit its plan in coming weeks, pushing the state for an earlier review, Gibson said.

Meanwhile, its current situation has left gaps at schools that once offered the inclusionary program.

“We could walk down the halls and the children would say ‘buenos dias’ to (the Spanish teacher),” said principal Nora Scherzinger at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, which had been integrating bilingual classes with regular instruction for two years. Now, the school only provides federally required services for those learning English as a second language.

“I would say that I’m sorry that the children haven’t had this learning opportunity,” Scherzinger said.

Puesta del Sol, which still is running the program through its regular budget, has about 130 students receiving bilingual services and doesn’t plan to go back to the traditional method.

“It’s helping the families where families speak mostly Spanish,” said teacher Sandra Richardson. “It’s also helping the kids who were not speaking Spanish.”

Parents in both English and Spanish-speaking homes appear to like the program, the school says. One mother said the Spanish language will give her son a competitive edge in the working world.

“The younger they are, the better they learn,” said Diantha Valentine, whose son Courtney is from an English-speaking home and is enrolled in one of Garcia’s classes.

Monse Medrano said her daughter Adriana, a fifth-grader, learned English through the bilingual program at Puesta del Sol, which she has attended since kindergarten.

“Now that she’s progressing in both languages, I don’t want her to lose either language,” Medrano said. “I want her to be bilingual.”



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