Palomino drops its bilingual program

NORTH PHOENIX – Palomino Elementary School teachers spent part of Thursday taking down the bilingual bulletin boards they’d so carefully created.

Hours before Wednesday’s “Back to School Night,” teachers at the Paradise Valley school were told of a new policy that will prevent students with limited English skills from enrolling in a dual-language program that lets them keep up with their peers.

Instead, they will have to enroll in English immersion classes at lower grade levels, and teachers fear those classes will become overcrowded.

School starts Monday, leaving little time to adjust, and some teachers say politics drove the change.

School board President Tom Horne, who is running for state superintendent of public instruction, opposes bilingual education, which is one of the issues in the race.

Ginny Kalish, a teacher who works with gifted students, said, “I have no doubt in my mind they’re doing this for political reasons. He’s cleaning up his record.”

Horne said that wasn’t the case and that such decisions are made by the administration, not the school board.

Parents received a letter Wednesday saying the changes come after consultation with the state.

Lorraine Hendershott, director of language acquisition, said data analysis completed this week for limited English students showed little progress on standardized and exit tests.

Three out of four Palomino students aren’t fluent, the highest number of any Paradise Valley school.



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