School Celebrates the Winning of Award from U.S.

Education: Students, teachers, parents cheer recognition of the bilingual program at Isojiro Elementary, where lessons are taught in 46 languages.

HUNTINGTON BEACH—Beneath the U.S. and California flags, an Academic Excellence flag was raised Thursday at Isojiro Oka Elementary School to the cheers of more than 600 students, parents, teachers and city officials.

The red flag for scholastic excellence was presented to the school and the Fountain Valley School District by the U.S. Department of Education earlier this year in honor of its bilingual education program, aimed at teaching students in a total of 46 languages.

“I’m excited for our district because it means that we have received, in my eyes, the ultimate achievement for bilingual education,” said Fern Zahlen Williams, director of student services for the school district.

Williams read a prepared speech by Dr. Rita Esquivel, director of the Department of Education’s bilingual division. Esquivel was scheduled to speak at the ceremony but was called to attend a public hearing in Los Angeles involving education legislation.

“There is really nothing more moving than celebrating the success of Project GLAD, an Academic Excellence shining star,” Esquivel’s speech read. “The time, toil and talent you have invested has certainly paid off.”

The only program of its kind in the country, Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) trains teachers to use the native language of the student to teach English and other subjects.

Fountain Valley was one of four school districts nationwide that were recognized for work in bilingual education. The others are Los Angeles Unified and districts in Texas and New York. The awards come with a federal grant of more than $500,000.

The other school in the Fountain Valley School District that participated in the GLAD program, James H. Cox Elementary School, held a similar flag-raising ceremony Wednesday. Project GLAD was developed by Fountain Valley educators Marcia Brechtel and Linnea Haley to help teach students who speak a total of 46 languages.

“We’ve had to really struggle with that many languages,” Brechtel said.

An important component of the program is developing self-esteem in children and teaching students the value of being bilingual.

“The feeling on the whole is that it’s great to speak more than one language,” Brechtel said.

Brechtel said bilingual education “has become a political football, which it shouldn’t because the issue is how the kid learns the fastest. When kids learn in their own language, the transfer to English is much faster.”



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