Bilingual Confusion

Bonus vote based on flawed date, Garland superintendent says

GARLAND – Superintendent Jill Shugart said this week that her staff erred in a report that showed no significant difference in the test scores of bilingual education students taught by certified teachers vs. those taught by noncertified teachers.

“We have found some errors in the bilingual report that was given to the board at their retreat this summer, which make the results a little bit different from the way they were given to the board,” Dr. Shugart said. “When we told the board that the students of fully certified teachers didn’t do any better than those of noncertified teachers, we were wrong. The computer matched up the wrong kids with the wrong teachers.” She said students with certified bilingual education teachers performed much better than previously believed, but the specific scores have not yet been computed.

The original report provided one of the premises for the school board to eliminate bonuses of $ 1,500 to $ 2,500 for certified bilingual education teachers whose students scored well.

The board’s decision upset some Hispanics, who said that, without the stipend, the school district would not be competitive in recruiting a group of teachers that is in short supply. The Dallas school district offers a $ 4,000 bonus to bilingual education teachers, for example.

Meanwhile, the Garland school district has lost 12 certified bilingual education teachers since May. At least 10 of those teachers cited the district’s short-lived stipend program as the reason for their resignations, district officials said.

The Garland Hispanic Coalition – a group of several local Hispanic organizations – recently wrote a letter to Dr. Shugart raising concerns about the quality of the bilingual education program and the numbers of certified teachers. Dr. Shugart has agreed to meet with the group on Sept. 25.

District officials said that improving bilingual education is a priority. A recruiter was hired to search the state for bilingual teachers. New computer software was bought for bilingual education classrooms. And the district has begun studying the possibility of a “Grow Your Own” program in which bilingual teacher aides receive college tuition and time to pursue teaching degrees.

“The school board has placed improvement of bilingual education among our top five goals,” Dr. Shugart said. “We all know that we still have progress to make, not only in terms of our student product, but the materials we need to teach with.”

Dr. Shugart said the revised report, which will be available in about six weeks, will give trustees the opportunity to reconsider offering bonuses to bilingual education teachers if they wish. Some trustees, however, said a corrected report would not cause them to change their minds on a stipend.

“It was a leap of faith on my part to vote for that stipend program in the first place,” trustee Steve Hill said. “The feedback I got from rank-and-file classroom teachers on the stipend was not real positive.”

Mr. Hill said he thinks a stipend gives special treatment to one group of teachers.

“All of our teachers put in 110 percent, not just the bilingual education teachers,” he said.

Tony Torres, chairman of the Garland Hispanic Coalition, said he was surprised that the district staff made a mistake on a report that was deemed important by the board.

“You would think that something that important would have been double-checked, especially if the board was going to make a big decision on it,” Mr. Torres said. “Whether it was software or human error, it certainly raises eyebrows.”

Mr. Torres said his organization has been warning the district for years about the coming Hispanic population boom.

“The district has no choice but to place this program on their priority list,” Mr. Torres said. “Certainly they are going to have to account for these kids on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. The district has a fear of coming in second to Plano or Mesquite on TAAS scores. It’s a very basic business decision to make these kids a priority. They’ll be a better reflection on the district.”

The number of students who are not fluent in English has almost tripled in the last eight years. In 1989, there were 1,331 students in bilingual education or English as a Second Language programs, compared with 3,710 this fall.

The bilingual education program has 62 certified teachers. Of 62 noncertified teachers, nine are enrolled in the alternative certification program and 53 are permanent substitutes, district officials said. The ESL program has 54 teachers.

Graciela Mendiola, acting director of the bilingual education/ESL department, said a “Grow Your Own” program would help ensure that teachers stay in Garland.

“Universities are not graduating the number of bilingual certified teachers we need in Texas,” Ms. Mendiola said. “We have a critical shortage, and the number of students is growing and the number of teachers is not keeping up. We need to start looking at long-term solutions.”

Ms. Mendiola said developing a “Grow Your Own” program would require funding from private foundations and collaboration with universities. Dr. Shugart said some of her staff members are working on a proposal for the program, but she does not know when it might start.

Meanwhile, administrators and Hispanic leaders are placing their hopes on the district’s new recruiting efforts.

The district’s new recruiter is Graciela Lauro, formerly an ESL teacher at North Mesquite High School.



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