Es dificil hacer bien en la escuela cuando no sabes Ingles.

For 604 Green Bay students, that sentence translates to a fact: It’s hard to do well in school when you don’t know English.

The number of Spanish-speaking students in the Green Bay School District has grown from 14 students nine years ago to 604 this year, an increase of more than 4,000 percent.

That increase has created a demand for bilingual education, which began in Green Bay in 1996.

The district has served Hmong- and Lao-speaking students longer with English-as-a-second-language programs. There are about 1,000 in the program this year.

Bilingual education uses a different approach to reach the same goal as ESL: teaching students English so they can function in regular classrooms.

“People get the misconception that kids in bilingual education are not learning English,” said Tim Boals, coordinator of bilingual and ESL programs at the state Department of Public Instruction.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. A good bilingual program has the same goals and objectives as a good ESL program.”

The difference is that bilingual teachers can switch to another language to help children understand a difficult concept.

“It helps them not fall further and further behind in different content areas,” Boals said.

ESL teachers generally do not speak the child’s first language, and they teach solely in English. But many are helped by translators for at least part of the day.

“Some children do well just in English; others need both languages,” said Patricia Agee-Aguayo, a bilingual teacher at Green Bay’s Danz Elemen- tary School and the first bilin-gual teacher in the Green Bay district.

East High School freshman Rudy Alvarado, 14, who’s originally from Mexico, understands most everything in his English-only math class.

“But when a Spanish-speaking teacher helps me, I get it better,” Alvarado said.

Alvarado’s father, Rigoberto, said he’s glad the district offers the programs.

“So they can know English and can get a good job and don’t have to be like people who don’t know English and can’t do much,” Rigoberto Alvarado said through a translator.

Agee-Aguayo, a native of Chile who has lived in the United States for 11 years, said both programs focus on two things: learning English and not falling behind in other subjects.

As students become less dependent on their first language, they are moved from bilingual programs into ESL, Agee-Aguayo said.

“We encourage them to keep their language; that’s what they are,” she said. “But when I see those children learning (English), I feel so good.”

Agee-Aguayo said bilingual education is particularly valuable early in the learning cycle.

“We cannot wait for that group of children to learn English. … They’ll fall behind,” she said. “That’s why we need to do the content in Spanish.”

Green Bay Assistant Superintendent Daniel Nerad said bilingual programs are the state’s and the district’s first choice.

But sometimes that isn’t possible. Licensed bilingual teachers are few, especially for Asian languages.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a crisis, but there is a continual need for people who have those certifications,” Boals said.

In Wisconsin, only the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and UW-Milwaukee offer programs for bilingual certification. ESL teacher programs are available at several schools, including UWGB. ESL programs aren’t without a bilingual component – it’s just not coming from a teacher.

State law requires districts to hire bilingual translators whenever they reach a minimum number of students in one school who speak the same foreign language.

While the teachers can’t explain something in the students’ first language, the translator can. While the translator doesn’t have a degree in education or know the ins and outs of the curriculum, the teacher does.

Students move through both ESL and bilingual programs in levels, Nerad said.

That doesn’t mean all students are ready to move out of the programs in five years. Instead, teachers evaluate students individually, based on state criteria, and move them into the next level as they are able.

Each higher level leaves the student more independent of a translator’s or teacher’s assistance. After becoming competent at the fifth level, students are put into regular classrooms.

Their teachers are glad to see them move on.

“I tell them if they work hard, they don’t have to stay with me,” Agee-Aguayo said.



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