Bilingual policy plan causes stir

Area legislators ask HISD not to vote yet

The goal of the bilingual education program at Barrick Elementary isn’t just to teach English.

Principal Lupita Hinojosa, in fact, likes to boast about her fifth-grade bilingual education students who were put to the test this year in English and Spanish.

On the English Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, 92 percent passed the test. On the Spanish version of the Stanford Achievement Test, the same students scored years above grade level.

Now Hinojosa and others in the Houston Independent School District are eyeing Thursday’s board vote on a new policy on bilingual education.

“Of course, it’s always a concern when you see changes coming down and you’ve had a program that has been working successfully,” Hinojosa said.

The authors of the proposal, trustees Jeff Shadwick and Gabriel Vasquez, say the policy wouldn’t jeopardize Hinojosa’s program, nor would it radically change bilingual education in HISD.

Vasquez said the proposal clearly encourages programs that are taught in dual languages. And if a school has a program that is working, Shadwick said, there should be no reason for concern.

The proposal, however, has created a stir in the Hispanic community, particularly among Houston-area legislators who are asking the board to postpone the vote until the issue can be discussed further.

“We have not fleshed out this issue properly to the best interest of our kids,” said state Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston. “We just have not done due diligence on this topic at all.”

The HISD proposal, which is more philosophical than procedural, emphasizes “the ability to read, write and speak English as rapidly as possible.” It also encourages “opportunities for all HISD students to graduate proficient in multiple languages.”

Most schools now offer bilingual education through the fifth grade, teaching students basic academics in their native language while giving them progressively more instruction in English.

The wording of the policy still was being revised Tuesday as Vasquez and Shadwick continued to negotiate with the Latino Educational Policy Council and others in the Hispanic community.

Guadalupe San Miguel, University of Houston history professor, said he has concerns that the proposal uses English reading proficiency as the sole criterion for determining when a student should move from a bilingual education class to an English-speaking class.

Maria Seidner, director of bilingual education for the Texas Education Agency, raised similar concerns about the policy’s emphasis on reading English.

“I think they are right to want high standards, and I think they certainly have a lot of flexibility in the existing laws to implement a program that makes sense to the district’s goals,” Seidner said. “But the bottom line is, you need to look at the child’s academics as well as linguistic development and reading ability.”

Vasquez and Shadwick say that high scores on Spanish language achievement tests prove the district is doing a good job teaching the core subjects to children in the bilingual education program.

However, they say, when the students go on to take the tests in English, their scores drop.

“We clearly see from the testing data that we are doing an excellent job teaching kids in Spanish, but we are not doing a very good job teaching kids how to be successful in English reading, writing and speaking,” Vasquez told about 200 people gathered last week at a meeting sponsored by the Parents for Public Schools of Houston.

Cynthia Cano, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said she believes the proposal invites a legal challenge. But Vasquez and Shadwick say that according to the policy, the district will comply with state and federal bilingual mandates.

State law requires every school district with 20 or more limited-English students to provide bilingual education or a special language program. Students can be transferred to an all-English program only after they reach the 40th percentile on a standardized reading test in English and meet other evaluation standards.

Most of the HISD board members have voiced support of the proposal, which was first introduced at the June meeting.

However, trustee Esther Campos said she believes the proposal is not acceptable as it is now worded. She said she would like to see Thursday’s vote delayed and a committee of experts appointed to re-examine the issue.

But other board members are ready to cast their vote.

“I think it’s a very modest recommendation,” said trustee Larry Marshall.



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