Parents hitting books, too

ENGLISH CLASSES: Many in county take advantage of Prop. 227 literacy law

After he worked nine hours planting and picking flowers at a nursery, Honorio Martinez rushed to Channel Islands High School one recent Tuesday to study English.

Martinez sat in the front of a classroom with 15 other students, most of them also people with full-time jobs at factories, fast-food restaurants and other businesses.

Martinez, 44, of Oxnard, carefully repeated English words and listened intently to the teacher, while his son, Guillermo, typed a homework report in the school’s computer library.

“For me, learning English is a necessity,” Honorio Martinez said during a break from the two-hour class. “When there’s school meetings, I can go with my kids and understand what they are saying.”

Martinez jokingly added: “Are my children speaking bad words with their friends on the phone? If you don’t know English, you won’t know.”

Martinez is one of hundreds of Ventura County parents taking English classes funded by a hotly debated state initiative passed last year. Proposition 227, which changed how bilingual education is taught, earmarked $50 million to districts statewide to start the classes aimed at English literacy.

“The intent of the law is to try get more parents to tutor their kids in English,” said Barry Tronstad, principal of Ventura Adult Education. The law requires that adults in the classes sign a pledge to tutor a child with limited proficiency in English.

But Denis O’Leary, president of the local chapter of the California Association for Bilingual Education, and Cliff Rodrigues, director of bilingual education and technology for the Ventura County Office of Education, said the classes are helpful to some degree.

“The fallacy of it is to assume that parents who are beginning speakers of English, who maybe don’t have much more than a sixth-grade education, are going to turn around and teach their kids English,” Rodrigues said. “It’s going to be very limited in what they’ll be able to do.”

Nevertheless, 16 Ventura County districts are reaching parents and other family members in a variety of ways, the most popular being English classes.

The Ventura Unified School District, through adult education, will send out a remodeled mobile home, known as LIFT (Learning Is Fun Together), to different locations in the city this summer, Tronstad said. Parents will be able to use six computers, which will have literacy and other educational programs.

At Channel Islands High School, administrators hope to break down barriers that might prevent parents from taking classes, said Walt Dunlop, coordinator of English language development and migrant education for the Oxnard Union High School District. About 230 parents signed up for the biweekly classes.

If it were not for the free child care, Nelida Lopez said, she would not attend the classes. Her 10-year-old daughter, Dinora, stays in the child care program with about 24 other children.

Both Lopez and Honorio Martinez said they are spending more time studying with their children since they started the classes in March.

Once Lopez learns English well, she hopes to help Dinora with more than just math homework, she said.

“She helps me a lot more now,” said Lopez, 38, of Oxnard. “She tells me how to say words and she helps me with reading in English.”

In theConejo Valley Unified School District, classes are offered once a week at four elementary schools that have high numbers of students learning English, said Claudia Spelman, coordinator of pupil services. Parents are taught about numerous issues, including what study techniques they should use with their children and how they can volunteer with their child’s school.

Proposition 227 funding for local school districts

School District No. LEP Students Amount of $

Oxnard Elem. 7,379 $279,897

Hueneme Elem. 3,736 $141,712

Oxnard Union High 3,360 $127,450

Ventura Unified 2,069 $78,101

Conejo Valley Unified 1,468 $55,684

Fillmore Unified 1,416 $53,711

Moorpark Unified 1,232 $46,732

Rio Elementary 1,226 $46,504

Ocean View Elem. 1,218 $46,201

Santa Paula Elem. 1,212 $45,973

Simi Valley Unified 1,190 $45,139

Pleasant Valley Elem. 567 $21,507

Santa Paula Union 301 $11,417

Ojai Unified 295 $11,190

Somis Union Elem. 122 $4,628

Briggs Elem. 28 $1,062

Totals 26,809 $1,016,908

Source: Department of Education. Information is based on 1998 statistics regarding Limited English Proficiency students. The amount of funding received is based on the number of LEP students per district.



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