Santa Ana: Bilingual Education Aid Awarded by U.S.

The Santa Ana Unified School District has been awarded $1.3 million in federal funds to establish two three-year programs in bilingual education for Spanish-speaking students.

The district, which has nearly 26,000 students with limited English skills, will use the money for programs designed to assist students during critical transition periods in their education.

“In these days of tight budget considerations, it’s real exciting to receive funds for some innovative programs such as these,” said Rose Marie Fontana, director of bilingual programs.

One program, called CLAVES (Computer Literacy Acquisition Via Educational Strategies), will target 515 sixth-grade students at Carr and Willard intermediate schools and work to improve their skills in computer literacy, math, science and social science. These students are not yet able to work at their grade level because of their lack of English language skills. They will be “tracked” by the district for a period of three years to measure the effectiveness of the CLAVES program, Fontana said.

“We intend to see an improvement in their test results,” Fontana said.

The second program, called Point of Transfer, targets 426 students in grades two through five at Edison, Washington and Lincoln elementary schools. Fontana said these grades are a critical transition period for students who are going from Spanish to English.

“Students first concentrate on reading in Spanish while learning English oral skills,” Fontana said. “Once they have a handle on Spanish reading and writing, they know enough English to transfer their reading skills to English, and they learn to crack the code. The goal is for them to get the concept in their primary language. It’s much more difficult to try and understand a concept in a language you don’t understand.”



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