Schools' bilingual programs growing

Costs increasing as more students require services

Students have a lot to learn in 13 years of public education, but more than 9 percent of Green Bay’s students can’t focus on math, science or social studies until they learn something else: English.

Since 1986, the Green Bay School District has gone from 92 percent white to 79 percent white. Most of the minority increases have been in the number of Asian and Hispanic students.

Those changing demographics have meant far more than color or culture. In this 1998-99 school year, almost 1,800 of the district’s 19,500 students can’t speak English well enough to function in a classroom. Some don’t speak it at all.

“How do you expect a kid to learn when they don’t know any (English)?” asked Yeimi Perez, 14, a student at East High School who was born in the United States but grew up speaking Spanish with her Mexican family.

Administrators answer the question with English-as-a-second-language and transitional bilingual education programs, which this year account for 3.1 percent of the district’s budget.

In the 1990-91 school year, the district served 631 students in the programs. In 1997-98, that number was 1,711 – a 171 percent increase in eight years. The figure for this school year won’t be known until the end of March, but administrators expect it to be about 1,800 students.

At the same time, costs for the program have increased steadily, from $ 722,848 in the 1990-91 school year – less than 1 percent of the budget – to $4.4 million budgeted for this year – a 508 percent increase.

The $4.4 million isn’t just costs for translators and other special services; it represents a total figure including all salaries, equipment and supplies. Some of those expenses would remain if the students spoke English.

And while program costs have increased, state aid has dwindled. In 1983-84, when the program began, the state reimbursed 70 percent of the cost. In 1997-98, the state reimbursed 21.3 percent. In 1992, the Legislature also decided that some spending was not reimbursable.

“It’s not just the percent; they’ve now delineated what they’re going to cover and what they’re not going to cover,” said Assistant Superintendent Daniel Nerad.

He said that local money makes up the difference, which makes providing ESL/bilingual services another state mandate that cuts into districts’ budgets.

“The fact of the matter is it’s all in the operating budget,” Nerad said. “If money is not spent addressing one area, it obviously could be used for something else.”

Learning English

The district wants all non-English-speaking students to move into regular classrooms eventually. Until then, the network of people needed to serve them continues to grow, as does the amount of money needed.

“They have to learn English, but they also have to learn grade-level content,” said Fay Boerschinger, Green Bay’s ESL-bilingual coordinator. “If we wait, their classmates keep moving and they do not.”

In bilingual education, students are taught in both English and their native language. Their teachers speak both languages.

ESL teachers, on the other hand, instruct only in English, although translators help.

Both programs are designed to move students into regular classrooms as soon as possible. The bilingual program, though, offers more support in other classes while the students learn English.

“If you only teach English … they aren’t advancing in subjects that will allow them to be successful,” Nerad said.

That job gets more complex – and expensive – each year.

Since 1986, the Asian and Hispanic populations have increased from about 650 students to almost 3,000. Many need help with English skills.

And just from last year to this year, the number of Russian-speaking students in the district jumped from 6 to 41, spurred by families who have moved here for religious freedom.

Legal requirements

Tim Boals, the Department of Public Instruction coordinator for bilingual and ESL programs, said districts are not obligated to provide programs unless they have a certain number of students who speak another language.

State law requires that once a district reaches the so-called trigger numbers in one of its schools – 10 elementary students, 20 middle or 20 high school students – it must create a bilingual program.

Many area districts have non-English-speaking students, but few have enough for a full-fledged program. Some send their students to Green Bay. Ashwaubenon, De Pere and Howard-Suamico have part-time programs.

Green Bay has trouble finding bilingual teachers for languages other than Spanish.

So shortly after mandating bilingual education, the Legislature adjusted the law to allow ESL-certified teachers and bilingual translators to work together if bilingual teachers can’t be found.

In Green Bay, ESL was the primary program until 1996, when a bilingual component was added to serve the growing Spanish-speaking population.

Length of program

Research shows students on average spend four to seven years in an ESL/bilingual program. But how long it takes any given student to learn the language depends on that student’s motivation and other factors.

“Second-language acquisition is much easier the younger you are,” Nerad said.

And students who can read and write in their first language, not just speak it, also learn English faster than those who are illiterate.

That’s a typical problem for Hmong students, who did not have a written language until several decades ago.

“The stronger they are in their first language, the stronger they will be in English,” Boerschinger said.

Motivation is rarely a problem. The students say it’s important for them and their parents to learn English.

“What if they would get lost and they wouldn’t know what to say,” said Rudy Alvarado, 14, an East High School freshman from Mexico who is almost ready to leave the ESL program.

But teachers are careful to assess students before passing them through the five levels of the ESL/bilingual program.

Teachers encourage children to hang on to their first languages. Literacy skills can be transferred more easily from one language to the other if students are taught in both, said Julie Brockway, an ESL teacher at Green Bay’s Tank Elementary School. “We don’t mean to devalue their own language,” she said.

For Perez and other students, switching back and forth can get tricky.

“Right here in school, they expect you to speak English, but at home you have to speak Spanish,” Perez said.

Educators hope students can do the balancing act.

“Sometimes we have middle school students who can’t talk with their parents anymore, and that’s tragic,” Boerschinger said.



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