SCHOOL DISTRICTS FACE LANGUAGE PROBLEM

Only a handful of parents showed up for a presentation in October about the Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program at Fremont Elementary School in Alhambra. The nearly empty auditorium depicted another failed attempt to persuade native Spanish-speaking parents to enroll their children in the rewarding program.

The Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program started three years ago at Fremont Elementary School. Some of the school's strategies to reach parents include distributing fliers at Alhambra preschools, inviting parents to school visits, creating brochures, putting banners on the streets, and making robocalls.

Parents interested in the program must enroll their children in kindergarten. Students immerse themselves in a setting where a majority of instruction is in the target language as opposed to English-only instruction. This allows students to become fluent in two languages while learning overlapping academic content at the same time.

In a visit to a Spanish dual language immersion classroom, students participated in a learning activity by holding a letter from the alphabet. The teacher and students read a sentence in Spanish out loud and tried to fill in the blank with the missing word. Once students knew which Spanish word belonged in the blank, the students with the letters of the missing word raised their hands. The whole class then spelled the word and made the sound of each letter.

Students who successfully complete the program achieve proficiency in academic content areas in alignment with California State Standards. Students become bilingual and biliterate as they learn how to read, write and speak fluently. Also, students develop an appreciation for other cultures and countries as they learn more about different backgrounds.

The program at Fremont Elementary School aims to have one-third students who speak Spanish alone, one-third students who speak English alone and one-third students who are bilingual. The lack of interest from native Spanish-speaking parents often occurs due to the language barrier between parents and coordinators of the program. Parents who are unable to effectively communicate are often misinformed about the program because they do not have a translator to help them fully understand the benefits of a dual language classroom setting.

Lilia Sarmiento is a teacher consultant for the Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program at Fremont Elementary School. Sarmiento was a language specialist for Alhambra Unified School District in 1989 and a principal contacted her to work with teachers to plan lessons for the school year. In her experience interacting closely with parents, Sarmiento said the lack of recruitment happens because parents do not understand how the program functions using two languages in a classroom.

"Some immigrant families have strived so hard in order to come to the United States for their children to have opportunities and they fear that if they are not placed in an English-only setting they are not going to learn English and therefore not be successful," Sarmiento said. "So they don't understand the strength of the two languages and how they're bringing good assets down the road."

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California also faces the challenge of finding qualified teachers with bilingual certification. According to a study of 25 school districts in California, 80% of surveyed districts experienced teacher shortages and 82% hired underprepared teachers.

Sarmiento said that coordinators have tried to address the problem by looking into other schools to see what program structures they have put in place. As chair of teacher education at California State University, Dominguez Hills, Sarmiento pushes to have student teachers who are finishing their program get hired at Fremont Elementary School.

Despite how far California has come with bilingual education, the state's battle dates back to 1988 when Proposition 227 passed. The ballot measure restricted instruction of bilingual and multilingual programs. Twenty-eight years later, voters overturned Proposition 227 with the approval on Proposition 58. The ballot measure eliminated the barriers of Dual Language Immersion Programs.

The passage of Proposition 58 led to the Global California 2030 initiative by State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson. The goal is to expand the number of students speaking more than one language over the course of 12 years. Global California 2030 aims to increase the number of students who receive the State Seal of Biliteracy.

California has the most Dual Language Immersion Programs in the nation with over 450 schools across the state for students to have better opportunities academically and professionally. Los Angeles Unified School District offers 137 Dual Language Immersion Programs in Arabic, Armenian, French, Korean, Mandarin and Spanish for the 2018-2019 school year.

Another neighboring district, Glendale Unified School District, has Dual Language Immersion Programs in seven languages: Armenian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

Nancy Hong, coordinator of Glendale's Foreign Language Academies (FLAG) program, also finds native Spanish-speaking parents more reluctant than other parents to enroll their children in the program. Hong says parents worry about the 90:10 model where 90% of the day instruction is in Spanish and only 10% of instruction is in English.

"Spanish-speaking parents are mainly concerned because their child is coming in without proficiency in English," Hong said. "They are concerned about how much time their child would have interacting in English as oppose to Spanish."

As students advance to the next grade levels, the instruction models will alter to 80:20 in first grade, 70:30 in second grade, 60:40 in third grade and stay at the 50:50 model from fourth grade and above.

Districts that follow the two-way model need to have students that are fluent in the target language and fluent in English. This creates a good classroom balance where students can practice both languages and learn from each other.

Pasadena Unified School District offers Dual Language Immersion Programs in Spanish, Mandarin and French. Amin Oria, principal of Jefferson Elementary School, encounters the same experience as the other two school districts in drawing native Spanish-speaking parents into the program.

"The native Spanish-speaking families sometimes feel afraid that by being in a Spanish Language Immersion Program their child might not learn English, which is the primary goal for their children," Oria said.

Oria organizes introduction to kindergarten sessions to explain to parents how the Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program teaches academic content and not just language. Students learn about science, math, social studies and other subjects in two languages.

Kassia Livingston Moreno enrolled her daughter in the program when it recently started at San Rafael Elementary School in Pasadena. She discovered the program when her daughter was in preschool through a friend who enrolled her child. Even though the school is out of Moreno's district, she was able to enroll her daughter through the Open Enrollment-School Choice option that allows students to attend schools outside of their neighborhood boundaries.

Her daughter's home language is Spanish, but Moreno was concern that her daughter would hear Spanish she had never heard before because she was not proficient in the language. Moreno thinks that many parents do not understand the importance for their Spanish-speaking children to learn formal grammar and vocabulary in Spanish.

"A lot of children are unfortunately trapped in no man's land when it comes to language because they speak conversational Spanish," Moreno said.

Moreno notices within her group of acquaintances that several native Spanish-speaking parents are not fully invested in the education of their children due to their immigration status. Moreno said some parents are afraid to connect with administrators and faculty about the program because they are scared of being discovered.

"I think that unfortunately this really keeps schools from benefiting from a larger population of native speakers because they are not able to reach them," Moreno said.

SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

These three districts also encounter the problem of finding highly qualified teachers for Dual Language Immersion Programs. Teachers need to have their Bilingual, Crosscultural, Language and Academic Development (BCLAD) credentials and then go through a rigorous hiring process. Teachers will have an oral interview, a written portion part of the interview and then a demonstration lesson to know more about the different teaching strategies utilized.

"We really want those who have strong proficiency in the language, but they have to also be a good teacher and have all of the right credentialing in place to teach the classes, so that has been one major challenge that we constantly have to overcome," Kong said.

Fremont Elementary School works closely with the teacher consultant for the Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program. Sarmiento meets with teachers once a month to develop future lesson plans, talk about the strengths of the program and develop strategies to improve on challenges.

Nidia Urena is a Spanish dual language immersion teacher who received her bachelor's degree and credentials from the University of La Verne. Before teaching at Fremont Elementary School, Urena attended several conferences about the two-way model. She also met with the teacher consultant during the summer to enhance lesson plans and develop effective learning strategies for students.

Urena said a typical day in the classroom is full of action with conversations, student conferences and music. When students have to recite poems, Urena reviews vocabulary and practices reading the poem with students so they feel more comfortable. She also sets a stage in the classroom for students to express themselves freely and attach more meaning to their words.

Urena uses several colorful chart as visuals and total physical response (TPR) activities with students. When Urena wants students to know that she is feeling sad, she acts out the expression by using her hands and facial gestures. This way students remember what the expression means and looks like.

As someone who came to the United States only speaking Spanish at the age of nine, Urena is proud that she learned English. Urena said the power of being bilingual gives students more possibilities in the future.

"With the elasticity in their brains they're able to absorb so much that as adults we sometimes have like a fixed way of doing things, but with kids you can constantly be exposing them to languages and they can learn them in any way possible," Urena said.

PROMISING DUAL LANGUAUGE IMMERSION PROGRAMS

Dunsmore Elementary School and Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School are a part of the Japanese Dual Language Immersion Program at Glendale Unified School District. The language was added to the the district after parents requested a Japanese Dual Language Immersion Program.

Glendale Unified School District received a federal grant called Foreign Language Assistance Program to help fund the Japanese Dual Language Immersion Program when it started. Kristina Provost, principal of Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School, said there is a good balance of native Japanese speakers and English speakers.

Provost mentioned the success of the program is due to the huge volunteer base of parents involved in the Parent-Teacher Association who promote student success and community involvement. The program also receives the support from the Japan Business Association, a non-profit corporation with the mission to provide educational support activities to make the program financially and culturally stronger.

"We have visitors all the time, we have basically made a good name for ourselves here with the job we're doing with the kids," Provost said.

The school has a Japanese homework club that meets every Monday after school to help students learning the language. Some cultural activities the program offers are taiko drumming and calligraphy.

Aya Taylor, Japanese language specialist, said the program is demanding and attracts parents from outside of the area. These schools follow a 50:50 model where students receive 50% instruction in Japanese and 50% instruction in English throughout the day. Taylor said that parents know about the program through word of mouth and district representatives who visit preschools to advertise the program.

"It's a very fast pacing intensive program and really good for students' brains, but it's not for everybody," Taylor said.

The Armenian Dual Language Immersion Program in Glendale Unified School District is in demand with the high number of Armenians in the community. Miganoush Melkoian, Armenian teacher specialist, said parents also know about the program through word of mouth from other parents.

"Nowadays we don't need to do any outreach anymore, we just do it for the purpose of PR," Melkoian said. "We actually don't need to do that because the word of mouth among parents is very helpful for us and they're essential for us."

Kindergarten classes are open to 52 students. Applicants who have siblings in the program have priority in being accepted over other students. This makes it more difficult for other applicants interested in being a part of the program.

"On November 1st we open our application window for next school year, it is November 14th already and I have twice as many students as I can take in," Melkoian said. "We have until January 31st and there will be so many more applicants."

A VOICE FOR MULTILINGUALISM

Fremont Elementary School invited Los Angeles Times journalist, Esmeralda Bermudez, to share her story on raising a multilingual daughter who speaks four languages. Administrators hope that her story encourages parents to enroll their children in the Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program.

Bermudez shared the day she was at the park with her 5-year-old daughter in La Mirada. She was speaking in Spanish with her daughter when Bermudez suddenly felt the heavy presence of a woman staring.

"Speak English, you're confusing the poor girl," said the woman who approached Bermudez.

Bermudez froze in shock with the woman's comment. After 33 years of living in the United States, the incident reminded Bermudez of her childhood times being called a "wetback" and "beaner." Bermudez spoke up and told the women that her daughter is fluent in four different languages: Armenian, English, French and Spanish.

"I speak English, that's what matters," the woman responded.

Bermudez shared her story on Twitter and her tweets received thousands of comments. Her tweets united people and started conversations from people all over the world about language. People commented on how they related to Bermudez's daughter because they knew multiple languages. Others mentioned the pain of not knowing their native language and feeling a loss of connection with family members.

"I would have never imagined that language is such a connector and such a bridge," Bermudez said.

After sharing her story, Bermudez and parents visited Urena's classroom where students from different backgrounds engaged with the journalist by singing songs in Spanish.

Bermudez sat in a circle with students in a classroom decorated with the flags from Latin America hanging from the ceiling. The classroom featured a poster with drawings of flowers and skeletons in honor of Day of the Dead to represent Hispanic traditions. Another poster included a poem about the pride people should feel for being multilingual.

Bermudez praised native English-speaking students for challenging themselves to learn another language. She encouraged the class to learn as many languages at a young age because the brain absorbs information easily.

"Languages are magic because you discover new worlds and then you will have incredible super powers," Bermudez said.

Bermudez also acknowledged native Spanish-speaking students for wanting to maintain their parents' language and culture alive.

"If we continue telling stories, then you can connect to your grandparents and great-grandparents to continue the traditions, songs, poems and cultures so they do not die," Bermudez said.

With Bermudez's visit at Fremont Elementary School, she wants parents to know more about the magic behind speaking different languages and the importance to cultivate one's languages while learning another.

"I think that the greatest gift you could possibly have is in watching your child move from one world to another to another seamlessly. It’s like they have all these passports to all these worlds that I don't even know and it's just natural," Bermudez said.