News Update
A different educación: McKinney ISD's only dual-language campus attracts transfer overload
Chris Beattie/Staff photo - Caldwell Elementary teacher Ginna Gonzalez teaches second-graders fractions in Spanish on Monday afternoon at the school, McKinney ISD's only dual-language campus. Dual-language programs, which teach native English speakers and native speakers of other languages in both languages, have launched at schools around Texas in recent years.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
A few steps into a Caldwell Elementary classroom, and the difference is clear. Second-graders seated around teacher Ginna Gonzalez cross rubber bands along pegged wooden boards.
They're learning fractions - in Spanish.
And by now, that's nothing new for McKinney ISD's only dual-language campus. These students have learned it all - math, science, social studies - in both English and Spanish since kindergarten.
Homeroom teachers (plural) is the norm. Some days it's Spanish, others English - neither language placed above the other, both equally a part of the young students' academia.
Two-way dual-language immersion is fairly new to McKinney, implemented at Caldwell three years ago, but it's a form of bilingual education catching on across Texas and the nation.
"They not only learn from their instruction, they learn from each other, they develop resources with their peers and they develop social skills that provide them an opportunity to understand there's diversity in our world," said Dr. Stella Uribe, MISD's bilingual/ESL director.
Caldwell's program is a 50/50 simultaneous literacy acquisition model, through which grades K-2 now alternate Spanish and English instruction days. Co-teachers - one bilingual, one English - partner to lead students through every subject, never duplicating, always moving forward. The teachers toggle classes every day, except in second grade when more complex content forces two- or three-day switches.
Each class has close to a 50/50 split of native English and native Spanish speakers. Curriculum is enhanced with specific language objectives to accommodate "second language" needs, said Kelly Flowers, Caldwell assistant principal and MISD's spark for bringing dual-language to Caldwell and likely other campuses in coming years.
Of MISD's English Language Learner (ELL) population, 90 percent are Spanish speakers, Uribe said, which is why Spanish was selected as the second piece to its dual-language puzzle. "We have African-American, Asian, Hispanic, white - it's a rainbow of colors," Uribe said, "and they're actively engaged in learning English and Spanish."
STATEWIDE GROWTH
Chapter 89 of the Texas Administrative Code requires any school district with at least 20 students in a certain grade level who speak a foreign language to offer a bilingual program in that language, Uribe said. Plano has such programs for Vietnamese and Spanish, the latter most common around Texas.
A 2011 report by the Texas Education Agency showed that 50.2 percent, or about 2.5 million, of the nearly 5 million students in Texas classrooms are Latina/o, according to Carla Amaro-Jiménez's and Anette Torres-Elías' 2012 scholarly article, "Getting the Elephant out of the Room: Teachers and Administrators' Perceptions of the Challenges and Future of Bilingual Education."
Just five years prior, English was not the primary language for just more than 740,000 children at Texas public schools, as reported in the Houston Chronicle in 2007. About 92 percent of those children spoke Spanish.
That year, House Bill 2814 mandated a six-year pilot program to test dual-language models in up to 10 Texas public school districts and 30 campuses. By last year, Texas led the nation in the number of schools - more than 700 - using dual-language programs at the elementary level, the Dallas Morning News reported after a National Association for Bilingual Education conference held in the area.
"We're rapidly becoming a majority Hispanic state," Uribe said. "We educate all the children who come through those doors, and right now the majority is bilingual Spanish."
DUAL PERSPECTIVES
After several years as a bilingual teacher, and extensive post-graduate research on dual-language, Flowers pushed for the increasingly praised bilingual program at Caldwell.
She witnessed failures of the early-exit (or "quick-exit") model, which encourages non-native English speakers to complete their bilingual education by third grade, looking to "exit them to the mainstream English classroom," Flowers said.
"Research says that's not a really good model, because it takes five to seven years to learn a second language," she said. "We wanted to look at different ways to provide language instruction that would be beneficial to both minority and majority language groups."
In his 1999 presentation at the National Conference of the American Association of Higher Education, renowned dual-language proponent Jim Cummins said "the predominant model of bilingual education (quick-exit transitional programs) is inferior to programs that aim to develop bilingualism and biliteracy, such as developmental (late-exit) and two-way bilingual immersion (dual-language).
Dual-language opponents have their objections: bilingual programs further segregate bilingual students from mainstream students; they push a foreign language on students in a country where English is the primary language; they hinder students' academic advancement via content overload.
But, even in 1999, several years before dual-language programs gained momentum in Texas and beyond, Cummins said "considerable common ground is emerging between 'opponents' and 'advocates' of bilingual education" - in large part because dual-language.
"I think it's amazing; it's giving children the advantage of being bilingual and biliterate," said Susanna Bryant, a first-grade teacher at Caldwell who handles English instruction days, alternating with teacher Maria Castrejon. "It opens up your brain in ways other things don't. I don't see any down sides to it."
At least in McKinney, few do. Flowers said only a handful of Caldwell families have requested transfers since the program's implementation, those concerned it would take away from their child's learning in English and other subject areas.
Instead, as the school district's only dual-language campus, Caldwell has been forced to turn away potential transfers-in. In the program's launch year, the school accepted 40 transfers, causing kindergarten to "bust at the seams" at 142 kids, Flowers said. The school now relies on a lottery system to determine which students get in each year.
Native Spanish speakers sometimes deny dual-language programs so not to bring attention to themselves, particularly those in the country without legal documentation, Ofelia Garcia explained in her 2009 book, "Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A global perspective."
Some parents, both English and Spanish speakers, fear not being able to assist their children with homework, or feel a burden of furthering their education at home. This isn't - and shouldn't - be the case, Uribe said.
"All we ask is parents make a six-year (K-5th grade) commitment," she said. "And just be an active parent, involved with your child's education; it's no different than what we expect all parents to do."
PILOT PROGRAM
In initiating its dual-language program, Flowers said Caldwell followed the nearest lead of districts like Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, which has had dual-language campuses for several years, and of Irving ISD.
Dallas ISD schools use the Gómez & Gómez Dual-Language Enrichment (DLE) model, through which students receive literacy instruction in their native language the first three years before learning any second-language literacy instruction.
Lewisville ISD has 11 dual-language elementary schools, and students at Irving schools are in their 10th year of a dual-language program.
Caldwell second-graders are the oldest beneficiaries of the MISD program, three years into a well-prepared bilingual model. Teachers from MISD campuses spend weekly sessions learning Spanish and other languages on Rosetta Stone, some already at Level III proficiency, Uribe said.
Because students don't take STAAR, a state-mandated assessment test, until third grade, Caldwell's program has yet to be officially tested for effectiveness. But the annual Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey that measures incoming students' growth in first and second languages has shown that 91 percent of the school's dual-language participants thus far have seen positive growth in both, Flowers said.
"It's amazing to me to see the native English speakers ask me to go to the restroom in Spanish," Bryant added, "or a native English speaker giving a Spanish speaker directions in Spanish. It's wonderful to see them wide open like that."
WHAT's TO COME
Region 10 Education Service Center, one of 20 regional centers that serves school districts in eight North Texas counties, is considering a shift away from existing, more traditional bilingual programs, likely in favor of dual-language models, Flowers said.
Far from alone in Texas, Caldwell students are innovators in McKinney, leading a dual-language charge that's picking up speed. By 2015-16, the entire campus will receive dual-language instruction, and the school's current second-graders will be entering middle school bilingual and biliterate.
At a recent school assembly, these "MISD firsts" entertained senior-citizen guests with poetry and song, a Spanish-English mix. They spoke and hummed with confidence, their only support a teacher conducting nearby.
Not surprising. They're accustomed to doing everything - including fractions - in both languages.
"I truly believe we're going to see many districts across the state and nation move toward dual-language because of the increased need in creating a workforce that's not only competent and highly qualified, but one that's multilingual and able to support the ever-growing needs of our global economy," Uribe said. "Our goal as schools should be to provide students with the tools they'll need to go out in the world and produce."
They're learning fractions - in Spanish.
And by now, that's nothing new for McKinney ISD's only dual-language campus. These students have learned it all - math, science, social studies - in both English and Spanish since kindergarten.
Homeroom teachers (plural) is the norm. Some days it's Spanish, others English - neither language placed above the other, both equally a part of the young students' academia.
Two-way dual-language immersion is fairly new to McKinney, implemented at Caldwell three years ago, but it's a form of bilingual education catching on across Texas and the nation.
"They not only learn from their instruction, they learn from each other, they develop resources with their peers and they develop social skills that provide them an opportunity to understand there's diversity in our world," said Dr. Stella Uribe, MISD's bilingual/ESL director.
Caldwell's program is a 50/50 simultaneous literacy acquisition model, through which grades K-2 now alternate Spanish and English instruction days. Co-teachers - one bilingual, one English - partner to lead students through every subject, never duplicating, always moving forward. The teachers toggle classes every day, except in second grade when more complex content forces two- or three-day switches.
Each class has close to a 50/50 split of native English and native Spanish speakers. Curriculum is enhanced with specific language objectives to accommodate "second language" needs, said Kelly Flowers, Caldwell assistant principal and MISD's spark for bringing dual-language to Caldwell and likely other campuses in coming years.
Of MISD's English Language Learner (ELL) population, 90 percent are Spanish speakers, Uribe said, which is why Spanish was selected as the second piece to its dual-language puzzle. "We have African-American, Asian, Hispanic, white - it's a rainbow of colors," Uribe said, "and they're actively engaged in learning English and Spanish."
STATEWIDE GROWTH
Chapter 89 of the Texas Administrative Code requires any school district with at least 20 students in a certain grade level who speak a foreign language to offer a bilingual program in that language, Uribe said. Plano has such programs for Vietnamese and Spanish, the latter most common around Texas.
A 2011 report by the Texas Education Agency showed that 50.2 percent, or about 2.5 million, of the nearly 5 million students in Texas classrooms are Latina/o, according to Carla Amaro-Jiménez's and Anette Torres-Elías' 2012 scholarly article, "Getting the Elephant out of the Room: Teachers and Administrators' Perceptions of the Challenges and Future of Bilingual Education."
Just five years prior, English was not the primary language for just more than 740,000 children at Texas public schools, as reported in the Houston Chronicle in 2007. About 92 percent of those children spoke Spanish.
That year, House Bill 2814 mandated a six-year pilot program to test dual-language models in up to 10 Texas public school districts and 30 campuses. By last year, Texas led the nation in the number of schools - more than 700 - using dual-language programs at the elementary level, the Dallas Morning News reported after a National Association for Bilingual Education conference held in the area.
"We're rapidly becoming a majority Hispanic state," Uribe said. "We educate all the children who come through those doors, and right now the majority is bilingual Spanish."
DUAL PERSPECTIVES
After several years as a bilingual teacher, and extensive post-graduate research on dual-language, Flowers pushed for the increasingly praised bilingual program at Caldwell.
She witnessed failures of the early-exit (or "quick-exit") model, which encourages non-native English speakers to complete their bilingual education by third grade, looking to "exit them to the mainstream English classroom," Flowers said.
"Research says that's not a really good model, because it takes five to seven years to learn a second language," she said. "We wanted to look at different ways to provide language instruction that would be beneficial to both minority and majority language groups."
In his 1999 presentation at the National Conference of the American Association of Higher Education, renowned dual-language proponent Jim Cummins said "the predominant model of bilingual education (quick-exit transitional programs) is inferior to programs that aim to develop bilingualism and biliteracy, such as developmental (late-exit) and two-way bilingual immersion (dual-language).
Dual-language opponents have their objections: bilingual programs further segregate bilingual students from mainstream students; they push a foreign language on students in a country where English is the primary language; they hinder students' academic advancement via content overload.
But, even in 1999, several years before dual-language programs gained momentum in Texas and beyond, Cummins said "considerable common ground is emerging between 'opponents' and 'advocates' of bilingual education" - in large part because dual-language.
"I think it's amazing; it's giving children the advantage of being bilingual and biliterate," said Susanna Bryant, a first-grade teacher at Caldwell who handles English instruction days, alternating with teacher Maria Castrejon. "It opens up your brain in ways other things don't. I don't see any down sides to it."
At least in McKinney, few do. Flowers said only a handful of Caldwell families have requested transfers since the program's implementation, those concerned it would take away from their child's learning in English and other subject areas.
Instead, as the school district's only dual-language campus, Caldwell has been forced to turn away potential transfers-in. In the program's launch year, the school accepted 40 transfers, causing kindergarten to "bust at the seams" at 142 kids, Flowers said. The school now relies on a lottery system to determine which students get in each year.
Native Spanish speakers sometimes deny dual-language programs so not to bring attention to themselves, particularly those in the country without legal documentation, Ofelia Garcia explained in her 2009 book, "Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A global perspective."
Some parents, both English and Spanish speakers, fear not being able to assist their children with homework, or feel a burden of furthering their education at home. This isn't - and shouldn't - be the case, Uribe said.
"All we ask is parents make a six-year (K-5th grade) commitment," she said. "And just be an active parent, involved with your child's education; it's no different than what we expect all parents to do."
PILOT PROGRAM
In initiating its dual-language program, Flowers said Caldwell followed the nearest lead of districts like Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, which has had dual-language campuses for several years, and of Irving ISD.
Dallas ISD schools use the Gómez & Gómez Dual-Language Enrichment (DLE) model, through which students receive literacy instruction in their native language the first three years before learning any second-language literacy instruction.
Lewisville ISD has 11 dual-language elementary schools, and students at Irving schools are in their 10th year of a dual-language program.
Caldwell second-graders are the oldest beneficiaries of the MISD program, three years into a well-prepared bilingual model. Teachers from MISD campuses spend weekly sessions learning Spanish and other languages on Rosetta Stone, some already at Level III proficiency, Uribe said.
Because students don't take STAAR, a state-mandated assessment test, until third grade, Caldwell's program has yet to be officially tested for effectiveness. But the annual Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey that measures incoming students' growth in first and second languages has shown that 91 percent of the school's dual-language participants thus far have seen positive growth in both, Flowers said.
"It's amazing to me to see the native English speakers ask me to go to the restroom in Spanish," Bryant added, "or a native English speaker giving a Spanish speaker directions in Spanish. It's wonderful to see them wide open like that."
WHAT's TO COME
Region 10 Education Service Center, one of 20 regional centers that serves school districts in eight North Texas counties, is considering a shift away from existing, more traditional bilingual programs, likely in favor of dual-language models, Flowers said.
Far from alone in Texas, Caldwell students are innovators in McKinney, leading a dual-language charge that's picking up speed. By 2015-16, the entire campus will receive dual-language instruction, and the school's current second-graders will be entering middle school bilingual and biliterate.
At a recent school assembly, these "MISD firsts" entertained senior-citizen guests with poetry and song, a Spanish-English mix. They spoke and hummed with confidence, their only support a teacher conducting nearby.
Not surprising. They're accustomed to doing everything - including fractions - in both languages.
"I truly believe we're going to see many districts across the state and nation move toward dual-language because of the increased need in creating a workforce that's not only competent and highly qualified, but one that's multilingual and able to support the ever-growing needs of our global economy," Uribe said. "Our goal as schools should be to provide students with the tools they'll need to go out in the world and produce."
Copyright © 2013 - Star Local News