Spanish-speaking students attending Truckee Elementary School are trying something new this year: learning in English. As the school shifts to English-based instruction for the students, some in the community are concerned the children will not be able to comprehend the lessons.
‘I think the kids are going to sink or swim,’ said Maria Herrera, president of the English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC).
In late June, ELAC – along with concerned parents and teachers, – filed a complaint against the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District with the California Department of Education in an attempt to resolve the issue. Their end goal is to return to the status quo, in which parents had the option to opt out of English classrooms prior to the start of the school year. The District maintains that its decision was sound and based on solid research.
‘It’s about parental choice,’ said Santiago Avila Gomez, an attorney with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, which worked with the group in filing the complaint.
With two children attending Truckee Elementary, Herrera is personally vested in this issue. She’s also worried.
‘I don’t think they’re ready,’ Herrera said at the thought of her own children learning primarily in English. ‘They’re not ready.’
Whereas in the past Truckee Elementary has given parents the choice of placing their students in a Spanish-speaking classroom, officials are now intent on mainstreaming in the hopes of improving scholastic performance.
The rationale for making the changes,’ explained Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (TTUSD) Superintendent Steve Jennings, ‘is the students have not been successful.’
He argued that the new direction is based on research, which shows that students enrolled in English mainstream classes achieve higher test scores than those taught in Spanish.
That rationale does not sit well with ELAC proponents. They contest the educational merits of the new program, contending it will be difficult to learn any subject when a student cannot understand the instruction to begin with. There is also a fear that English immersion may lead to the erosion of a culture.
‘They’re not going to be pseudo-Anglos,’ said Esther Bousquest. ‘They’re Latinos.’
Bousquest, recently retired, taught in Truckee and Kings Beach for 17 years. She has tried to teach foreign speakers in English before.
‘I saw the deer-in-the-headlights look,’ she recalled. ‘They didn’t get it.’
The TTUSD decided on this new direction last spring. Upon learning of the change planned for Truckee Elementary, an effort was made pressing officials to reverse the decision.
According to Gomez, state law requires public schools to offer instruction in Spanish if parents request such.
Jennings views the law differently. The Superintendent said that students are required to be taught in English, unless the school approves a request to the contrary. To that end, TTUSD officials have been meeting individually with Spanish-speaking families to assess their personal situation. If a parent intends to request an alternative classroom, this is the new venue in which to do so.
Jennings said the meetings have been going well. ‘My understanding is people are being very responsive to the program that’s being developed,’ he said.
Gomez said he views the private meetings – as opposed to the traditional waiver requests – as a chance for District officials to persuade families to leave their children in English-based environments.
‘Typically what will happen is that at some point they’ll say, ‘don’t you want your child to learn English?’’ he said. ‘I know the parents and the teachers that live in the District absolutely (want) that.’ But that’s not what is at issue, he said.
Just before the present school year started on Aug. 26, Gomez heard back from the Department of Education. The complaint is stalling out. State officials have instructed the disgruntled parties to work their differences out with the District.
‘I’m just waiting to hear some dates and times to get together and negotiate with the District and reach a satisfactory conclusion,’ Gomez said at the beginning of August.
On the opening day of school, students and passerby were greeted by a contingent of protesters. Those unsatisfied with the District’s actions were taking some of their own, marching in front of the District headquarters in a plea for change.
Later that week, Jennings said he felt it was too soon to make any judgment on the new program.
‘It’s a little bit difficult to say it’s not working for a student that’s only been in it for, what, four or five days?’ he said.
Some parents apparently feel differently, as a number of waivers have been requested of the district, according to Jennings.
‘We have to either approve or disapprove the waivers,’ Jennings said. ‘We haven’t done either yet.’
In July, Jennings said the District was currently working to get a Spanish-based program in place in the event some students required such instruction. More than a month later, the Superintendent reports the same.
‘We still don’t have it in place,’ he said.
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