Thread: Oakland: Special curriculum for illiterate IA students

Unbelievable...California is on the brink of bankruptcy and the state is spending untold amounts of money on "special curriculums" for illegal alien children who have never gone to school anywhere...in order to bring them up to "grade level" and teach them Spanish (yes, Spanish).

Schools struggle to live up to federal mandates
By Beth HoffmanCORRESPONDENT
Article Created: 02/20/2008 02:38:09 AM PST

OAKLAND

IT IS 8:45 a.m. and Roberta Martinez stands quietly in line outside Melrose Bridges Academy with her fourth grade class, smiling shyly at the other kids.

She listens intently to the conversations around her, her energy focused on making out the Spanish words coming from their lips.

A newcomer to the United States, Roberta and her family — whose names have been changed to protect their identity — moved to East Oakland last spring from a Mayan town high in the Guatemalan mountains.

A speaker of the Mayan dialect Mam, Roberta went to school in her hometown Huehuetenango only long enough to learn the letters of the Spanish alphabet and count to 10.

Now a student at Melrose Bridges Academy, a public school in Oakland, first and foremost on her family's agenda is for Roberta, 10, to finally learn to read, write and speak Spanish fluently.

But federal and state officials have other expectations for Roberta's education: Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the primary goal of schooling is for all students to function at or above grade level — in English.

Roberta also faces another set of ideals: that of her teachers at Melrose Bridges. They see education as a complex process that includes pushing students to develop and reach their dreams, while establishing a solid educational foundation and a joy of learning.

"When I grow up, I want to be a teacher, or a doctor, or a nurse," Roberta said in broken Spanish. "My mother
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doesn't speak English or Spanish well, and she has no work. But I will speak both, and will get a good job."

Having dreams for her own future is a new concept for Roberta. So is her level of confidence and engagement at school.

While her mother says she was a quiet child with few friends in Guatemala, at Melrose Bridges she is a bubbly, talkative student, with an insatiable curiosity.

"The slower we go at the beginning, the more successful we will be later on," said Luz Salazar, the school librarian and teacher at Melrose Bridges assigned to work with newcomers — students like Roberta who arrive in this country with little or no educational background.

"It may appear like we are moving very slowly, but she is really thriving," Salazar said. "The problems come when you ask too much, too quickly. Then students see learning a language as an overwhelming avalanche of information they can't possibly learn."

Unlike most elementary schools where new students are placed directly into classrooms with students their age, Salazar was appointed this year by principal Clara Tarango to work with teachers throughout the school to create a personalized daily schedule for newcomer students, tailored to their personal, academic and social needs.

A special schedule

Roberta's daily schedule includes a few hours in the first grade each morning for reading, then kindergarten for math. In the afternoon, she returns to her fourth-grade class for hands-on science and socialization with her peers.

In other words, the school makes a lot of accommodations for Roberta. But Salazar said the individual attention is essential in making Roberta like school, thus helping to ensure that she will stay in it as she grows older.

"The goal is that (the newcomer students) need to be happy in school, to want to be in school and to continue in school," Salazar said. "They need to learn that they belong and that they can go to college. That they have a right to know and to ask questions, and that this place is also their place."

But part of the complexity is that Roberta lives in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood in Oakland's Fruitvale district. While most students enrolling in Melrose Bridges' transitional bilingual classes already speak Spanish at home, Roberta and her family feel learning Spanish is a must for learning to function in their community.

Almost all of the kids in school speak Spanish, and Roberta is eager to make friends. Her parents, too, need her to be fluent in Spanish to help the family, be it to buy a gallon of milk or help fill out tax forms, translate at the doctor's office or read the mail.

Her father explains that neither he nor Roberta's mother ever received a formal education, a fact that today is still difficult for him to discuss.

"There is no one to blame now, but I feel badly I didn't go to school," he said. "I thank God for helping us today, for getting us here to where our daughter can go to school."

In Guatemala, Roberta's father was a seasonal laborer, harvesting fruit and vegetables as work was available. The family didn't own any land and couldn't afford to rent. Looking for a better life, the family decided to come to the United States last summer.

First, Roberta, her mother and the baby crossed into the United States, moving into a house in East Oakland with five others from Huehuetenango. Her father arrived six months later — in the fall of 2007 — after he saved enough money for the trip. The family lives here illegally.

Meeting federal standards

No matter how well, or fast, Roberta learns this year, she will likely fail the math test she is required to take this spring under the No Child Left Behind Act. She will not know math on a fourth grade level, nor will she speak English at a level high enough to understand the questions.

The same holds true for Roberta's fourth grade peers, many of whom are performing below grade level.

Under the federal law, the tests must be administered in English.

"The problem is that you are not going to get all fifth graders ready to learn fifth-grade stuff," said Mark Wilson, a professor of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and a specialist in school testing and measurement.

Wilson said that statistically, any given classroom has a five-year range of ability — a fifth-grade classroom has a range of students learning anywhere from a second- to a seventh-grade level. Students also rarely progress more than a grade level within a single year, meaning that, once behind, few students can ever catch up.

"I think it is a good idea to have agreements as to what a typical fifth grader should know ... for teachers and curriculum developers," Wilson said. But, he adds, state and federal tests measure how much a student knows only if they are functioning on grade level. Students that fall above or below the norm either ace or fail the test.

Another way to test would be to look at a student's gains throughout the course of a year, Wilson said. A student working at a second-grade level, regardless of his or her age, would be required to make a year's progress over the course of the school year.

But perhaps, despite the tests, that is exactly what teachers at Melrose Bridges are already doing.

"It's a real dilemma," Salazar said of Roberta and other students being held to a standard they cannot reach. "We are measured by (the tests) so it is always in the back of our heads. But at the same time, you get to a certain point where you say, 'What is most important ... the test, or making sure the student understands?'" Salazar said. "And a lot of the teachers here make the decision to abide by the students' needs, because we work with them every day and we know what they need. And then we pay the price by not getting the right scores."

Hear more on this story on public radio station KALW 91.7 FM. The Newcomer Education Edition can be heard online at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kalw/news.newsmain.

Beth Hoffman is a freelance journalist.

What is the delema. Get her out of our school population. If they can't keep up with the kids of their age they don't need to be in our schools. If she is illegal she has no business being in our schools anyway. I am tired of being taxed to death and not having a say in how they spend my money. We are already in debt both at the state and federal level and I am tired of them spending my money as it IS going out of style.

Unfortunately because of the amigos at MALDEF and a 1982 Supreme Court case, we, the people of the United States are forced to pay for educating illegal alien students from K-12th grade even when they require huge amounts of special services.

I have a relative who teaches in a heavily illegal alien invaded school and district. She's taught 4th and 5th grade....new illegal alien children arrive from Mexico, Guatemala mostly and are not unlike the kid in this article. She's had 12 and 13 year olds arrive who have never been to school at all...and they are placed with her 4th grade class b/c the school district doesn't want them placed with kids their own age since they can't handle any of the work regardless of the language. These kids turn into the most vicious, disrespectful, and crime-prone kids possible. The parents just use the school like a daycare and could care less about the education aspect as long as they get their free breakfast, free lunch and can stay all day.

'California is on the brink of bankruptcy '

California has spent lots of money it didn't really have available providing illegal aliens things they really aren't entitled to. It has sucked the taxpayers dry without caring. Everything for the foreigners. Its no wonder they're short of money.

Sad but true, in Texas the "Illiterate" ILLEGALS have to be taught formal spanish before thay can even attempt to teach them English! Some of the ILLEGALS attend Texas schools from pre-kindergarden through the 5th grade and never learn formal spanish much less English.

Yet another story about a family whose only concern is what use their child can be to them

Personally, I'm getting a little fed up about reading of Melrose Bridges. Not an opportunity goes by that these people don't take advantage of to rub their OBL, reconquista agenda in the face of the country which is funding their agenda.

Here's another thought.....they obviously are a school run by hispanics for hispanics. I thought segregation in our schools was outlawed back in the 60's? Why are they being permitted to continue operating?