County dealing with influx of non-English students

Terry Webster

Friday, June 8, 2001 | 5:17 a.m.

Nevada's most critical education issue is the rapid influx of non-English speaking students, according to the state's top two education officials.

Under the direction of superintendent Carlos Garcia, the Clark County School District's English Language Learners program is in the beginning stages of a major reorganization.

The district's program "needs to be completely overhauled," Garcia said.

"We have no choice," he said. "The children are here now."

The program's reorganization has already begun, with a national search for a new director.

"I have experience with really dynamic programs," said Garcia, who was superintendent of the Fresno Unified School District before coming to Clark County one year ago. "We are far, far behind here. With all of the budget crunches we have had, we haven't been able to keep up."

Nevada Department of Education Superintendent Jack McLaughlin also is concerned about the level and quality of services being received by English Language Learners.

McLaughlin said that if he had to rank all of the most important issues affecting education here, English Language Learners would be first.

"The severity of this issue has not quite hit the decision makers," McLaughlin said. "But I know they are quite concerned about it in Clark County."

Barring a few exceptions, an emphasis on learning English tends to shortchange academic learning, McLaughlin said. A better approach is to teach English while making sure academic learning -- about history, science, math and other subjects -- is still taking place.

"The students need to be fluent in English, but they also need to be kept up to speed in academics," McLaughlin said.

The gap between those areas in part explains the gap in the performance level of English Language Learners, he added.

Nevada is not alone in its struggle, though.

Even the nation's top education official agrees that more professional training is needed to help school districts keep pace with growing populations of non-English speaking students.

During a recent visit to Las Vegas, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said getting qualified teachers to teacher those students is a difficult task for districts facing the same demographic changes as Clark County.

Paige experienced it firsthand while superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, a position he held before becoming the U.S. Secretary of Education.

"We had a hard time keeping pace with all of the different languages, and finding the teachers to teach them," he said.