Course designed to break language barriers

Terry Webster

Friday, June 8, 2001 | 5:18 a.m.

On Tracy Rathbun's first day of teaching in the Clark County School District, a situation she never expected was waiting inside her classroom.

Rathbun found herself standing before a roomful of students with little or no English language skills.

"I was floored," said Rathbun, a second-year teacher at Tom Williams Elementary School. "I'm from a small town in Ohio. It just wasn't what I expected."

Yet it's becoming a common scene for teachers, as Nevada's non-English speaking population continues to grow.

Among the district's 36,000 students with limited English skills, there are 9-year-olds who never attended school in their home countries. There are children from rural areas of Mexico who only attended school "when the donkey came by."

And there are cultural differences that unintentionally lend themselves to hurt feelings and misunderstandings between school staffers and parents.

Despite those odds, Rathbun's students are learning English.

"They are very intelligent and learn very quickly," she said.

As they learn, Rathbun continues to study how to best teach them. Her latest venue is a training course for teachers of students who are English Language Learners, as they are called by the district.

The vast majority of the students, about 92 percent, are Spanish-speaking, said Lore Carrera-Carrillo, director of the English Language Learners program. A total of 52 languages, however, is represented in the district.

Increasing at a rate more than double the school district's overall growth, the influx of English Language Learner students is changing the way teachers teach.

"I don't think there is a choice anymore," said Peggy Ancell, an English Language Learner facilitator at Gene Ward Elementary School. "Teachers have to be trained in this."

School officials say the district already struggles to serve its non-English speaking student population.

Yet the program may take a hit if there is a teacher shortage this fall. The district could be short by as many as 500 teachers when school opens.

To offset a shortage, school officials are considering moving some of the English Language Learner facilitators -- who train teachers, place students and work with families -- back into the classroom.

"We teach teachers strategies they can use in the classroom," said Kathy Fico, a facilitator who works with different schools in the district. "It's much more productive than pulling students out of class to work with them."

If facilitators are returned to the classroom, it would be on a temporary basis until more teachers are hired, Walt Rulffes, the district's chief financial officer, said.

Still, several of the facilitators are so upset they have decided to quit, according to Sue Strand, president of the Clark County Education Association, the district's teachers union.

Any major setbacks to the program could mar the district's partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office in Seattle. The agreement, reached in 1998, required the district to closely monitor statistical data on students with limited English proficiency.

Voluntary audit

The move came after the district agreed to a voluntary audit of its English Language Learners program.

Much of the work required under the agreement is being performed by the facilitators.

Maria Chavez, principal at Ward Elementary, said she doesn't know what she would do without a facilitator for even a short time.

"How are we going to be able to properly place these children?" said Chavez. "It takes a great deal of time to test them, get the proper placement and work with parents."

In her office, Ancell shows why it isn't always easy being a facilitator.

A 5-year-old girl who has never been in a school setting turned her head away and firmly crossed her arms when Ancell asked to her name a set of pictures.

"She's a little shy and stubborn too," said Ancell, who predicted the girl will do better once she is in a class with other children.

A kindergarten through second grade school, approximately one-third of Ward Elementary's student population is kindergarten.

Primary grade English Language Learners are, in the words of Carrillo-Carrera, coming into the district "like a wave."

And they are coming in record numbers.

Mariela Bernal, a pupil at O.K. Adcock Elementary, began the school year unable to understand English.

She is one of 6,000 new kindergarten pupils the district took into its English Language Learner program this year.

In just 2 1/2 hours a day -- the length of the district's kindergarten program -- the students have prepared for the first grade.

Today, Mariela quietly reads from a school journal: "My name is Mariela Bernal. I am 5 years old."

Her mother, Ella Bernal, attended kindergarten this year alongside her daughter, helping out in the classroom.

"She's helping her daughter, but she is learning English, as well," Fico said.

Even at the kindergarten level, parents can't help their children learn unless they understand English, Fico said.

Despite success stories like the Bernal's, district officials admit the English Language Learners program has a long way to go.

"The level of service is not anywhere near where it should be," said Augie Orci, assistant superintendent of curriculum.

"With quadruple the number of students, you can't operate a program with something that worked seven or eight years ago," he added. "That's the problem."

He estimates it will take $10 million to $15 million in teacher salaries and supplies to bring the program up to snuff.

The district does not anticipate being able to fund that amount. But there is hope that a reorganization of the English Language Learners department will breathe fresh air into the program.

There are critics who strongly believe that's needed.

Not enough training

Simply put, there isn't enough training for teachers.

And it's an issue that needs to be raised at the national level, says Priscilla Rocha, a Nevada State Board of Education member and bilingual teacher at Halle Hewetson Elementary School.

Recently appointed to the National State Boards of Education Association, Rocha plans to do it.

"Some of these issues need to be raised in Washington at this point,' she said. "We need proper training for teachers. I have seen -- even in my own school -- students sitting in a corner doing nothing because the teacher just doesn't know how to teach those students."

Parents also need training, Rocha said.

"Parents need to be more involved in education," she said. "Some of the parents are coming from these little remote villages, and they don't understand the importance of education. You can't take your kids out of school for four weeks at a time and then expect the teacher to perform miracles.'

Still, Rocha believes the district could be doing more to help English Language Learners.

"Maybe a lawsuit is the only way this is really going to change," she said.

One of the biggest complaints School Board member Larry Mason hears about the program is that it offers little help for secondary students.

"The program is not as fluid as it should be," Mason said. "That's why the dropout rate starts to increase at the high school level. We're putting kids in English classes with no curriculum for them, and they get frustrated. They do well in areas like math and music, but when it comes to grammar and history, that's where they fall."

Helena Garcia, a Hispanic community activist, said some students are not being pushed to master English. Too many students, Garcia said, are staying in the English Language Learners program and are not being placed in regular classrooms.

"There are children who are ready to be mainstreamed who aren't," she said.

With or without specialized training, it comes down to the teachers to help the students.

With funding provided by a grant, about 40 teachers recently attended a training session at Estes McDoniel Elementary School in Henderson. The grant provided enough money for an ongoing training program on teaching English Language Learners. An estimated 700 teachers already received the training.

It's structured so teachers can share ideas and learn new ways to teach.

The methods include plenty of vocabulary building through activities like acting out words and drawing pictures of words.

Teachers say non-English speaking students present a challenge, but there are different levels in any classroom.

Beyond technique

As one teacher pointed out, however, it goes beyond classroom technique.

Cheryl Grant, a teacher at Robert E. Lake Elementary School, said it's also important to understand cultural differences.

For children from Mexico, their native culture often remains a strong part of their family life, Grant said.

"They are only about six hours away from their country," she said. "They tend to go back there and tend to hang on to their culture."

Grant said she has also worked with students who lack basic life experiences.

"It's not just language," Grant said. "A lot of these students lack experiences. They are in third or fourth grade and have never been in school before."

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