Group focuses on teaching English as a second language

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Aug. 12, 2002 | 10:43 a.m.

Nevada's 40,000 children who are struggling to learn English have a new group of friends, some in high places.

Included is State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack McLaughlin, who called the group -- made up of upper-level school officials, teachers and Hispanic candidates for office -- to its second meeting last week.

Their plan is to come up with ways to improve the learning process of these children and bring attention to their growing numbers, which in turn could translate into more funds for teaching English as a second language come the 2003 Legislature.

The group will develop proposals in the coming months on issues ranging from how to certify bilingual teachers from out of state or from abroad to which teaching methods work best.

McLaughlin called the meeting an effort to deal with a growing problem at "a high stakes time."

The problem: 12.4 percent of the state's students started last school year speaking another language, mostly Spanish. That's the sixth highest percentage in the nation.

The stakes: New federal laws require these students to take state tests for the first time, and their scores are expected to lower the state's overall averages.

Lower test score averages could have many results -- from parents pulling their children out of schools to losing federal funds, McLaughlin said.

"If we don't do something soon, it won't take too many years before every school in our state is labeled a failing school," he said.

But doing something will cost money, and the state's superintendents and board of education are seeking $77 million from the state for pilot programs to help students learn English, dropout prevention plans for struggling students, and other measures.

Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent for the Clark County School District, said the group can help gather support for these funds.

"Awareness of this problem is pretty low," Orci said. "But Jack McLaughlin is responsible for the quality of the state's public education, and having him get behind this lets the state know that the citizenry has a stake in the problem.

"This could only help in getting legislative support for addressing the needs of these students."

Some of that support may come from the group itself.

"I would definitely get behind the right bill for English language programs in our schools, and will also look closely at how to get the money for the programs," said George Cantu, candidate for Assembly District 11 and a member of the group.

Beyond the money, there's also the question of how best to help students learn English. This has been the subject of bitter debate in other states, dividing those who would have students use some Spanish in the classroom from those who would want them to learn by immersion, or "sink or swim."

But several members of the group argued that past experience has shown that completely immersing students in English results in them falling behind in other subjects such as math and science.

"We saw this fail in the '80s here in Nevada, when immersion kept kids from surviving academically because they didn't acquire the rest of the content," Orci said.

Currently, about 20 of Clark County's schools use a method in which some teaching takes place in Spanish, but the goal is to get students learning in English by third grade.