It's a humble city with well-kept homes and neatly trimmed
lawns, a
community that displays pride in its own by naming the library
after a
homegrown customs agent killed in the 1980s.
Yet the very essence of Calexico is the 10-campus school district
spread
across nine square miles.
Long before there was Proposition 227, the statewide June ballot
measure to
eliminate bilingual education, there was the Calexico Unified
School
District's internationally recognized bilingual program.
Of the students entering kindergarten, 98 percent are non-English
speaking
or have limited English skills, and they are taught in Spanish
through most
of elementary school.
About 80 percent of all the students qualify for free or reduced
price
lunches, and 25 percent to 35 percent unemployment keeps the
town's median
income to less than $12,000.
In other words, the 7,200-student Calexico district has all the
challenges
that educators elsewhere say keep students from achieving their
full
potential.
But that is hardly the way it is here.
Here, 80 percent of the high school seniors go to college.
That's why eyes from as far away as Sweden are on Calexico these days.
The district is more than willing to share its formula for success,
especially now that California's bilingual education programs are
under
attack. Voters will decide June 2 whether to dismantle the state's
bilingual programs in exchange for yearlong English immersion
programs.
According to a statewide Field Poll conducted late last month,
Proposition
227, written by Northern California businessman Ron Unz, is
supported by 71
percent of all likely California voters and 58 percent of Latino
voters.
The measure is opposed by 21 percent of likely voters.
The survey was taken before the "No on 227" campaign began
airing
television ads, many aimed at Latino voters.
Education is a way out
Calexico, population 25,167, is hundreds of miles from the
wealth of Unz's
Silicon Valley. It's a place where education is the way to break
away from
the poverty and backbreaking work of the agricultural fields that
surround
the community.
Teachers are rooted in this community: 70 percent of them went
through the
Calexico schools and are Calexico High School graduates.
And it's a district whose students are taught in Spanish from
kindergarten
through fourth grade, something that would be prohibited by the
ballot
measure.
It wasn't always this way, said Roberto Moreno, Calexico's
superintendent,
also a graduate of the city's schools.
For many years, Calexico parents, teachers and school board
members felt
the only way to learn English was to be taught solely in English, as
the
Unz proposition advocates.
What educators found, however, were high dropout rates and large
numbers of
students being held back every year because they didn't understand
the
instruction.
"It was so frustrating teaching first grade all in English," said
Emily
Palacio, a former Calexico teacher and now the district's assistant
superintendent. "I worked really hard, and 10 of 30 students
couldn't read
no matter how hard I worked.
"That convinced me there's got to be a better way," Palacio said.
So, 29 years ago, the district began a bilingual program, starting
with
seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders who were taught in Spanish.
Three years
later, that crop of students produced four who entered college.
Today, the district boasts that 80 percent of its graduates, an
average of
360 a year, go on to college.
"It wasn't philosophy that won," said Moreno. "It was pragmatism.
We were
beginning to feel some success."
That success has come after nearly 30 years of refining.
Billboards are bilingual
Walk into any classroom in the district's six elementary schools
and you
find colorful billboards in English and Spanish.
In Socorro Rios' first-grade class at Mains Elementary recently,
the 20
students were seated on the floor singing songs in English.
There were songs about the apple tree, about their 10 little
fingers, the
rain and grandma's spectacles. While singing, the children used
their
hands, heads and bodies to emphasize different parts of the song.
The children sing because the songs take away the intimidation of
learning
a language and the nuances of correct pronunciation.
As the students progress to second grade, they speak more English.
By second grade, they are taught math, science and art in
"sheltered"
English classes; students are taught in English, with the teachers
using
hand gestures, pictures, vocabulary and some Spanish to increase
understanding.
Across the quad in Sara Garcia's class, 20 second-graders listened
to an
English reading lesson on tape. There was a large flip chart with
illustrations of the words they were reading.
In soft voices and loud voices and deep and normal voices, the
children
recited the story in English. Garcia questioned her students about
the
story, asking them to pick out the tree, bird, nest and cabin
pictured on
the chart.
By the third and fourth grades, students hone their English
writing skills.
Walls that display Spanish words and difficult English words boost
the
children's vocabularies.
In fourth grade, social studies is taught mostly in English and
math, art,
music and physical education are taught completely in English.
By the end of fourth grade, students have either made the
transition to all
English or are eager to do so. And transitioning students when they
are
able to succeed in English classes is more important to the district
than
the state's rate for redesignating children as fluent in English,
Palacio
said.
State figures show the district's annual rate for declaring children
English-proficient is 2 percentage points below the state average
of 6.7
percent. Palacio said the district's standards for declaring a
student
proficient are more rigorous than the state's.
The state requires that children test in the 36th percentile --
near the
bottom third -- on the California Test of Basic Skills in all three
categories of reading, math and language to determine
redesignation
figures.
The district, however, looks at several factors, such as scores on
an oral
exam, grades and a writing sample to better gauge how a child is
doing in
English, Palacio said.
In Diane Lopez's class at Dool Elementary, across town from
Mains,
two-thirds of her 33 fifth-graders have made the transition to
English.
To help the others, Lopez has "English days" on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
On those days, the students are required to answer everything in
English.
But on other days, language arts, social studies and science
instruction is
in Spanish with increasing amounts of English.
Judith Sanchez, 10, is among those who have made the transition,
and now
she speaks confidently in either language.
"It's easier to learn in Spanish first because I speak Spanish,"
Judith
said. "But I think it will be good to be in English now because I
have to
learn English."
`Newcomer' classrooms
Calexico measures its success by transitioning such students as
Judith, and
by high graduation rates and low dropout rates. But the district
takes care
of those students who speak little or no English and come to school
later
in their academic careers.
There are two "newcomer" classrooms for fourth- and fifth
graders new to
the schools. Here students are taught in Spanish and get intense
lessons in
literature. They attend English classes two Saturdays a month.
In teacher Veronica Medina's newcomer class, she uses sight and
sound to
help students understand. She constantly uses a graphic organizer,
a
stacking set of blocks drawn on a flip chart, to outline characters,
plots
and themes. Medina offers a real-life lesson as well. She once was
a
newcomer.
"I came from across the border," said Medina, whose current
classroom was
her room in fourth grade. "I know what they're going through. I
know their
fears and excitement.
"I tell them that I got called names and I still learned English in a
year
and a half. I had to show them that a Mexicana can learn it."
After a year, the newcomers are taught in classes where the
instruction is
in Spanish with increasing amounts of English.
For new students in high school, there are three courses for
English
language development to jump-start their transition to English.
And just because they don't speak English in high school, they
won't be
shut out of classes that will help them get to college.
"Everybody has the chance to get the classes needed to go to
college,"
Palacio said. "We handhold (the parents and students). There's
almost no
excuse to say they don't know (about college)."
Students hear the message. An average 80 percent of their high
school
graduates go onto college, with a majority of them going to the
local
community college.
Student boosters
High school seniors who have gone through the district are the best
advocates for learning Spanish first, and they are testaments to
the
program.
"If you teach all in English, wouldn't that be slowing them down?"
senior
Herbert Rosette asked about the Unz initiative. "They're going to
stay at a
lower level, learning the basics. Shouldn't they learn both
languages?"
Senior Fajed Bouomar, who is student body president, knows
Calexico's
programs work.
"Spanish is like a bridge to us," he said. "It guided us to English."
But can Calexico's successes with its 7,200 students be duplicated
elsewhere?
Garden City, Kan., student population 7,500, is trying.
Four years ago, the small district in the southwest corner of the
state
copied Calexico's program to help the growing number of Spanish
speaking
students flowing into schools there.
It set up native instruction for kindergarten through fourth grade.
It
created a newcomer intake center. And it's even beginning a
homegrown
teacher program to fill classrooms with bilingual teachers.
The efforts are paying off.
This year, the district will be transitioning its first group of
students
who started in the first grade. And they are all at grade level and
fluent
in both languages, said Jim Lentz, the district's deputy
superintendent.
"There is no question in our minds that the program works," Lentz said.
Garden City's success proves Calexico is on the right track, said
Assistant
Superintendent Palacio.
"That's what I want to say to Mr. Unz," Palacio said. Garden City
"was
doing exactly what you want to do, and they're calling us for help.
How
much more apple pie can you get than Garden City?"