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Border High School Excels by Embracing Bilingualism
By Carolyn Goossen, New America Media
NAM Editor's Note: Teachers in a school on the U.S.-Mexico border
concentrated on the needs of low-income students still learning
English and watched academic performance and graduation rates climb.
EL CENTRO, Calif.The sounds of Spanish drift through the corridors
of Southwest High School, a sprawling concrete row of buildings 10
miles north of the California-Mexico border. Spanish is spoken
between students as they meander to their next class, laughing and
joking. And even after they've filed into their classrooms, the
Spanish often continues between student and teacher.
"Almost everybody here speaks Spanish," says Andres Jimenez, a
17-year-old sophomore in the English-learner program. He came from
Mexicali six months ago with his mom to attend Southwest High. His
father was born in the United States. "I opened up in this
environment," he says. He is soft-spoken, yet his body language and
easy laughter exude confidence both inside the classroom and in the
halls among friends.
Southwest High is in El Centro, a city of 40,000 people in the
Imperial Valley with a mostly Latino population and a high
unemployment rate (21 percent). The high school is a microcosm of El
Centro, with a student body that is 85 percent Latino. The majority
of students is low-income and not fluent in English.
One out of five students at Southwest High is from a migrant family,
and many others have parents who live in Mexico but work in
California. Seven years ago the school was near extinction. After
being labeled a "poor performing school" the administration decided
to make huge structural changes. They sought out grants and
implemented a teacher-centered curriculum focused on teaching
teachers how to adapt to the school's high English-learner
population.
Laura Tilgado, a 17-year-old sophmore at Southwest, lives with her
aunt in El Centro from Monday to Friday so she can attend the
school. On weekends, she returns to Mexico to be with her parents.
"When I arrived here, I was afraid because I could hardly speak
English. But then I went to my classes and all my teachers spoke
Spanish," she says.
Despite recent legislative moves designed to encourage English-only
instruction in California, teachers here have found that teaching in
two languages is one of the best ways to adapt to their students --
and to improve the school's academic standing.
"If I'm teaching a rule on exponents, then I'll teach it in English
and Spanish both," says Ricardo Salgado, a math teacher for the
regular and advanced-level English-learner program. "When they do
tests, and when I have the time, I try and rewrite the questions in
Spanish," he says. "When I don't have the time, then I walk around
and explain for those who need it."
The
Amistad School
New York's dual-language school, Amistad, was launched in
1996 with the impetus of community parents, many of whom are
Dominican, as part of a new public elementary and middle
school. |
Salgado, a Latino in his late twenties, grew up in El Centro
speaking both English and Spanish. He has an easy way with his
students. When no one in his algebra class responds to his request
for a volunteer to go to the board, he flaps his arms and clucks
like a chicken. The class laughs, and a few hands shoot up. A wide
smile breaks out across his face. The algebra scores at Southwest
are high when compared to the state average.
Nationwide, however, Latinos have the highest high school dropout
rate of any ethnic group. And low-income Latino students, especially
English-learners, tend to attend schools with few resources and a
high number of uncertified teachers.
Administrators at Southwest High used the funding they received to
improve the school to put in libraries, computers and projectors in
every classroom and to create a "literacy-rich environment." The
school now uses teaching strategies encouraged by the state, and
they've spent considerable resources to train and support all of
their teachers, especially those who teach the English-learner
students.
Southwest High aggressively prepares its students for college. It
graduates 99 percent of its senior class and sends 9 out of 10
students to two-year or four-year colleges.
Alma Guirre, 15, came here from Mexicali after hearing about the
school's excellent reputation from her cousins. She was born in the
United States, but grew up in Mexicali. Her parents still live in
Mexicali, but her father crosses over to California every day to
work as a janitor. "I decided to come to this school for English
more than anything else," says Alma. "I'm interested in learning
English because in Mexico and everywhere else, English raises your
salary and status."
The administration welcomes students like Alma regardless of their
citizenship status. "We have several students who've figured out a
way to beat the system, who go several days a week or every day back
to Mexicali," says school principal Joe Evangelist. "Some districts
police that. We don't. If they have the gumption to come across
every day, God bless 'em."
The school also focuses early on preparing its population for the
California High School Exit Exam, which seniors must pass for the
first time this year in order to receive their diplomas. Of the 427
graduating seniors at Southwest this year, 25 English learners have
yet to pass the exam. Compared to the state's passage rates for
English learners (only about half have passed the exam), students at
Southwest are doing well. Seventy-four percent of the school's
English-learner seniors have passed the exam.
Despite the Southwest High's grim standing in 1999 and its high
concentration of low-income Latino students, the changes it
implemented helped it earn the prestigious "Distinguished School"
moniker last year, the state's marker for academic excellence.
"What we know from these high performing, high poverty, high
minority schools is that these kids can do it," says Russlynn Ali of
Education Trust West, a research and advocacy group. "If you provide
the support they need, if you close the opportunity gap, they can do
as well as affluent and white and Asian kids."
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