Advanced Bilingual Education to Debut

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK

Throughout her 27-year career, Alexander Elementary School teacher Dina Perez has claimed summers as her own.

This year will be different. Perez will throw herself into intensive training, preparing to teach first-graders to read, write and learn in both English and Spanish.

"I cannot wait," says Perez, who's already brainstorming ideas. "I am really excited."

The campus has buzzed with new vitality since district officials announced that Alexander would become the focus for the county's foray into an increasingly successful model of bilingual education.

Principal Manuel Duran says the two-way language immersion program gives children a top-notch education while they become fluent in Spanish and English. As a bonus, they are exposed to different cultures.

If Alexander succeeds, the model could expand to other schools as part of choice, drawing students from all over the county.

"It's going to be a challenge for everyone," Duran says.

As the school moves forward, it must face down the pitfalls of past bilingual education programs. It also must ensure that, in this age of high-stakes testing, the basics don't suffer as children come to grips with a new language.

Duran stresses that two-way immersion is not old-style bilingual education.

While many initiatives worked well after the 1968 federal Bilingual Education Act, the label gained a bad rap in some circles because of failed methods.

Among them was "concurrent translation," in which the teacher would present lessons by saying a sentence in English and then in Spanish. Spanish-speaking students had no incentive to improve their English skills, and critics say the teachers rarely made the English- language lessons comprehensive or compelling.

In the 1980s, the new vogue was to move students quickly into the mainstream. Many Spanish speakers were pushed out prematurely and did not perform well, often dropping out.

In many places, bilingual education became code for remedial education.

"It was a sort of a dumping ground in a lot of areas," said Nancy Rhodes, director of foreign language education at the Center for Applied Linguistics.

So many states moved away from bilingual education.

Two-way immersion has learned from mistakes. And it is growing rapidly across the country as educators see the results: Students in such programs do as well or better than their peers on standardized English tests while also becoming proficient in two languages.

In the simplest terms, students learn science and math as they grow fluent in the languages. Subjects are taught in one language or the other, without simultaneous translation.

Classes are split half and half between native English speakers and native Spanish speakers. They begin together in kindergarten, at first slowly and after time plunging more heavily into use of the two languages.

A key is sticking to the curriculum and not getting bogged down in language lessons.

"We've got a lot of material to cover," notes Juan Cortes, who will coordinate the Alexander program. "We're still responsible for FCAT."

Experts see several benefits in the two-way immersion model.

It focuses on high-level academics, for one, and it creates cultural awareness. It helps children learn from one another, a key in language development. And it boosts self-esteem among students whose first language is Spanish.

"They are recognized for an important skill they have and encouraged to share it, rather than being treated as a group that has a problem that needs to be overcome," said James Crawford, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education.

Hillsborough County has tried two-way immersion before, chief academic officer Donnie Evans says, but funding was a problem. Now that the district has grant money to create attractor programs, and its Hispanic enrollment is larger than the black population, the timing is perfect, Evans says.

Principal Duran says his campus, on Lois Avenue just behind the Hillsborough Avenue Hooters, offers the perfect spot to make it stick.

With 714 students, the school has plenty of empty seats to fill. And with 81 percent Hispanic children, Alexander could use some diversity.

The emphasis on teaching literacy in Spanish and English fits nicely, Duran says, because most of the staff already is bilingual. Several teachers have clamored to participate, and the phone has rung frequently with Alexander parents seeking entry into the school-within-a-school.

Even the children like what they hear. Students in Perez's second- grade class, most of whom already speak Spanish, say they think it's important to learn to read and write in Spanish as well as English.

"I want to do both," says Emmanuel Hernandez, 8. It would help "so you can understand what the other people are saying to you."

Still, Duran readily admits that implementation will not be easy.

Teachers will have to closely monitor students to make sure they are gaining, he says. And parents will have to accept that progress will take time.

He looks to the ultimate outcome as the main reason to pursue it: In today's world, Duran says, people who are bilingual and bicultural have a better chance to succeed in business and society.

"The kids will be academically higher. They'll be challenged," he says. "I do know it will work.