U-46 dual language program will expand to middle schools this fall

Lesley Aguilar's eyes light up as she imagines her future, exploring a plethora of career possibilities.

The 12-year-old sixth-grader at Lords Park Elementary School in Elgin would like to be an inventor, an adventurer, a soccer player, a photographer and a painter.

Lesley has a leg up on some of her peers at the school and in the district because she is bilingual and biliterate. “So I can use both languages in my life.” Lesley, who has been learning in English and Spanish since kindergarten, is comfortable reading, writing and even solving math word problems in either language. She and others like her are among the success stories of Elgin Area School District U-46's nationally renowned program.

The state's second-largest school district is more than 50 percent Latino.

In the 2011-12 school year, the district implemented dual language study for 3,904 students in prekindergarten through second grade at 29 elementary schools.

Today, the program has grown to serve 8,382 students through sixth grade at 33 schools.

Students who are native Spanish speakers and at one time or another qualified for English Language Learner services receive dual language instruction, but the program also is open to English-dominant students as an enrichment option in “two-way” kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms.

Each year, the district has expanded the program by a grade level and this fall will roll out dual language classrooms for seventh-graders at five of eight middle schools. Eighth-graders will be included the following school year.

Ultimately, the goal is to offer dual language through high school, said Annette Acevedo, director of programs for English Language Learners.

“Nationwide, the majority of English Language Learner students are actually U.S. born,” she said. “We offer our students transitional bilingual education. The three goals that we focus on are bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism or multiculturalism. Students are able to develop a second language while maintaining their first. That's what we are most proud of ... no child has to lose a language to learn another language.”

Instruction in one-way and two-way classrooms is the same. The difference is the composition of students. In two-way classrooms, students who qualify for English Language Learner services are mixed in with English-dominant students.

“It could be students who are coming from a Spanish-speaking home, yet are English dominant, and we have students who are coming completely from monolingual backgrounds or from another language background and now they are developing a third language,” Acevedo said.

Bilingualism is key

Though controversial, bilingual programs are the preferred method of educating students with limited English proficiency. The majority of dual language programs couple Spanish and English instruction, but students nationwide also are learning Mandarin, Japanese, French, Arabic, Hawaiian and Korean.

Educators claim such programs have been effective at acculturating new immigrants into society while preserving their linguistic and cultural heritage, closing the achievement gap between English Language Learners and their peers, and enabling English speakers to learn a second language.

More suburban school districts also are embracing the dual language model. Among them are Barrington Unit District 220, Diamond Lake Elementary District 76, Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59, Hawthorn Elementary District 73, Mundelein Elementary District 75, Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54, Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 and Woodland Elementary District 50.

U-46's program has been hailed as a national model for the magnitude of its implementation and its continued focus on emerging bilingual students. In 2012, the district received a Promoting Bilingualism Award from a group affiliated with the California Association of Bilingual Education.

“We had districts across the country either call us or come visit us to see how we implemented it,” Acevedo said.

The program, called 80:20, starts with 80 percent instruction in Spanish and 20 percent instruction in English at the kindergarten level, rolling up English instruction by 10 percent each year until it reaches 50:50 instruction in third through sixth grade. Students are expected to perform as well or better than their peers on a range of metrics, including overall academic achievement, problem-solving ability, self-esteem, cross-cultural attitudes/competencies and standardized testing.

This fall, Abbott, Ellis, Kimball, Larsen, and Tefft middle schools will implement one-way dual language classrooms for seventh-graders — students will learn language arts and social studies in Spanish. Two-way dual language instruction for seventh grade will be adopted in 2017-18.

“We've already been receiving requests (from the state) to share our Spanish language arts curriculum, framework and instructional resources that have been adopted,” Acevedo said.

The program is not without critics. School board member Jeanette Ward refused to support its expansion into seventh grade, saying it prolongs dependency on Spanish, while other board members agreed bilingual and biliterate students will have an edge over their peers when competing for college admission, internships and jobs.

District administrators, though, say they don't yet know what the program will look like at the high school level. “We are focusing on the middle school implementation right now,” Acevedo said. “We recognize that bilingualism is key. We know this is what our students need to be competitive members of a global society.”

Intense work

Learning math can be daunting in any language. But reading mathematical definitions in Spanish can add to the challenge, said Eunice Matos, sixth-grade Spanish teacher at Lords Park who teams with English instructor Mark Bujnowski.

Matos, a native Spanish speaker from Puerto Rico, coaches students on higher-level vocabulary so they can understand the technical terminology in both languages.

“The program has a lot of rigor,” she said. “It builds up English and Spanish at the same time.”

Bujnowski tries to incorporate some Spanish during English class so he and Matos are on the same page.

He said students work hard to overcome their cultural challenges and timidity with learning a foreign language, while he provides individualized instruction.

“The timidness comes with the intensity of the work, staying fluent in both languages,” he said.

Students themselves feel encouraged and see their native language as an asset, not a barrier to furthering career goals.

“Most people that just speak English don't have the opportunities that we have,” said Chelsea Sandoval, 12, of Elgin, a sixth-grader at Lords Park who has dreams of becoming a mechanical engineer.

Sandoval said she now is able to help her family members improve their English-speaking skills.

Maintaining fluency in their native language also allows students to engage their parents and get them more involved in their education.

“It's easier for the kids to explain what they need in their own language so the parents feel comfortable talking with them,” Bujnowski said. “It's a snowball effect.”