Will U-46 dual language program keep up?

After years of pleading with the Elgin Area U-46 school board for middle school dual-language opportunities, a group of Channing Elementary parents are in panic mode.

"We're nervous for our sixth-graders," said Kristen Webb. "After seven years of dual language study, there are no programs in place for them when they head to middle school."

Channing's dual language program, unique among U-46 schools, was established seven years ago, splitting a select group of students' school days and subjects, between Spanish and English.

Currently, officials said, there are two dual language kindergarten classes, two each in first and second grades, one third-grade class. In fourth, fifth and sixth grades, dual language classes are grouped by subject.

Classes, capped at 25 students, often have waiting lists. This year's kindergarten class tested 110 students for the program, taking only 50, said Judy Rivera, who runs Channing's program.

"At the time, we established it as a one-site program for the district," U-46 spokesman Tony Sanders said. "We're still in the process of figuring out if it should be expanded."

Five parents at last week's school board meeting urged the district to speed up "the process" -- citing test score improvements, confident kids and a multicultural atmosphere as reasons for expanding the program into Ellis Middle School, which most Channing students feed into.

"We've been going to the district for the past three years about this," said Caty Hernandez, whose daughter Natalye is a Channing third-grader. "And we've gotten no response."

With 72 percent of Channing's students coming from low-income homes, and nearly 85 percent of students identified as minorities, the majority of Channing's students have been labeled "at risk" of educational failure.

High test scores from dual language students helped bump Channing off the state's academic warning list in 2005, Rivera said. It has not returned since. The percentage of students, according to 2007 state report cards, making Adequate Yearly Progress at Channing in reading is 66.3 percent; in math, 76.6 percent; both well above the No Child Left Behind benchmark of 55 percent.

"We have statistics here at Channing that the dual language students are consistently scoring above their peers," Rivera said.

"I think the parents think … our students going on to middle school are going to miss out on their Spanish, lose much of what they've gained. This program needs to keep expanding."

Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54, which launched a dual language program in 2005, has grown to include three elementary schools and a middle school with Spanish-English dual language programs.

"It's been done elsewhere," Hernandez said. "Why not here?"

Hernandez and other parents insist they're not asking for something unreasonable. "We don't expect them to implement the whole program at Ellis," she said. "But something, a literature course or something … . Time is running out. The kids have worked so hard and now what?"