Diamond Lake program is working

Kudos to Valerie Goranson. People need to be aware of the many important issues raised by Ms. Goranson (March 13). Why would the state pull funding from a program that is working? If anything, Diamond Lake should be rewarded for the gains their Hispanic students have made with the effective methods they are implementing. People from Diamond Lake should be paid to train in other districts that are highly bilingual, but continue to show little gain.

The purpose of a bilingual program is to transition those students into a monolingual program. If a student has been in the bilingual program for more than three years, there is obviously a problem that should necessitate further investigation. Even worse, if a district is becoming more bilingual than monolingual, that should be an automatic red flag that the current bilingual program is ineffective and requires immediate reform. That is when the state should be pulling money. It should seem clear to the state that if a bilingual program is not exiting kids, then perhaps, that district is more interested in labeling as many students "bilingual" as possible, in order to receive as much funding as possible. This is wrong, and it is a disservice to those Hispanic students.

It is also true that monolingual teachers are losing their jobs. State funding could be used for Spanish-speaking paraprofessionals who could support monolingual teachers in the classroom. A teacher with an ESL endorsement is highly qualified to work with this population. It is ridiculous to replace these teachers because they do not speak Spanish. It should also be pointed out that just because a teacher has an accent does not mean that he/she cannot

effectively teach English. Many teachers with accents are as familiar (if not more) with English vocabulary and the grammatical idiosyncrasies of English as their native English-speaking counterparts. What is a problem is teachers speaking English as a literal translation from Spanish. They would not be proper role models for English.

Ineffective bilingual programs are only enabling learned helplessness. Hispanic students should never lose their Spanish. It is a vital part of their culture and will be invaluable to them later in a competitive job market. However, they cannot access that competitive job market or those competitive salaries without also being fluent in English.

The Diamond Lake School District is using a program that works. Those students will be well prepared for their futures. The state needs to do the right thing by continuing to fund a program that works.

Jennifer West

Mundelein