U-46 expands bilingual program

Come August, two more Elgin Area School District U-46 schools will become bilingual program sites, and another will expand its services for students learning English.

Ellis Middle School and Elgin High School will both add bilingual education programs, said Wilma Valero, the district's director of programs for English language learners. Otter Creek Elementary in Elgin, which previously featured bilingual classes for third- through sixth-graders, will now offer classes for kindergartners, first and second graders.

One dual language class will also be added for Ellis seventh-graders coming from Channing Elementary's dual language program.

Unlike traditional bilingual education, where students are taught in their native language for the majority of the school day, dual language instruction splits a select group of students' school days and subjects between Spanish and English.

The program was originally established seven years ago at Channing as a one-site program for the district.

Channing parents have long urged U-46 to expand the program - citing test score improvements, more confident kids and a multicultural atmosphere.

High test scores from dual language students helped raise Channing off the state's academic warning list in 2005. It has not returned since.

This spring, surveys were went home to Channing dual language parents, measuring interest in the program being expanded at Ellis.

Sixteen of the 18 sixth-grade parents surveyed voted in favor of expanding the program, interim Superintendent Mary Jayne Broncato said in April.

The Ellis program will operate differently than the program at Channing, where students are taught in both languages in most daily classes. At Ellis, seventh-grade students will attend one language arts class conducted in Spanish.

Previously, Valero said, bilingual students in Elgin High's attendance boundary were sent to Larkin and Streamwood high schools to receive bilingual services.

The Elgin High addition is expected to affect more than 60 incoming freshman this year.

"In past years, we actually had bilingual students refuse (bilingual) services so they could go to class with their friends at Elgin," district spokesman Tony Sanders said.

At Ellis, non-native speakers in the school's attendance boundary were sent to Canton, Larsen and Kimball middle schools.

About 80 bilingual and dual language students seventh graders are expected at Ellis this year, Valero said.

"We wanted to create a continuum of services - so students could receive services at their home schools all the way through," she said.

According to district data, 6,700 of U-46's 41,000 students attend bilingual classes.

For the 2008-09 school year, 30 elementary schools, four middle schools and three high schools will serve as bilingual program sites.

To staff the three schools' programs, three bilingual teaching positions have been added to Ellis and Otter Creek, Sanders said. Four bilingual teachers will join Elgin High.