U-46 pulls dual-language teacher aides
Money talks.
I'm pointing out this oft-repeated phrase in light of Monday's school board meeting, where more than 80 Channing Elementary School students and their parents flooded the Elgin Area School District U-46 boardroom to oppose a recent decision removing a majority of teacher aides from the school's dual-language classrooms.
The decision, community members believe, is hurting the magnet program that splits a select group of students' school days and subjects between Spanish and English.
Kids are flourishing under the program, proven by high test scores; the school's open, multicultural environment; and the fluency with which many hablan espanol (speak Spanish) to board members.
High test scores from dual- language students helped bump Channing - a high-poverty, high-minority school - off the state's academic warning list in 2005. It has not returned.
Channing's dual-language program has featured full-time para educators, or aides, in its 25-student classrooms since the program's inception eight years ago.
Dual language aides help students individually with pronunciation and in-class assignments, and help teachers with the burden of collecting and assigning tests, homework and projects for up to 50 students at a time.
Parents are fuming for a number of reasons - many, they say, can be traced back to cookie-cutter decision making.
"This isn't a research-based decision; it's a budget-based one," said Kristen Webb of Elgin, whose son is a second-grade dual language student.
"Pulling our aides is opening the door for (the district) to keep taking from this successful program."
The decision to remove aides, Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services Lalo Ponce said, was made shortly before the start of the school year.
"As we were looking through our budget processes and staffing reviews, we saw that this did not meet the standard of a 27-to-1 student-teacher ratio for bilingual programs," he said.
U-46 this school year has a more expansive bilingual program, adding bilingual classes at Ellis Middle School and Elgin High School. Otter Creek Elementary in Elgin, which previously featured bilingual classes for third- through sixth-graders, will now offer classes for kindergartners and first- and second-graders.
There's no conclusive evidence that this is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul - taking money out of Channing's program to fund other bilingual sites.
It is clear, however, from Ponce's statement that dual-language and bilingual programs were lumped into the same category, despite their obvious differences in classroom instruction and program specifics - and yes, aides.
New U-46 Superintendent Jose Torres said he has established a dual-language committee to study the benefits of the program being expanded at other schools throughout the district. The 16-member committee, composed of parents, district staff, several bilingual teachers, dual-language teachers, a union representative and an English Language Learners program director, will meet for the first time Sept. 9.
Let's hope it looks at all the angles before reaching a decision. Not just money.
Batter up: Hannah Perryman, who will start her freshman year at Elgin High School next week, was selected as one of adidas Futures' top 100 recruits in the United States. Perryman was the only student softball player selected from Illinois.
This weekend, Perryman will attend adidas Futures' National Softball Camp in St. George, Utah for softball this weekend, along with 100 of the best female fast-pitch softball players from across the nation.
During the weekend, Hannah will also have the opportunity to meet Monica Abbott, pitcher for the USA Softball Women's National team, who is currently competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.