By Danny Teigman
Helen Cheliotes, the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum, said Tuesday that while dual-language education would continue in Lido Elementary School, she was uncertain which model would be used. Lindell Elementary School will offer dual language in grades two through five but will continue to phase out the program.
The program has been closely monitored by parents and officials in neighboring districts, who view Long Beach's program as a prototype. But the program - in which half of students' daily curriculum is taught in Spanish as a way of immersing them in the language, while native Spanish speakers are taught English as a Second Language - has been threatened by the district's dwindling number of native Spanish speakers. As a remedy, the district has considered scrapping the program and instead offering a Foreign Language Elementary School (FLES) program to all elementary school students at a fraction of the cost.
School board member Frank Alvarado, who recently campaigned for re-election on a platform of protecting dual language, said that in order to keep the present model unchanged, a balance must be maintained between English- and Spanish-speaking students. "We do not have the number of immigrant children going into kindergarten," Alvarado said.
He also said he recognized that the level of interest among English-dominant students remains high. But Spanish-speaking students who are also proficient in English must enter the dual-language program on the English-dominant side, which widens the disparity between English- and Spanish-dominant students. If the trend continues, Alvarado explained, the school district would no longer be eligible for the New York state grant money that partially subsidizes the program.
The program has inspired a fair amount of activism among its supporters. Members of the Dual Language Coalition, a group of parents and teachers, collected nearly 200 signatures in support of the program's present setup at last Friday's Circulo de la Hispanidad-sponsored Dual Language Awards night.
But among the program's problems is how unbalanced it is. Minority students who use languages other than English in their homes are tested before kindergarten for their English proficiency, which determines their eligibility for the program. All other students who want to enroll must take part in a lottery. Approximately 400 students now receive dual-language education.
Another problem is that there is no consensus on how best to implement the program. Lido uses the "side-by-side" model, in which two teachers, one bilingual and one monolingual, teach in adjoining classrooms. Students spend half of their day in each class. Lindell, which originally used the same system, switched last year, due to declining enrollment, to the "blended class" model. In the blended approach, one bilingual teacher instructs one class, alternating between Spanish and English.
Coalition co-founders Rosa Marie Goeller and Denise Bory said they are concerned that reduced enrollment in dual-language classes will force the district to further curtail the program. "Our problem is that we believe that the superintendent wants to institute a FLES program," Bory said.
She added that FLES should be used to augment the present dual-language curriculum, not replace it. A FLES program would offer Spanish instruction three times a week for a maximum of 20 minutes.
"They are diluting two fabulous schools and making one mediocre program," Goeller said.
But Cheliotes said that the school district is simply considering the city's needs, and that Spanish-speaking students are entering the school system already proficient in English. Many are opting out of the program, seeking an entirely monolingual education.
Cheliotes also said that while the school district has no plans to radically alter next year's dual-language program, if present trends continue, it will continue downsizing. "The FLES program is something that we've been studying throughout the year," she said. "With a FLES program, the whole idea is that you can now expose the entire grade level to the learning of a second language."
The Oceanside, Valley Stream, Plainview and Old Bethpage districts also use FLES, according to Cheliotes.
Both Goeller and Bory said that in the future, the dual-language program should at least be preserved as is, and expanded if possible to include the middle and high schools. Additional languages, including Latin, French and Italian, would also be added. "A program that is so successful should be accessible to all families," Goeller added.
Cheliotes said she agreed with that sentiment, but again pointed to a lack of Spanish-speaking student interest. "There are so many families where English is a first language, and they want to learn a second language," she said. "Why not extend [language instruction] to the entire grade?"
Goeller cited 2004 tests in which Lido and Lindell fourth-grade students outperformed the East and West Elementary schools in English and math.
Goeller and Bory said they believe these disparities reflect a successful dual-language program, and they plan to address the Board of Education at its final meeting of the school year, on June 27 at 8 p.m. at Long Beach Middle School. "Why give us a decaf version of what we want?" Goeller asked.
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