Ninety percent of kindergarten instruction at 10 schools will be taught in Spanish beginning this fall as part of the Tucson Unified School District’s effort to improve its bilingual education program.
The new effort will be implemented in kindergarten through second grade at Davis, Grijalva, Hollinger, McCorkle, Mission View, Roskruge, Van Buskirk and White elementary schools. Pistor and Roskruge middle schools, along with Pueblo Magnet High School, also will take in the new direction.
Under the plan, the level of English instruction increases each year until a 50 percent balance in English and Spanish instruction is reached for grades four through 12.
Participation is not required of all students attending those schools with the exception of Davis Bilingual Magnet. However, students do have to be orally proficient in English to take advantage of the dual-language program.
The new model is said to be based on sound and compelling research. It differs from the existing practice, in which instruction is expected to be given in a 50-50 fashion from Day One.
What was discovered, however, was the balance of language varied by site, with some using none to others only providing 30 percent of instruction in Spanish. Additionally, many schools offered bilingual classes at one or two grade levels, but not across the board.
Professional development was also lacking, leaving bilingual teachers to rely on the skills they came in with, which often led to classes being taught primarily in English with Spanish sprinkled in. In the end, students were not emerging from the schools proficient in the two languages as some parents expected.
“Every school has been managing their own model — doing what best serves the limited resources they have and what they thought they could pull together, but it wasn’t actively managed by the central office,” said Steve Holmes, TUSD assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
By having consistent training and materials districtwide and by providing support, TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez said he hopes teachers will not abandon the bilingual model simply because they are not comfortable with their ability to convey a science lesson in Spanish or because they struggle designing lessons. School principals have also had to commit to using the model consistently in all grades.
While research has shown that students in dual-language settings need more support in the early years, once they achieve proficiency after the third grade, they perform at high levels, often outscoring their monolingual peers on the SAT and ACT, Sanchez said.
As long as the district fulfills its commitment, Holmes believes that the schools offering the immersion program will continue to perform well — more than half of the 10 campuses involved are B-rated schools.
TUSD is focusing on bringing in more highly qualified bilingual teachers, working with the University of Arizona to recruit aspiring educators and exploring a teacher exchange program with Spain to find candidates for hard-to-fill positions.
