Public Hearing on Spanish Immersion program on Nov. 13

[Suzan Antin]

Dear Parents,

 

Many of you may be aware that there is a public hearing on the Spanish Immersion program scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m. at Grimsley High School.  According to the announcement on the GCS home page, the agenda will consist of a description of the current immersion programs at Jones, Kirkman Park, and Aycock, followed by a discussion of the current high school options.  My understanding is that public comments are encouraged, especially comments from parents.  I am trying to find out what format the public comment time will take - whether it will be a roundtable discussion, or whether there will be speakers from the floor with a time limit of 2-3 minutes per speaker.  The latter is my guess.

 

To give you some background on the "why" of the public hearing, here is a brief history of immersion in GCS:  The immersion program was started in August 1990 by the old Greensboro Public School System as a way to (1) attract middle class families to an under-utilized, inner-city school and (2) to provide an early foreign language instructional program.  In the middle to late 1980's, there was a big push in NC to develop high quality early foreign language programs, starting in the elementary schools, and extending through high school.  Former Governor Jim Martin was very much in favor, as he saw second language skills as a critical component to making North Carolina globally competitive.  There was funding from the legislature for a K-12 program in one language for each school system in North Carolina.  The immersion program was planned by Dr. Al Rubio, who was the old Greensboro system's foreign language curriculum specialist.  The first two kindergarten classes at Jones had 11 students.  A few more entered in 1st grade.  By 2002, when the first kinder class was in 11th grade, there was only one student remaining.  She went to Grimsley but did not take Spanish her senior year.  Her brother was the first immersion student to complete a 13 year sequence.  He graduated in June 2004. 

 

Guilford County had 3 public school systems until 1993 - Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County. During the second year of merger, in 1994, our first superintendent, Dr. Jerry Weast, decided to go to a generalist model for curriculum specialists, meaning that no longer would there be a science person working with science teachers, a foreign language person working with foreign language teachers, etc. Dr. Rubio went to Jones as principal, and for over a decade, there was no one at central office overseeing any FL program, including immersion at Jones.  At the end of the 1994-95 school year, Dr. Rubio left GCS and Mary Joe Lentz took over as principal from 1995-2004.  Under her leadership, the program thrived and grew.  But, since there was no one at the helm at central office, as the program expanded to middle school, no one looked after it and it was very weak at Kiser.  Then the middle school program was moved to Aycock.  No one even told the then-principal at Aycock that he had a Spanish immersion program and when the students arrived, there was no native speaker to teach them!  So lots of parent advocacy plus the arrival of Valerie Akins as Principal at Aycock resulted in (1) the hiring of a foreign language curriculum specialist for GCS and (2) a strong, well-planned middle school Spanish immersion program.  (Dr. Rubio left behind articulation plans for immersion for both middle school and high school, but GCS paid no attention.)  The intent always was to have a K-12 program and one of the reasons that the program fed to Grimsley was that Grimsley was the only Greensboro high school that offered high levels of Spanish and it was the first IB school in Guilford County.  GCS has allowed students to be reassigned to Grimsley, sort of on auto pilot, because long ago that was the intent, but the GCS school board has never formally "voted" to have a high school immersion program, though immersion has been advertised as K-12, or as feeding to Jones/ Kiser or Aycock/Grimsley since its inception in 1990. The current 10th graders at Grimsley were the first immersion group to have four kindergarten classes, and the students who graduated in 2010, I think, were the first to have had a separate Spanish III class just for immersion students.  It has been a recent phenomenon that the numbers have increased so greatly that there are lots of kids from outside the Grimsley attendance zone coming into the school, and therefore Transportation is getting alot of requests for bus transportation.  The meeting on Nov. 13 is an outgrowth of a board discussion on Sept. 27 in which they received info about high school Spanish offerings county wide.  Many board members expressed confusion about why parents would think that the high school program is a magnet, when they have never voted to make it one, merely allowed immersion students to be reassigned to Grimsley.  One board member told me some years ago that they let SI (Spanish Immersion) kids go to Grimsley as a favor, so that they could stay with their friends!  Obviously there is a need for some education on the  rationale for a long sequence of study.

 

So now to the public hearing - my understanding is that the board wants to hear what parents want for high school.  I have been told by observers that this board is very receptive to public input and that we need to make our case calmly, rationally, and present the argument for a high school program.  If you can be present on the 13th, that would be extremely helpful.  We need a large turnout.  I am trying to find out how long each speaker will have. Ideally I would like to have a series of speakers lined up with one person addressing a single topic and the next one following, so that our comments and rationale can be coordinated and we can present all of the reasons that we want a well-planned high school program at Grimsley, not just a sequence of courses.  Of course, all comments are welcome - I just want to cover all bases and be sure that the board has a complete picture. Let me be very clear, though - our focus needs to be on WHY we need a K-12 program and WHAT we want that program to be.  If we focus on transportation, we will lose.

 

What can you do?

1. Attend the public hearing.

2. Speak at the public hearing.

3. Contact school board members before and after the hearing to express your support for a well-planned K-12 immersion program at Grimsley, not just a sequence of courses.

4. Go to the GCS website and give input about immersion for Superintendent Green's new strategic plan.  There is a link on the GCS homepage for this purpose.

5. If you know board members, talk to them about immersion and why a long sequence is beneficial.

6. If your child is an immersion graduate, have your child email about the benefits of the program.

7. Spread the word to other immersion parents!

 

Talking points:

A. Research shows a strong correlation between length of study of a second language and increased proficiency in the language.  This is the primary reason that it was the intent from the earliest days of the SI program that it be K-12.

 

B. Research also shows the benefit of keeping the cohort together.  Additionally common sense tells me that it is not going to be possible to adequately serve the academic needs of students who have been in immersion K-8 if there are small numbers of students scattered among the various high schools across Guilford County. 

 

C. GCS was recognized as a Global Language District by the Global Communicators program of NC in the World during Dr. Grier's tenure as superintendent.  As a district, GCS committed itself to providing an uninterrupted K-12 sequence in one second language.

 

D. Why keep the program at Grimsley?  The SI program has a long history at Grimsley, where the staff know the students and their strengths and weaknesses.  It does not make sense to move the program to another school where the staff will have to start from square one.  Additionally, Grimsley's central location makes it easy to access community resources, such as the Hispanic cultural center, Casa Azul, the Center for New North Carolinians, and UNCG, to name just a few.

 

E. What do we want? 

1. GCS approval of high school SI program with support and resources as feasible.

2. Elevate 9-12 immersion to a program and not just a series of courses.

    a. Offer a Spanish Immersion diploma for students who complete 13 years and attain a predetermined level of proficiency on an external proficiency assessment.  We have Service Learning diplomas and IB diplomas, why not Spanish Immersion?

    b. Offer AP Spanish Literature in addition to AP Spanish Language.  (Current course sequence for SI students is H Spanish for Native Speakers II in 9th grade, either H Spanish III or H Spanish IV in 10th grade, either H Spanish IV or Spanish V (which is AP Spanish Language) in 11th grade, and either Spanish V or Spanish VI in 12th grade.  Currently Spanish VI is preparation for the IB exam in Spanish; there are over 30 students in the class but not all are IB diploma candidates, so it is possible to split the class and have some prepare for AP Spanish Lit and some prepare for the IB exam.)

  c. Have a site-based Spanish Immersion coordinator, similar to the IB coordinator, who has a reduced teaching load and release time to plan/coordinate SI activities, such as service learning, guest speakers, IB papers in Spanish, field trips, review and acquire materials, plan team building activities for the immersion cohort, arrange for external proficiency assessments of speaking and writing skills, collect and analyze data, acquire resources, help with interviews.

3. GCS support for seeking International Spanish Academies designation for all immersion schools.

4. Set goals for the immersion program and for students who complete the full 13 year sequence.

 

F. What resources exist?

1. The NC Department of Public Instruction has an immersion curriculum and benchmarks for essential skills for world language learners.

2. The Center for Applied Linguistics offers much information about curriculum and assessment.

3. There are high school immersion program models in the Lexington KY area and also several high school immersion programs in the Indianapolis IN area.

4. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, North Carolina offered a second language endorsement for high school seniors who scored an Intermediate High on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language's proficiency scale.  Oral Proficiency Interviewers were trained across the state.  Students had to take a written proficiency test and sit for an oral interview.  Those who were successful received a notation on their high school transcript and a special seal on their diploma.  I had several students at Southwest Guilford who were recognized.

 

The point is that there are resources out there and GCS does not have to reinvent the wheel.

 

I think it is also relevant to let you know that another immersion parent, also a Spanish teacher, with children a bit older than mine, helped me do an informal survey of parents whose children left immersion after middle school.  We asked them how much Spanish their children were able to take in high school, and found only one student who had Spanish V and took the AP Spanish Language exam.  The rest took Spanish IV, quite a few took Spanish IV on line, and parents reported that was not a satisfactory experience.  Additionally most GCS high schools are on block schedules, and quite a few parents told us that they did not like the block for foreign language because the scheduling issues make it almost impossible to get sequential courses.  So, you might take Spanish III in the fall and have to wait until the following year to get Spanish IV.  Finally, a block schedule has less instructional time than a traditional schedule, and since most GCS high schools are on a block schedule, that flies in the face of all the research regarding increased instructional time correlating with increased proficiency.  That is one reason that we don't want the immersion kids sent to their attendance zone schools. The other reasons are that the cohort needs to stay together in order to have appropriate instruction and it needs to stay together because we have clearly seen that students who leave the cohort do not take as much Spanish as they could had they stayed.

 

If you email board members, my suggestion is to email Alan Duncan, the board chair; Dr. Nancy Routh and Dr. Sandra Alexander, the At-Large reps; Jeff Belton, the Grimsley rep; Deena Hayes, the rep for Jones and Aycock; and your attendance zone rep.  You can find contact information for all board members on the GCS website at this link:  http://www.gcsnc.com/education/staff/staff.php?sectiondetailid=264748.  I would also cc the Superintendent, Mr. Maurice Green, and his email is gre...@gcsnc.com.

 

Please be positive and help Mr. Green and the board understand how important this program is!  I believe that SI is one of the most incredible educational opportunities in GCS.  Thanks to the efforts of many, the program at Aycock is strong.  Let's seize the opportunity to push for an official program for high school.

 

Please let me know if I can answer any questions.  If you are willing to present one of the talking points at the public hearing, please email me as soon as possible. 

 

Best regards,

 

Suzan Antin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Suzan Antin]

A correction - thank you Mary Joe Lentz!

 

The program began with one kinder class of 18 students. The addition of a second class began in 1996. At that time we bumped up class sizes to 28 which was the state cap at the time. Later we added a third and then 4th kinder class due to lottery demand..

The first two groups ended up in combo classes starting in 3/4 grades when I arrived at Jones. The first class left Jones with only 5 students. The second class left Jones with 8 students. These small numbers made the start of the middle school program very slow, thus another reason that expansion was necessary.