IFIRE.org

IFIRE Announcements and Discussion Forum
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:52 pm

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: English speaking students get bussed out of their school
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 8:30 am 
Offline
Site Admin

Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:30 pm
Posts: 2037
Get ready all ye Second Class Citizens! This is where we are heading. English only students were once the majority at this school. Now, they are being bussed out of the neighborhood so the Spanish speaking students can be taught. You cannot give the illegals an inch or they will take it all.

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascoun ... l#comments

Immersion or segregation? Trost Elementary becomes a language-immersion-only school



Heather Steeves, The Oregonian By Heather Steeves, The Oregonian
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on May 08, 2013 at 3:18 PM, updated May 08, 2013 at 3:57 PM





Canby's Trost Elementary will become a Spanish-English immersion magnet school next year, a change that will save the school district $400,000 but oust 100 English-only students.
The realignment reflects a changing community, but some parents criticize the move as favoring Latino and bilingual students at the expense of the school's remaining and generally white native English speakers.

A decade ago, Trost was a neighborhood English-only school. But as numbers of Latino students grew, the school added special classes of students, half who speak English at home and half who speak Spanish at home. Students whose parents chose to place them in the immersion program started in kindergarten speaking Spanish most of the day. The goal is to teach the Spanish-speakers English, as is required by law, and to make the English students bilingual.
Now, the language-immersion classes make up 400 of the 500 students at Trost. Because the English-only classes are so small, they cost more per student. Trost's English-only classes average 18 students, compared with a district average of 27.
That's not fair, said Superintendent John Steach. "I essentially have a small school within a school. I cannot afford to run a school of 100 students," Steach said.

By cutting the English-only program, the district will eliminate 2 1/2 teacher jobs and fill out classrooms elsewhere in the district.

Meanwhile, the dual language-immersion program is growing. The first through sixth grades have two immersion classes. But there has been a wait list each year, and this year the district added a third kindergarten immersion class.

Equal footing

School officials say the immersion program is helping students get on equal footing as they enter middle school. Half the students in the immersion program are labeled "limited English proficiency" compared with 15 percent in other district schools. On top of that, 70 percent of Trost immersion students receive free or reduced lunch, compared with 43 percent in the rest of the district. They start behind but finish on track, Steach said.

"We overcame poverty at this program, and language deficiencies," Steach said.
Steach recently pulled data from the first classes of immersion kids who went to an all-English middle school. The average GPA is 3.0, and the dual immersion kids' average GPA was 2.97.
Trost's principal, Angela Navarro, said displacing students is sad but yields positive results. The move will allow Trost to open the immersion program to students throughout the district, Navarro said, and English-only students will get to meet new students, some for the first time in years.

Parent Michelle Ball doesn't buy that. Her son is in fifth grade at Trost and hasn't had issues being with the same students since they moved five houses down from the school three years ago. She'd like him to stay in the English program there, if that were possible.

Now she worries about getting him and her daughter, who is in second grade, into another school within walking distance. Ball's children are on a waiting list for a charter school outside of the district. Also weighing on Ball is her ownership of a day care. Four of the children she cares for will leave next year because of the change.

Accusations of racism

When Trost parents heard about the change, some of them accused the district of racism, saying the plan will bus the white children out of the neighborhood school.

"It is segregation. That's what I believe it is, and so do other parents," said parent Kris Millar, who pulled her son from Trost because she said she felt she was treated as a second-class citizen.

"I built my house where I built it so I could have my kids walk to school. Now I can't. Come September, if you're not in the immersion program, you're segregated and banished from the program," she said

The school district argues it's not segregating students.

"This is an integrated 50-50 program. We don't integrate by race, but by home language spoken," Steach said. Also, the English-only program is a mix of ethnicities, not just white, according to the principal.

Steach said the district is going to allow some parents the chance to transfer their kids to another in-town elementary school.

Others will be bused up to 45 minutes each way to Carus Elementary, a school outside the town that has lots of open slots.

"My guess is the people who are more affluent will transport to in-town schools because they have to transport themselves. The poor families, who are the Hispanic families, are going to bus out to Carus," Steach said. "The people who say were busing the white kids out of town -- that's a gross misrepresentation."

--Heather Steeves


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group