You are an elementary school principal in a district that serves four villages
BILINGUAL ISSUES (ISLLC STANDARD 4) You are an elementary school principal in a district that serves four villages. One of the villages has a large Hispanic population, many of whom are first—generation immigrants. To address their needs, your school has a large bilingual program consisting of a bilingual classroom in each grade level. The bilingual classes are taught in both Spanish and English as appropriate, but the goal is to transition students into the English class rooms. This means that half of your faculty is covered by a bilingual grant, which has specific requirements for the type of instruction and the evaluation of students. It has been difficult for you to staff the program because bilingual teachers are hard to find. As a result, some of your teachers are more proficient in Spanish than they are in English, but they have passed the state certification exams. Although you are aware of their comfort level in their native language of Spanish, you are convinced that the teachers are doing a good job of teaching their students English. You also realize that the rate by which students acquire a second language is very much subject to individual backgrounds and abilities. In other words, some kids take longer than others to develop proficiency in English. As a result, some of the students move more slowly into the English classroom than others do. Some students go into the English classroom for reading, but remain in the bilingual classroom for science, because of the terminology. On the state-level English proficiency tests, your students are progressing into English at an acceptable rate, but some of the board members have expressed concern that the students aren’t progressing fast enough. One of the board members has accused your staff of purposely delaying kids’ transition into the English classroom to ensure job security. This board member also has expressed concern that students are automati cally placed in the bilingual program on the basis of their surnames and not on their ability to speak English. While you have assured the superintendent that your staff is following district placement procedures and transition procedures, you can’t help but worry that the superintendent might believe the board member over you. At a recent board meeting, one of the members declared, “This is America; our students should be taught in English. I went into Ms. Ruiz’s second-grade classroom and heard her speaking to the students in Spanish. I think that is terrible!” The board member went on to demand that the superintendent rectify this situation. You sat in the audience, appalled at this outburst. You’ve been in Ms. Ruiz’s classroom, and you know that she does an outstanding job of teaching her students. You believe that expecting second graders to transition into an English-only class room is unreasonable, but the board member referenced “immersion” as the way to learn English. After the board meeting, the press interviewed the board member who said, “Sink or swim. That’s the way of our world. When you’re in America, you have to learn to speak English. If we allow them to speak Spanish, they’ll never be successful in America.” As principal of this school, what would you do? Explain, in bulleted format, a process for handling this challenge, aligned with ISLLC Standard 4: An education leader promotes the success of every student by collaborating with faculty and community members, re— sponding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.
Part 2: can you please comment for two colleagues?(one paragraph for each one)
I agree with the principal’s response to this situation, as educating the board member is the right approach. In my opinion, this board member was completely out of line in speaking to the media in such a negative tone saying things like “sink or swim” and saying that the students should only speak English in America. Just like the principal did, I would create a thorough presentation portraying all of the data supporting placement decisions for students in English and Spanish classrooms. Also, I would reference the transition process from Spanish to English classes once students improve their English skills.
The only thing I would have done differently would have been to find some common ground to both appease the board member and to help students transition to the English classroom. I would create opportunities for team teaching with both English and Spanish classrooms to expose the students to the English language with encouraging students to work and learn from each other. This would be a positive approach to the “immersion” strategy that the board member referenced without actually putting students into a classroom in which they are not yet ready to participate.
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This case study reminds me of a presentation given in my law class that just took place for a peer in the Joliet schools. She mentioned students in her school getting into “trouble” or getting referrals for not using the English language in class. She mentioned students who were speaking to one another in Spanish being reprimanded for being disrespectful by speaking to one another in Spanish. To me this is completely unacceptable, as well as the actions of the board member in this case study. Assuming students should be forced to speak only English in America goes against the foundations of this country. As a country we are meant to bring together all of these cultures to form one American culture that celebrates differences and accepts one another. By forcing people to assimilate to speaking only English, we would be taking away a piece of their culture that is important to them.
If I were in this situation, I would have also agreed with the principal about educating not only this board member, but maybe the entire school community. It might have been a good idea to bring together parents, board members, faculty, etc., to provide some education and enlightenment about culture and celebrating differences.
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Standard 4 of ISLLC requires educational leaders to promote the success of every student through the collaboration of all stakeholders and responding to each one of their needs and interests while also making use of community resources (Hessel & Holloway, 2002). Thus, it was natural for the board members to have varying concerns…………………….
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