Students Speaking Limited English on Rise : Education: An Oxnard Union High School District report shows that the number more than tripled in three years.

The number of students in the Oxnard Union High School District who speak limited English has more than tripled in three years, a report issued Wednesday shows.

Since 1988, the number of students in the district’s six schools identified as having limited English-language skills has grown from 991 to 3,053 this school year, or more than a quarter of the 11,500 students in the district, the district report says.

Oxnard Union officials attribute the increase to an influx of students from immigrant families and to more diligent testing of students to assess their language skills.

“Certainly the demographics are changing,” said Assistant Supt. Gary Davis. “More students for whom English is not the first language are moving into our area.”

Over the past three years, the district also has kept better track of students who indicate on a state Department of Education questionnaire that they speak a language other than English at home, Davis said.

All students who enroll in the district must fill out the survey form, which also asks students their first language. Students who answer something other than English to any of the questions are evaluated for possible placement in bilingual programs.

Students in the district speak 22 languages, Davis said. Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese are the most frequently spoken after English, he said.

Countywide, the most recent figures for the number of students with limited English are for the 1989-90 school year, said Cliff Rodrigues, coordinator of bilingual education for the county superintendent of schools.

In that year, 16,063 of Ventura County’s 111,822 students, or 14.4%, spoke limited English--a 25% increase over the previous year, Rodrigues said. The increase statewide for that period was 16%, he said.

“What Oxnard is showing is that trend is continuing,” Rodrigues said. “Those figures are increasing more in Ventura County than in the rest of the state.”

In Oxnard, Channel Islands High, Oxnard High and Rio Mesa High measured the greatest increases in limited-English speakers, while Camarillo High was the only school in the district whose numbers fell.

The report also indicated a number of trends among the district’s students with limited English skills.

This year, 17% were having problems in earning enough credits to graduate on time, needing additional counseling, special programs or tutors.

However, grade-point averages for the limited-English speakers are on a par with those of all other students at each of the district’s schools, the report showed.

The report also says that in 1989-90, 20% of the students who dropped out of district schools had limited English skills. Figures for this school year will not be available until November, Davis said.

Earlier this month, the board approved the new position of coordinator of bilingual programs to oversee the district’s efforts to keep limited-English speakers in school and to work with students and teachers in the migrant education program.

The one-year position is scheduled to be filled later this summer. Until now, bilingual education has been under the jurisdiction of the district’s director of special programs.

“We feel that the number of students is growing to such an extent that it deserves the full attention of one person,” Davis said.

Students with limited English, he said, “are going to graduate and they are going to learn English. That’s our charge.”

Students With Limited English-Language Skills

Oxnard Union High School District

1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 Camarillo High 78 83 68 Channel Islands High 354 1,001 1,233 Frontier Continuation High 22 31 62 Hueneme High 247 310 490 Oxnard High 164 625 747 Rio Mesa High 126 323 453 TOTAL 991 2,373 3,053

SOURCE: Oxnard Union High School District