School for Immigrants Bridges Language Gap

Day 1 of the school year is a little different at Nightingale than at other campuses. There are not only unfamiliar places and faces, but a strange language to learn as well: English.

Nightingale School is where about 190 Spanish-speaking students will get their introduction to the Long Beach Unified School District. For some students, their year at Nightingale will also be part of their introduction to America. Many are recent immigrants from Mexico and Latin America.

Most of the school’s staff is bilingual. The teachers’ goal is to help children learn as much English as possible as they do course work in their native language. District officials consider Nightingale a model program, but acknowledge that they have been unable to recruit nearly as many bilingual teachers as the district needs. More than 30% of district’s students have a limited ability to speak English. Less than half of the district’s bilingual classes have bilingual teachers. Bilingual aides, volunteers and other students frequently act as translators.

Vice Principal Beverly Spicer welcomed her mostly cheerful, well-behaved students in fluent Spanish on Wednesday. She then assigned them to classrooms. It took more than an hour to sort out second-graders who appeared from nowhere and kindergartners who lost their paperwork and could not remember their last names. Cynthia Rojas, 7, worried about homework and leaving her baby brother at home, but on the other hand, she said, “I’m going to learn how to say words in English.”