FOUNTAIN VALLEY : District Honored for Language Program

Flags recognizing the national Academic Excellence Award were presented last week at the Fountain Valley School district’s board meeting to honor a program that teaches English to students of different language backgrounds.

Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) enables instructors to teach a class of limited-English students of various ethnic backgrounds simultaneously. Students who speak little or no English are mixed with English-speaking students because language acquisition tends to happen faster in a heterogeneous group, officials say. Their learning is later reinforced by tutors in the student’s primary language.

The program was developed by school district educators Marcia Brechtal and Linnea Haley to cope with the 43 languages, other than English, spoken by district students. Although learning English is the goal, cross-cultural interaction and exchange is used as a teaching aid.

The Fountain Valley School District was one of four school districts nationwide to receive the award from the Academic Excellence Program, which comes with a federal grant of $528,447 for September, 1991, through June, 1994. The grant pays for program costs, including the salaries for Brechtal and Haley.

The Los Angeles Unified School District and districts in Texas and New York also received awards.

The Washington-based agency recognizes exemplary models of transitional bilingual education through its grants. Award recipients are approved by the President and Department of Education.

One of the three blue flags went to the district. The other two went to James H. Cox and Isojiro Oka elementary schools in recognition of successful use of GLAD strategies and training. Classrooms at the schools serve as demonstration sites for trainees.

The district was initially honored for the national award late last year at a ceremony in Albuquerque, N.M. However, before being considered for the national honor, Project GLAD received Exemplary Program status for staff development from the state Department of Education.

Flag-raising ceremonies and receptions will be held March 18 at 9:15 a.m. at Cox and March 19 at 10:10 a.m. at Oka school. For more information about the ceremonies, call (714) 843-3230.