Long Beach : District Acts to Improve Its Bilingual Program

Long Beach school officials have pledged to improve their program for students with limited English skills to avoid losing $8 million in state funds.

The funds were threatened when state evaluators concluded that the Long Beach Unified School District did too little to help students who are not fluent in English. Evaluators said the district must devise a remedy by September or lose the funds.

The new district plan includes better monitoring of students’ progress and incentives for teachers to learn languages other than English. Instructors hired to teach non-English speakers, for example, will not be tenured until they earn state bilingual credentials.

The district submitted its plan last week for state approval.

Evaluators had faulted the district for not keeping close track of how much English the students were learning. As a result, students were placed in inappropriate classes, evaluators said. They also noted a shortage of classes for students who know a little English but not enough to function in an all-English setting.

About 24,000 students--roughly one-third of all district students--have limited English skills. More than 15,000 speak Spanish as a first language, and 5,000 speak Khmer, a language of Cambodia.

“It is very difficult to get enough fully certified, qualified teachers to teach in bilingual classes,” district spokesman Dick Van Der Laan said.

He said the district is trying to increase its bilingual teaching staff by recruiting new teachers, retraining current staff members and encouraging bilingual high school students to become teachers.

The district has proposed offering pay incentives for bilingual teachers, but must negotiate that issue with the teachers union, Van Der Laan said.