VENTURA : Improvement of Bilingual Program a Goal

Many Ventura elementary school students who speak little or no English have been thrust into classes where no one else speaks their language and where the teacher is ill-equipped to meet the children’s special needs.

But all that may change next year.

The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education found last year that the Ventura Unified School District is in violation of federal laws requiring equal access to education for all students.

To come into compliance with federal law, the district has come up with a plan to improve its bilingual education program.

“We’re doing something we’ve needed to do for awhile,” said Jennifer Robles, the district’s bilingual coordinator.

The problem in the past has been that only five of the district’s 17 elementary schools have had enough limited-English students to fill entire classes and justify the hiring of certificated bilingual teachers. Those schools are E.P. Foster, Juanamaria, Montalvo, Sheridan Way and Will Rogers.

At these schools, students in kindergarten through fifth grades receive a complete bilingual education, learning core subjects such as math and science in their native language until they are proficient in English.

At the other 15 schools, a total of about 200 students with limited English have been thrown into classes with native English speakers and with teachers who lack bilingual training.

“Staffing has been the biggest obstacle,” Robles said.

To solve this problem, Robles and other district staff members are proposing to the school board that in the future Ventura only hire teachers who have training in bilingual education or at least in teaching students from different cultures.

Teachers at the 15 schools who already have some bilingual training will be assigned to the classrooms of students with limited-English skills.

In addition, Robles has proposed that for some schools the district hire hourly teachers who could pull students out of class and teach them English for about 30 minutes each day.

“It seems innovative here in Ventura, but in other districts this has been going on quite a while,” Robles said.