Orange Schools Get OK to Drop Bilingual Classes

The Orange Unified School District on Thursday became the largest school system in California to win permission to drop traditional bilingual education since state officials eased limits on English-only teaching two years ago.

The 29,000-student district won only temporary approval, however, after the State Board of Education voted 5-2 in favor of the plan, with some modifications. That fell short of the six votes needed for full approval, but under state law the waiver was granted for one year, setting the stage for the battle to resume next year.

The district must also answer federal regulators who this week raised concerns about potential discrimination against some students who are not fluent in English.

But even a partial victory for the anti-bilingual forces in Orange marked a crucial point in the statewide debate over a besieged program that backers concede is in need of reform.

“I think the board has clearly said it wants flexibility for [school] districts,” said state board member Marion McDowell, who supported the Orange plan. “We don’t believe there’s one right way.”

As a result of the state board’s default approval, dozens of elementary classrooms in Orange Unified schools will be transformed within months, as instruction in Spanish for about 1,500 students gives way to a curriculum dominated by English.

Bilingual advocates fear that the overhaul will spell trouble for students who are not ready for academic-level English; opposing partisans say it’s best to steep students in the primary language of the United States without delay.

Thursday’s development came as state lawmakers are considering the latest in a series of efforts in recent years to reform a system that is desperately short of qualified teachers and under fire for failing to move students with limited English skills rapidly to English fluency.

English-only advocates are also gathering signatures for a proposed 1998 statewide initiative to dismantle bilingual education.

Orange’s plan has outraged some Latino activists who say the district ignored hundreds of parents who fought to preserve the bilingual program.

“They haven’t paid any attention to us at all,” said Carmen Hernandez, a Spanish-speaking immigrant from Mexico, whose son Marco is in a bilingual first-grade class at Fairhaven Elementary School. “All they do is talk. They never listen.”

Hernandez said she fears that an English-only classroom will be a formidable hurdle for many Spanish-speaking youngsters. She also said that learning English shouldn’t be the only goal.

“It’s very important to us to preserve our roots,” Hernandez said. “I want my child to learn English but not forget his Spanish.”

Education experts are sharply divided over which method works best. Some favor “English immersion,” while others warn that students can fall behind if they are taught in a language they don’t completely understand.

State rules favor native language instruction for most of the 1.3 million California students who are not fluent in English, especially those in elementary schools. But a policy adopted by the State Board of Education in 1995 opened the door for school districts to seek broad waivers to those rules.

Orange becomes the fourth district to receive such a waiver. Three smaller school districts in Westminster and Anaheim also have won waivers in the past two years. Previously, some other districts around the state had also experimented with alternatives.

But Orange is bound to draw closer scrutiny than most other districts that have bucked the bilingual system. The district in recent years has gained a reputation for challenging federal and state government mandates.

“Orange Unified is again leading the way, bringing to the surface issues that need to be discussed in the educational arena,” said veteran conservative trustee Maureen Aschoff.

Orange’s plan, which one trustee said would cost about $125,000 in the next year, calls for teachers from kindergarten through third grade to use English almost exclusively in the classroom, with some help from bilingual teaching aides. In addition, the district plans to start special tutoring sessions outside normal school hours to bolster students’ English skills.

The board’s default approval went against the advice of state education staff members, who protested that the Orange plan failed to include specific, credible standards to measure student progress. The California Assn. for Bilingual Education also opposed the plan, saying it threatened to roll back decades of hard-won progress for minority students.