Board OKs 3-Level Bilingual Program

The Newport-Mesa school board approved a new bilingual education program, but it now must wait to see if Proposition 227 passes Tuesday and scraps part of it.

The revised program offers three options for students learning English.

The first, primary language instruction, is for kindergartners and first-graders. In it students will learn to read in their native language, while receiving other instruction in English. Once they have the foundation of reading skills in the language they’re most comfortable with, by the middle of the following year “they begin to read almost automatically in English,” said Susan Despenas, the district’s assistant superintendent for elementary education.

In the second level, primary language support, students are taught in English but receive clarification in their native language, if needed.

The third level, English language learners, is for students up to the sixth grade. The program teaches “listening, speaking, reading and writing of English at the appropriate instructional level of the learner,” according to district criteria.

The first level, primary language instruction, would be eliminated if Proposition 227 passes Tuesday, as expected. The measure calls for an end to bilingual education in public schools.

The new bilingual education program won initial approval 7 to 0, and will go up for another vote at the next board meeting June 9.