Santa Ana Gets A in English

The predominance of Spanish-speakers in Santa Ana surprises nobody. School officials are so concerned about the struggles of poor children to speak English that they have been talking this fall about making kindergarten a two-year program.

The city has long known that nearly three-fourths of students in the Santa Ana Unified School District come to class speaking only Spanish.

Now comes the Census Bureau’s Supplementary Survey, with its detailed 40 questions sent last year to 700,000 households throughout the nation. Santa Ana emerges with the highest concentration of Spanish-speaking residents in the country. And with it comes the information that about 15% of residents ages 18 to 64 speak no English at all.

Educators in Santa Ana at every level understandably are trying to reckon with the need to get more people speaking English to get an education and take part in today’s economy.

As Rita M. Cepeda, president of Santa Ana College, puts it, “English is the language of currency” that opens the door to opportunity. Her college is providing free English instruction to nearly 19,000 Santa Ana residents. Remarkable.

For older residents, there are a number of programs that deserve encouragement and support. The role of the community college is critical in helping adults who may be held back by a lack of ability to speak English.

Santa Ana College offers residents English as a second language through the School of Continuing Education at various locations for no credit, and almost 3,000 students are enrolled in such courses at the college for credit. The noncredit classes allow students to start or stop a class at any time.

The Family Literacy Program, offered by the college in cooperation with the school district, focuses on households. Santa Ana College instructors teach English as a second language to about 1,340 youngsters at 28 elementary schools in a program coordinated with English classes for their parents. After two years, the program is still growing.

There also is another important collaborative effort, the Pathways Program involving UC Irvine, Santa Ana Unified and Santa Ana College. It coordinates writing, reading and language curriculum in the school district to help students developing English language skills.

Santa Ana College gets a lower rate of reimbursement from the state for the free courses it offers. But it has made a bold and important decision for its city and for the region. Instead of thinking only about this year’s finances, it is looking ahead with its investment in the English-speaking skills of an entire city.

This is community educational leadership at its best.