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il!‘^.ìortlanò (lOhseruer
August 18. 2010
D iv e
Language a Barrier for Latinos in Schools
Families struggle to
maintain their culture
(AP) With Hispanic enroll
ment surging in schools, many
Spanish-speaking parents are
having trouble helping their chil
dren with homework or com mu
nicating with U.S. teachers as
English-immersion classes pro
liferate in K-12.
An A s s o c ia te d P re s s -
Univision poll highlights the lan
guage and cultural obstacles
for the nation's Latinos, who
lag b eh in d o th e rs w hen it
com es to graduating from high
school.
The findings also raise ques
tions about whether English-im
mersion does more to assimilate
or isolate — a heated debate
that has divided states, academ
ics and even the U.S. Supreme
Court. Arizona recently ordered
its schools to remove teachers
with heavy foreign accents from
English-language instruction,
while the Obama administration
is seeking to push more multilin
gual teaching in K-12 class
rooms.
The nationwide poll, also spon
sored by The Nielsen Company
and Stanford University, found
the vast majority o f Hispanics
— 78 percent — had children
enrolled in K -12 classes that were
taught mostly in English, com
pared with 3 percent in Spanish.
Just 20 percent o f m ainly
Spanish-speaking parents say
they were able to communicate
"extremely well" with their child's
school, compared with 35 per
cent o f Hispanics who speak
English fluently.
Under federal law, if the par
ents' English is limited, schools
must provide notices and infor
mation about student activities in
a language they can understand.
The Education D epartm ent's
Office for Civil Rights is now
reviewing some school districts
to see if students are being de
nied a fair education.
Roxana Montoya, an El Sal
vador native in Miami who is
learning to speak English, says
she often struggled to help her
12-year-old son with school.
Montoya said she would check
the Internet to translate her ques
tions for teachers and spend
hours going through his middle-
school coursework. "He'd get
out at 3 and at 9, we still wouldn't
be done with the homework,"
she said.
The educational stakes are
high.
Roughly 1 in 5 people in the
U.S. speaks a language other
than English at home, with His
panics representing the largest
share, according to 2009 census
b
Doris Chiquito and her children Jonathan, 11, and Ariana Gonzalez, 8. Born in the U.S.
to Ecuadorian parents, Chiquito is among those who hope their children will maintain the
Hispanic culture. She enrolled her son and daughter in bilingual classes so they would
also speak Spanish and not 'feel ashamed o f being Hispanic. (AP Photo)
data. Hispanics also now make
up one-fourth ofthe nation's kin
dergartners, part o f a historic
trend in which minorities are pro
jected to become the new U.S.
majority by midcentury.
Still, H ispanics are nearly
three times as likely than the
general U.S. population to drop
out o f high school, and half as
likely to earn a bachelor's de
gree.
Other AP-Univision poll find
ings:
M any H ispanics lack confi
dence in the quality o f educa
tion at their local public schools.
A bout 47 percent said they
believed the K -12 schools were
excellent or good, com pared
w ith 48 percent who described
them as "fair," "poor" or "very
poor."
About 63 percent o f Hispan
ics believe it would help the U.S.
economy "a lot" if more students
completed high school, compared
with 40 percent for the general
population.
Citing some o f the racial gaps,
E d u c a tio n S e c re ta ry A rne
Duncan is urging parents to take
more responsibility. He said the
government will require districts
to get input from communities on
w ay s
to
im p ro v e
underperforming schools before
receiving federal money.
The Education Department
also wants to devote an addi
tional $50 million next year to
promote English learning. Part
o f that will be used for research
and development o f "dual-lan
guage immersion," a bilingual
approach gaining favor among
many linguists.
Dual-immersion is a shift from
the direction o f states such as
California, Arizona and M assa
chusetts, w here voters have
largely banned bilingual classes.
On a broader level, some 30
states and numerous localities
have passed laws making En
glish the official language, a move
that critics say will lead to more
cuts in bilingual programs.
The debate has splintered the
Supreme Court, which sided 5-4
with Arizona last year in saying
the federal government should
not supervise the state's spend
ing for teaching students who
don't speak English.
Doris Chiquito, 30, o f Miami,
who was bom in the U.S. to
Ecuadorean parents, is among
those who would like their chil
dren to value Hispanic culture.
Chiquito, fluent in English, says
she enrolled her 11 -year-old son
and 8-year-old daughter in bilin
gual classes so they would also
speak Spanish and not "feel
ashamed o f being Hispanic."
H er
d a u g h te r,
A ria n a
Gonzalez, says she likes having
classes in both languages.