Bilingual Education

November 1, 2001

Bilingual Education

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Crash course for teens Mario G. Ortiz Imagine a class where students come from 20 different countries and speak Farsi, Spanish, Estonian, Bengali, Assyrian, Sudanese, Somali and Albanian. A teacher greets them and begins instruction in English. This scene is a daily reality for high school students enrolled in two CPS International Newcomer and Refugee Centers. Newcomer centers were created to provide a soft landing to students who are at least 14 years old and have been living in the U.S. for less than a year. The first one was opened at Taft High School in 1999; a second opened at Senn High School a year... > Read More
College preps battered new policies proposed Debra Williams As the first school administration of Mayor Richard M. Daley left office over the summer, one of its signature programs, a citywide system of selective, college preparatory high schools, suffered repeated blows. Only a month before last school year ended, parents who had signed up their children for the inaugural year of King College Prep were told the school's opening would be postponed until September 2002. The reason: major renovations were not yet complete, and too few students had applied for admission. Three months later and just weeks before classes were to resume,... > Read More
CPS proposes crackdown on uncertified teachers Brett Schaeffer When the School Board changed its bilingual education policy in 1997, it reduced the grace period for bilingual teachers with provisional teaching credentials to get fully certified, cutting it from eight years to five. Last month, schools chief Arne Duncan proposed cutting it again, to three years. His proposal, which requires state approval, came in the wake of a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that found that thousands of CPS teachers were not fully certified last year. In bilingual education, full certification requires a standard teaching certificate as well as a... > Read More
Schools put individual stamp on dual language Meghan Mutchler Deerin While the Board of Education wants to get English learners into all-English classes as quickly as possible, it also is, allowing schools to develop students native languages. Called dual language, the approach puts English speakers and non-English speakers in the same classes and teaches them in both languages. The goal is to make them fluent in both languages within five or six years. Since the board's crackdown on transitional bilingual education began in 1997, 17 schools have adopted dual-language programs for at least some of their students, bringing the total to 26.... > Read More
Bilingual student gets A's and B's, but still has problems with English Mario G. Ortiz Senn High School senior Eliza Cajamarca could be a poster child for bilingual education. In the three years since she and her family emigrated here from Ecuador, Eliza has moved smartly through bilingual education classes, earning mostly As and Bs along the way, and now is even serving as a mentor to freshmen. On Saturdays, she studies English at Truman College. Yet, Eliza, a soft-spoken 18-year-old, is acutely aware of a major limitation. Although she transitioned out of bilingual education this year, she's not yet fluent in English, and she fears it will limit her... > Read More
More accountability, unclear that students are better off Mario G. Ortiz Four years ago, Chicago Public Schools cracked down on bilingual education, making rapid transition to all-English classes a priority. Now, the goal is to get students through bilingual education in three years. The new policy, intended to ensure students would no longer languish in the program, has since produced results. More students are exiting the program after three or four years, and fewer are enrolled in the program overall. School officials say these students are doing well in their all-English classes. The board tracked some 3,524 3rd -through 8th-graders who... > Read More

En Español

Escuelas más responsables, pero no queda claro si los alumnos están en mejores condiciones

By: Mario G. Ortiz

Hace cuatro años, Chicago Public Schools tomaron medidas enérgicas en cuanto a la educación bilingüe, dándole prioridad a la rápida transición de los alumnos a clases dadas totalmente en inglés. Hoy, el objetivo es que finalicen su educación bilingüe en tres años.

La nueva política, diseñada para garantizar que los alumnos no sigan languideciendo en el programa, ha producido sus resultados. Más alumnos finalizan el programa después de tres o cuatro años, y menos se inscriben en el programa total.

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Literacy components

By: CPS reading initiative

Word Knowledge

Teaches children to recognize and understand words.

Concentrates on various aspects of words:

The way they look

The way they sound

Their spelling

Their structure

What they mean

Emphasizes commonly used words.

Word Knowledge Teaches children to recognize and understand words. Concentrates on various aspects of words: The way they look The way they sound Their spelling Their structure What they...

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