Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for April 26, 2006 CONTROVERSY IN COBDEN

From the Southern Illinoisan...

Bilingual education standards questioned in Cobden

BY KRISTEN CATES, the southern

COBDEN - After an hour-and-a-half-long meeting with school administrators, parents of students with limited-English proficiency skills in Cobden are hoping to avoid a lawsuit over what they believe are deficiencies in the district's bilingual education program.

Miguel Keberlein, an attorney with the Illinois Migrant Legal Assistance Project, said his agency came into contact with several Spanish-speaking families in Cobden who claim that with 17.7 percent of the district's students being tested as limited-English proficient - approximately 120 of the 678 students, according to the district report card - the district is not complying with state standards mandated for bilingual educational programs.

"The parents feel the school is not giving their children the proper education," Keberlein said before a community meeting with parents, teachers, administrators and the school district's attorney, Gene Hanses.

Keberlein is representing about 30 families (whom he said represent a larger group) and during Tuesday night's meeting he outlined some of the concerns they want addressed - such as more support staff - in order to avoid a lawsuit.

Keberlein claimed the one bilingual education teacher and two part-time English as a Second Language teachers aren't enough for the many students who need services.

"We're going to formalize this meeting on paper that says, 'as long as you do this we'll back off,'" Keberlein said. "I'm hopeful."

Other complaints made by the parents are that there isn't anybody in the schools' offices who speaks Spanish, there are not enough books for each bilingual student, there has been no cultural training for bilingual teachers, no assessments are being made for Spanish-speaking special education students, and a parental advisory board required for transitional bilingual education programs is not meeting regularly.

"Some of the parents here feel it is a little bit of a contentious environment," he said.

Most of the things parents are requesting are required by the Illinois State Board of Education in order to receive state funding for transitional bilingual education programs, Keberlein said.

According to ISBE records, the Cobden school district received $110,000 in state funding and grants for its bilingual and migrant education programs in the 2004-05 school year.

Karl Sweitzer, superintendent of schools in Cobden, and Terri Woodworth, principal at Cobden Elementary School, said before Monday's meeting they were unaware of parents' concerns.

"We feel like we're doing what we're supposed to be doing," Sweitzer said.

During the meeting, officials batted back at several of the concerns Keberlein laid out.

Woodworth said while 35 of the elementary school's students were deemed to have limited English proficiency through testing, it is up to the parents to put their children in a bilingual education program.

"We have numerous parents who do not wish to have the children in the program," she said.

Keberlein countered that a lot of those forms are sent home in English to parents with even more limited English skills, but Woodworth claimed that forms are written in English and Spanish.

She also said the 120 "limited English proficient" students listed with the ISBE is an inaccurate figure and that recent figures indicate only 70 students are deemed LEP.

Woodworth said in addition to the two combined full-time bilingual education positions, there is one aide at the elementary school and one aide at the high school who speak Spanish and assist with the programs as well as on the playgrounds and helping parents with limited English skills.

According to state report cards from 2005, of those Hispanic students - who make up 24.2 percent of the district's total students - tested (which includes those who are not deemed LEP) in the Cobden district only 10 percent of those in the third grade met or exceeded state reading standards, while 53 percent of those same third graders met or exceeded state mathematic standards.

In the eighth grade, 58.3 percent of the Hispanic students met or exceeded state reading standards, while 50 percent of the Hispanic eighth graders met or exceeded state standards in mathematics.

"I think when you look at the number of students there are going to be some delays," Woodworth said.

The report card figures don't take into account inherent reading comprehension delays non-native English speakers are said to have when they first begin learning English.

"Every child is important - every single child is important - regardless of their native language," Woodworth said. "I don't think we have anything to be concerned about here."

One of the first things Sweitzer said could be done is getting the parental advisory board revived and meeting on a quarterly basis.

"I think a lot of this is going to follow suit," he said.